Heidi (1952)

Dreadfully Boring

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"Heidi" is a Swiss German-language movie from 1952, so this one has its 65th anniversary this year. It was directed by Luigi Comencini and written by a whole lot of writers who adapted Johanna Spyri's famous original work. This 95-minute film here is a relatively early version of the known story about a young girl who has to move to the city but suffers because she belongs to the mountains. But it is by far not the earliest. I think one problem here is the lack of color for me. The cinematography, costumes and more from Heidi really scream for color and it elevates the material by so much and actually around that time there are already many color films out there, but this one here is in black-and-white. This is probably also one reason why I like the later Austrian version more than this one here. Another may be that the actress who played Heidi did very little for me here and same goes for the actor who plays her grandfather. It was a nice little surprise to see Theo Lingen in here, even if he doesn't have a great deal of screen time at all, but the clear standouts here were the ones who played Klara and Fräulein Rottenmeier I guess and they stayed somewhat memorable to me. Apart from that, however, nothing really did and that's why I have to give this one here a thumbs-down. It also did not feel as much from the heart really compared to other Heidi films like the one I already mentioned or also for example the very recent one starring Bruno Ganz as the grandfather. A bit of a pity, but I think you should skip this one here and check out one of these.

This is an all-time favorite movie for our family, my girls and I watched it many time as they were growing. When I first watched the movie I had no idea this was the original, what a beautiful and pleasant surprise my girls, mom, and I loved it, in fact my youngest daughter looks a lot like Elizabeth Sigmund which made me love the film even more. I'm very fortunate to have found this VHS film at the Goodwill store: it will be treasured. The Swiss Alps are just majestic and beautiful, and even though the film is in black and white the beauty of the Alps is undeniable. the story is a classic filled with love,passion,drama,and humor. The cast is just excellent, for me this film lack nothing. The Hollywood versions of this classic are well made movies,and are the ones I grow up with, however, this Heidy by Mr. Luigi Comencini tops them all.

The lack of pretension, straightforward storyline and location shooting force you to judge this film as what it is, namely a fairly faithful adaptation of a children's classic with a cast of carefully chosen actors, a good central performance, solid support and lots of beautiful scenery. By now the story of the young Swiss girl living in a mountain village with her adored grandfather, being whisked off to Frankfurt and then returning home has been told and re-told on film and television, not least in 1937 when child star Shirley Temple, then at the height of her fame, made a not-too-successful stab at the role and though I haven't seen the Temple version I can well imagine how Swiss she sounded if indeed they didn't transpose it to the Rockies. This version from 1952 is both pleasant and watchable.

This is the first film version of the famous children's book by Johanna Spyri in German language. It tells the story of a little swiss girl who lives with her grandfather Alp-Öhi solitarily in the swiss mountains. Someday Heidi is taken away to Frankfurt/Germany where she makes friends with Clara, a little girl who sits in a wheelchair, but becomes homesick... "Heidi" is a carefully made, affectionate film with good actors and good direction by Luigi Comencini, an Italian director who has had made some film in the neorealistic style and later entertainment films with the best known Italian actors. The film certainly benefits by the fact it was made in Switzerland, where the story in fact takes place. The style of this film is influenced by the visually ambitious so called "Bergfilme" (mountain-films) for example by Arnold Fanckh or Luis Trenker, as well as it seems influenced a little by the style of the Italian "Neorealism". This film version even tells about the social reality of the 19th century. Enjoyable is it's absence of kitsch so many mountain-films as well as children's films are infected by. A good film. (Much better than it's sequel "Heidi und Peter" which I saw the day after)