A German town in a fairy tale past is, we are told by a narrator, old and tired, because there have been no children born there for years. The figure of Mother Holly gave the town a magic fountain—if anyone drinks from it and wishes to have a child, they will. But the demonic prankster Black Peter has polluted the fountain with trash and no one will drink from it. Statues of the kindly Mother Holly and the demonic prankster Black Peter stand in the town square, and one day Black Peter emerges from his statue to create havoc at the marketplace. (Mother Holly is absent, away in her "underground empire"). When two orphans, Freddie and Caroline, enter the town, he influences them to trash the market, destroying stalls and spoiling food. The kindly lad Hans gives all of his money to the townspeople to make up for their losses, but his upset mother sends him into exile for a year. We also meet a mother and her two daughters, the kind and hardworking stepdaughter Rose Marie and the foolish and lazy birth daughter Elsie Marie. As in the tale of Cinderella, the mother favors the vain Elise and mistreats Rose. Elsie is courted by the effete Prince Von Pants who, though supposedly rich, lives in a dilapidated castle and is as lazy as Elsie. Hans is in love with Rose, but when she drops a spindle in the fountain, she follows it and vanishes, so Hans heads out for his exile year.
Rose ends up in Mother Holly's underground empire which is basically a lovely aboveground field with houses and a garden. Freddie and Caroline end up here also, put on trial by other children for their bad behavior, but when they explain that Black Peter made them do it, they are exonerated. Rose spends a year with Mother Holly, willingly taking on chores and becoming a friend to the children. The year passes. In the town, Hans has returned and has something like an engineer's degree, and he oversees work on the town fountain. Rose leaves Mother Holly's land, transformed by a thick golden shower (dirty minds, begone!; pictured at right) and dressed most regally in a golden gown. Elsie, egged on by her mother, jumps into the fountain and lives in Mother Holly's land for a time, but is lazy and when she leaves, she is rained upon by mud or oil or excrement. The children all come to the town where they are accepted into the homes of the villagers, Black Peter is banished into his stature, and Rose and Hans get married.
It's difficult to find accurate information about this movie online, but I did some research to discover that this was filmed in Germany and released in 1954. In 1965, the producer K. Gordon Murray bought the English language rights to the movie and had it dubbed into English. Instead of giving it a kiddie matinee release as he did with other similar acquisitions, he sold it as part of a package of kids movies for television broadcast. IMDb gives a 1961 release date for the movie, but that was apparently for a German reissue. It may have wound up in American theaters years later, but I couldn't confirm that. The basic plot involving the sisters is based directly on a Grimm Brothers folktale. In Europe, Black Peter is usually associated with St. Nicholas; how he wound up here is uncertain. Watching this as an adult is a bizarre experience, with unclear character motivations (who knows why Mother Holly, pictured at left, does what she does, why Hans feels the need to give all his money to the townspeople), unclear plot points (why couldn't the villagers have cleaned up the fountain during those earlier years, where did the orphans come from, can’t the villagers have sex), and unclear moral lessons, aside from hard work being rewarded. Though completely shot on outdoor locations, the whole thing does have an artificial feel to it which is a plus for a fairy tale movie. Much of the story is told less in dialogue than in narration by a rather overbearing narrator, so the acting is hard to judge. This is similar to those weird Russian folktale movies of the 60s like The Day the Earth Froze that Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured occasionally. It's interesting but probably not for kids. [YouTube]
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