Maybe the strangest film of the French forties ; if one is to believe the director, it would have opened new horizons for the world of cinema ; it was to be Henri Mahé 's first and only effort , and it's certainly too bad .
The new process was called "simpli-film " ;the settings were replaced by drawings and photographs placed between the lens and the actors. Thus ,it would create something magic , the world of the fairy-tale.
At a running time of an hour, it may have disconcerted its audience. George Marchal was a handsome prince but Nicole Maurey was too lacklustre as the heroine (not Josette Day in "la belle et la bête" );the screenplay lacked in imagination and many of its elements seemed taken by force from "beauty and the beast" "SnowWhite and the seven dwarves" (the pixies!)and mainly "hop'on my thumb "( one of the ogre's lines is directly borrowed from Charles Perrault.)
It may be considered some kind of French "wizard of oz" ; in spite of these reservations concerning the story ,this is an unqualified must for lovers of old French cinema .
