Rumpelstiskin. 1915. Directed by Raymond B. West.

(1/23/00)

This is a really nice production with a true storybook flavor. Watching it is very much like the experience of finding a very old book of children's stories.

I find that I really like the character of Rumpelstilskin. Maybe that's because I identify with him in the sense that beautiful young women are beyond my grasp. But he is such a lively fellow. He is lustful, vindictive, resourceful. I really find myself on his side. He is real, full of life and compared to him the prince seems kind of vapid. I loved it when he casually turned Simple Simon into a pig and when he spins the straw into not just gold, but gold coins.

And the fact is that the other characters did not play fair with him. The miller's daughter is in a jam. True, it is of Rumpelstilskin's making, but she is in a jam and to get out of it she agrees to give Rumpelstilskin her first child if it is a girl. And then she tries to renege on the deal. This woman, while seeming very attractive, does not have the integrity to stand by her word. I don't want to see her get off scot-free.

I wonder. If Rumpelstilskin is so powerful, you would think that he could do something to make himself more attractive. And you would also think that he would figure a way out of his predicament at the end, where he is condemned to spin straw into gold for the rest of his life.

I don't like the king who believes he has a right to do whatever he wants to other people, a king who doesn't choose to wield power responsibly, but seems to feel that it is there to serve his whim. It is a good lesson for him when his son disappears and the fact that he forgives him at the end is a hopeful sign. But this film, ostensibly made for children, contains a pretty sharp portrait of the misuse of power.

I don't know the tale of Rumpelstilskin well, but I know that the heroine is challenged to learn his name. This was not in the film and it was a letdown. I felt cheated. You don't take a very famous tale and cut out the part of the story that is known to everybody. And I even know those words in German: Ach, wie gut dass niemand weisst / Das ich Rumpelstilskin heisst. So I came out of this movie feeling disappointed.