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Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions, which combines live action and animation; it premiered on October 7, 1971. It is based upon the books The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks, by Mary Norton.

Synopsis

Set in 1940, in the county of Dorset in the West Country of England, Angela Lansbury plays Miss Eglantine Price; a lonely woman who lives close to Corfe Castle. In secret she is a witch and plans somehow to help the country against the Blitz. To her distaste, however, she is assigned to shelter three children from London to provide them refuge from the bombings. The three children, Charlie, Carrie and Paul, discover that Miss Price is a witch when she recklessly takes off into the sky on her new broomstick after they were trying to escape back to London. The next morning at breakfast Miss Price demonstrates her powers to the children by transforming Charlie into a white rabbit, who is subsequently chased about the cottage by Miss Price's black cat, Cosmic Creepers.

Miss Price and the children go to Miss Price's secret room, where she gives them the famous travelling spell, via a bedknob which Paul pulled off Miss Price's late father's bed. The bed is now a type of transport and with the travelling spell, it is able to go anywhere that the owner of the spell (Paul) asks it. They are interrupted by the ringing of the front door bell and Miss Price receives a letter from Professor Emilius Browne (David Tomlinson), the headmaster of the college of witchcraft, which explains that the college has closed due to the war and she cannot get the final lesson she needed: the spell for substitutiary locomotion - making inanimate objects move of their own accord.

Miss Price and Paul decide that they can use the bed to get to London, to find Mr. Browne and get the final lesson. Charlie is not keen on going on the bed, Miss Price tries to make him change his mind with song, but he still is not convinced. However, when the bed's magic starts to act, Cosmic Creepers scares Charlie onto the bed and it vanishes from the house, and travels through a dimension portal and appears in London. The children find Mr. Browne, who is but a conman and a common magician, but his audience is not impressed with his skills and departs. Miss Price announces to Mr. Browne her problems and he takes her to his town house with the children... on the bed.

At the town house, which Mr. Browne doesn't actually own, the children explore the house and come across a nursery in which Paul finds a children's picture book about the Lost Isle of Naboombu. He likes it so much that he takes it with him. In the library, Miss Price searches for the old book from which Mr. Browne got his spells, but he tries to distract her with his plans to open up a magic show with her as his fabulous assistant. She changes him into a rabbit and makes him get the book for her, which is actually torn in half. The two and the children take the bed to Portobello Road where Mr. Browne said he last saw the other half of the book. Browne starts up a musical fiesta in the market street and even Miss Price, who is scanning the street for the book, joins in. After the market closes, Miss Price and Mr. Browne meet Swinburne (played by Bruce Forsyth) and his boss, The Bookman, who has the other half of the book. Unfortunately, the spell Miss Price needs is not in either of the parts: the paragraph, when completed, only detailed the spell's legend, rather than the spell itself.

The Bookman explains to Miss Price that the book once belonged to Astoroth, a legendary wizard who used the final spell to make animals he had into real animals. But the animals revolted, killed Astororth and escaped to an uncharted island, which just so happened to be the Isle of Naboombu. The Bookman tries to grab Paul's book, but the heroes escape on the bed, on their way to the island.

They materialise over the island, but crash land in the lagoon. There they find an animated realm where fish can talk, and they can breathe under the water. Miss Price and Mr. Browne compete in an underwater dance, singing the film's most famous song "Bobbing Along On the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea". They win first prize, but suddenly partying turns to peril when fish hooks come down and grab the bed, taking it and the children for a ride. Miss Price and Mr. Browne grab the bed and follow after the children.

On shore, a bear in a sailor suit is fishing and just happens to pull the bed on shore. He is about to throw the humans back into the water, when Paul interrupts, showing him the book and stating that they can see the king as it's the law. The bear reluctantly leads the group to the king's chamber, and they meet the king's secretary, who just happens to be a Secretary Bird. The bird leads Mr. Browne into the king's tent after he reveals the king likes football and he is without a referee. Mr. Browne emerges with the king, who turns out to be a lion. The group soon realise that the king is wearing a medallion: the Star of Astoroth, which has the words to the spell Miss Price needs engraved upon it.

The king leads the group to the island's football stadium, where the humans sit in his private box with the secretary bird. The king declares that Mr. Browne will be the referee, while he himself will be participating in the football match, and tosses off his cloak to reveal a football kit.

After a lot of cartoon-type violent play, of which Mr. Browne receives the worse end, the game finally ends when a rhino accidentally bursts the ball with his horn and sends it spinning into the air. The king roars angrily, and sends all of the animals flying into his opposing team's goal. The ball floats down and the king blows it into the goal, winning the match.

The humans steal the star medallion from the king, turning him into a rabbit. They read the magic words on the medallion, and wrap it up in a handkerchief. The group use the bed to return to the cottage, only to discover that the medallion has disappeared; the explanation being that items can not be taken from taken from one world to another.

It fortunately turns out however the words on the medallion had been in Paul's book (which without explanation WAS able to travel between worlds) all along, thus Miss Price is able to attempt the spell. During this process it turns out she is unable to control the spell which results in many objects coming to life inside her house, including her nightgown (which Mr. Browne dances with), a pair of gloves (that punches Mr. Browne for dancing with the nightgown) Charlie's sunday trousers along with many other objects.

Later that night Miss Price laments over being unable to control the spell and is finally cheered up when, while juggling apples, Mr. Browne drops one and splatters his face with gravy at the dinner table.

As the group cleans up after dinner, Mr. Browne is awkwardly confronted by the children as being their "dad" which causes him to hurriedly leave for the train station.

During the night the Germans launch a secret raid on England, taking over Miss Price's house and using it as their headquarters. Annoyed with Miss Price, the Germans send her to be held in the village castle.

At the train station, Mr. Browne sees two Germans cutting the phone lines and successfully manages to ward them off. He then sneaks back to the house to find it overrun with Germans. Upon discovering that Miss Price and the children are no longer at the house he finds his way into Miss Price's workship chased by two more Germans. Engaging in a personal trial, Mr. Browne is able to turn himself into a rabbit just as the Germans corner him and escapes.

Presumably following Miss Price's scent trail, Mr. Browne arrives at the castle and jumps into Miss Price's lap, proving he is Mr. Browne by getting down upon her request.

Now puzzling over what to do, Mr. Browne urges Miss Price to use the substitutiary locomotion spell to bring all the suits of armor and medieval weapons in the castle to life to defeat the Germans. This time, Miss Price is able to control the spell as weapons from ancient Viking times to British imperial redcoats come to life, overpowering the guards outside the door, and marching in full force to meet the Germans.

Miss Price leads the ensuing battle while riding a broom found in the castle. The Germans are dismayed to find that no matter how many bullets they fire the mysterious army of knights cannot be stopped, only slowing them down to empty out the bullets from inside their armor that is weighing them down.

Eventually the Germans are overrun and flee in panic pursued by the relentless suits of armor. The German colonel, who earlier had scoffed at Miss Price's magic, now tells his men in a frenzy to retreat, only stopping long enough to plant charges and destroy what the Germans must leave behind.

The explosion destroys Miss Price's workshop causing her to immediately fall from the sky and the magical army of knights to fall where they stood. At this point the Home Guard, after hearing the roaring gunfire, arrives at the beach to drive the Germans into the sea.

Miss Price admits upon inspection of her ruined workshop that she believed she could never have really been a proper witch, declaring that if anyone felt the way she did about "poison dragon's liver" (one of her necessary magic ingredients) then they had no business being a witch.

A newspaper later reports the events of that day vaguely and unclearly, speaking only of "mysterious happenings" that are largely ignored and anecdotal.

Mr. Browne enlists to join the British Army and promises to return to Miss Price and the children. As Mr. Browne departs down the road escorted by the Home Guard, Charlie complains that they wont have any more fun, to which Paul replies by pulling out the magical glittering bedknob and remarking "we still have this, don't we?"

On this note, the film ends with the Home Guard song being sung and Mr. Browne marching down the road.

Differences between the movie and the book

In the book:

  • The children go to their mother's and the police station instead of Portobello Road.
  • The children stay with their aunt instead of Ms. Price in the first part, who they stay with in the second part. The aunt also has the bed.
  • There were cannibals instead of the animals.
  • The island was named Ueepe instead of Naboombu.
  • The children go back in time to get Emelius Browne (named Emelius Jones in the book), when in the movie they don't go back in time.
  • There is no reference to World War II at all.

Release and Later Restoration

Though originally intended to be a large-scale epic holiday release, similar to the original release of Mary Poppins, after its original premiere it was decided instead to cut the film down from its near 2 and one half-hour length (while some sources say it was closer to 3 hours) to a more manageable (to movie theaters) 2 hours. Several songs were removed entirely, as was a minor subplot involving Roddy MacDowall's character, and the central dance number, Portobello Road, was cut down by more than 6 minutes. Upon rediscovering a cut song, "Step in the Right Direction," on the original soundtrack album, it was decided to attempt to reconstruct the original running length. Most of the film material was found, but some segments of "Portobello Road" had to be reconstructed from work prints with digital re-coloration to attempt to match the film quality of the main content, and the footage for "Step" was never located (as of 2005, it presumably remains lost). The new edit included several newly discovered songs, including an Angela Lansbury solo performance, Nobody's Problems. The number had been cut before the premier of the film. Angela only made a demo recording, singing with a solo piano as the orchestrations would be added when the picture was scored. When the song was cut the orchestrations had not yet been added therefore it was finally orchestrated and put together when it was placed back into the film.

In assembling the new edit, the soundtrack for some of the spoken tracks were unrecoverable. Therefore, Angela Lansbury and Roddy McDowell were brought back in to re-dub their parts while ADR dubs were made by other actors for those who were unavailable. Some sound-alikes were criticized for not closely matching the original actors. Element of the underscoring were either moved or extended when it was necessary to benefit the "new" material. The extended version of the film was released on DVD in 2001 for the 30th Anniversary of the film. When the film was screened for the Academy after its restoration, the crowd gave a standing ovation after the song Nobody's Problems was featured.

Cast

Songs

  • "The Old Home Guard" also known as the Home Guard Song.
  • "The Age of Not Believing"
  • "With a Flair" (only in the 1996 reconstruction)
  • "Eglantine"
  • "Portobello Road" (see Portobello Road)
  • "The Beautiful Briny" (originally written for, but not used in, Mary Poppins)
  • "Substitutiary Locomotion"
  • "Nobody's Problems For Me" (only in the 1996 reconstruction)

  • (a song not in any current version of the film but intended to be so, as it was on the soundtrack album, was "A Step in the Right Direction." Ironically, it was this presence that was instrumental in the studio's decision to reconstruct the longer cut). Nevertheless, several moments in the film include underscoring of the song.

Selected foreign titles

  • Dutch: Heksen en Bezemstelen
  • French: L'Apprentie Sorcière
  • German: Die tollkühne Hexe in ihrem fliegenden Bett
  • Hebrew: המיטה המעופפת (The Flying Bed)
  • Italian: Pomi d'ottone e manici di scopa
  • Portuguese (Brazil): Se A Minha Cama Voasse
  • Spanish (Spain): La Bruja Novata
  • Swedish: Sängknoppar och kvastskaft

Trivia

External links

1971 films | Disney films | Musical films | Live-action/animated films

המיטה המעופפת | Набалдашник и метла (фильм)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Bedknobs and Broomsticks".

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