User Reviews

I watched this as a child and loved it. The opening scene with the dike construction and the kids in their wooden shoes with the sheep has always delighted me. My kids now watch it and love the songs are great and it is hard to believe this was a made for TV show. We really like proper manners scene. The skating is fun to see how the rivers are used in winter for transportation. The story is great and we love the line between the robber and the inn keeper "Hurry, I think these boys have broken my back." "It's a wonder they didn't eat you!". It is a wonderful story with great bits of Holland. It is a definite classic for the family. I would recommend this movie to all my friends.

Richard Basehart is wonderful as the crusty doctor who helps Hans' father recover. Cyril Ritchard has a wonderful role as an inn-keeper, and performs a wonderful song with the boys.

Family viewing at its best.

This version of the classic tale has become a holiday favorite in our house. While it's a musical, it's not at all slick & over-produced; instead, it has a rough-hewn charm & simplicity to it that's far more engaging than a professional polish so bright that nothing sticks. Yes, the actors aren't "real" singers by any means ... but I like them all the more for that, as Hans & Annie sound like actual young people on the verge of first love, their voices straining & creaking just a bit with all the emotions inside them. And the adult actors are very good, from Richard Basehart's gruff but compassionate doctor, to Cyril Ritchard's wonderfully eccentric innkeeper, to Eleanor Parker's beautiful & strong Mrs. Brinker, worn by sorrow but still filled with love & hope for her family. Add to that the pleasure of songs like "Proper Manners" and you can't go wrong!

English films of the late 1960s/early 1970s had a particular look to them, a certain lighting & tone, that sets them apart. Whether it's the film stock, the lighting, the age of the source material, everything has a sort of burnished glow to it. There's an artificial atmosphere in the best sense of the word, the beauty of an unreal Victorian confection. It's the same with the stage sets, intercut with location footage: it has an almost fairytale quality at times. There's a certain simple magic here, completely devoid of cynicism, that never melts down into mere mawkish mush. And that's no small feat!

Great period piece. Costumes actually take you back, and make you part of it. Good story line. Hard to find on TV. Keeps eyes open. Now, where was that money stashed..?

What was the name of the song the pretty lady was singing at the saint nicholas eve party? can anyone help?

The detail with which 1838 Holland is recreated in this version of the classic "Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates" makes it hard to believe it was made for television. Seldom seen, this should be a Christmas classic, hauled out every year way ahead of many others that are shown repeatedly on television. I watched it for the first time some forty years after it was made, on a crusty old VHS tape that I bought for 25 cents, and it was still beautiful. Containing eight original songs by Moose Charlap, the film boasts two songs sung by Eleanor Parker as the loving mother (she of the baroness in "The Sound of Music"), but they are quite obviously dubbed. ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013