Review: Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Rating

Director

Robert Stevenson

Screenplay

Ralph Wright, Ted Berman, Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi (Book: Mary Norton)

Length

1h 57m

Starring

Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall, Sam Jaffe, John Ericson, Bruce Forsyth, Cindy O’Callaghan, Roy Snart, Ian Weighill, Tessie O’Shea, Arthur E. Gould-Porter

MPAA Rating

Review

Disney was at the vanguard of cinema with its ability to blend animation and live-action. They had a string of hits employing the technique with one of their last genuinely successful ones being Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

Set during World War II, the film features Angela Lansbury in an iconic role as Eglantine Price, a witch learning magic through a correspondence course engineered by Emilius Browne (David Tomlinson). When assigned three orphans (Cindy O’Callaghan, Roy Snart, and Ian Weighill) to look after, their adventure begins. As they go in search of the final spell in the course, taking them to various locales, including a land filled with anthropomorphic animals, they start to overcome their differences and work together as a team, almost a family.

it wasn’t released during the war, it’s a gallant story about the hard times faced by English citizens during it. From the need to take in orphans to the desire to go off in military service to the country, the film would have felt at home in the 1940s, though would most certainly not have been made then. All of this is a recognition of the fight and sacrifice made in the war to prevent Nazism from spreading to the rest of the world. Would that more kids had seen this film and internalized its anti-fascist spirit, perhaps we wouldn’t be in the same boat once again.

Robert Stevenson helmed many of Disney’s live-action projects, including the Oscar-winning Mary Poppins for which he received his only Oscar nomination for direction. Although Poppins was the pinnacle of his oeuvre, many of his Disney pictures were enjoyable box office hits. Bedknobs & Broomsticks is one of his most inventive, though it bares something of a resemblance to Mary Poppins in terms of execution. The filmmaking is crisp and engaging but it does suffer from having its length neutered by a studio wanting to reduce its 141-minute runtime to a more manageable 118 minutes. Much of the film has since been restored but not all of it could be and that’s a shame.

Lansbury is terrific in one of her too-few lead roles. Tomlinson is fine, as are the actors who give voice to the animals on Naboombu. The kids do well for their age though they aren’t nearly as memorable as many other Disney child actors of the period. The effects are tremendous and, in some ways, better than the ones in Mary Poppins, owing to the advancements that had to that point been made. The soundtrack is filled with wonderful songs even if many of them don’t quite have the longevity of memory as other Disney classics. That said, “Age of Not Believing” is among the best Disney has ever produced.

In many ways, Mary Poppins is the superior film but Bedknobs and Broomsticks remains a highlight of the Disney production pipeline of the era with a delightful premise, a wonderful cast, and a marvelous attempt to shape the minds of young children at that time who can hopefully pass that ability of forethought on to a younger generation.