PRINCESS CINDERELLA (1941)
(a.k.a. CENERENTOLA E IL SIGNOR BONAVENTURA)
Article #1198 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-25-2004
Posting Date: 11-22-2004
Directed by Sergio Tofano
Featuring Silvana Jachino, Paolo Stoppa, Mario Pisu

When her evil stepsisters pour wax into her magic slippers so they no longer fit, Cinderella is banished by the King and Queen from the castle where she lives with Prince Charming.

This Italian fairy tale (a sequel to the story of “Cinderella”, though not to any particular cinematic version I know of) was released in 1941, but it didn’t appear in the U.S. untill 1955. This is fairly noticeable; the jokes about the the Atomic Hero Pills is much more likely to have come from that era. It’s a strange little movie, but not without its charms; the gaudy costumes, outrageous makeup (there are lots of fake noses here), and odd concepts makes for a fairly entertaining movie. The weirdest scenes involve a witch (who has a sidecar on her broom) and an ogre (who has to go to the dentist for a new set of false teeth after his original set falls out) who have culinary designs on Cinderella. One interesting detail is that even though the dialogue has been dubbed into English, the songs are left in their original Italian; actually, this ends up working well enough, as the songs are fairly short.