The Sand Castle (1961) User Reviews

Charming Fantasy

[normlehf · 14 October 2001]

The Sand Castle is a charming fantasy film which appeared briefly and then disappeared, apparently forever.

A working mom deposits her young son and his sister on a beach as she goes off to work one morning. The kids have a morning of fun with the inhabitants of the beach, including a group of nuns in traditional habits, playing softball.

The kids fall asleep and the subsequent color dream sequence (the film begins and ends monochrome) is a stunning animation using a Victorian-style paper theater in which many of the real-life beach folk appear as inventive characatures.

The performances are all more than adequate for the material, but it is the Wizard-of-Oz-like central conceit that makes the charm of the film.

I only know of this picture being shown at the Nob Hill Theater (In 1961, a rear-projection art house in the basement of the S.F. Fairmont Hotel--not the present porn palace on Bush St.) briefly in the year of its release.

I have been able to find an LP copy of Alec Wilder's charming original score, executed by a relatively small ensemble. Otherwise, the picture just seems to have vanished.

I have been told that it is tied up in copyright disputes. I do hope it has not vanished and will resurface in some format.

Back when beaches were clean and you could leave your kids there.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 7 September 2022]

A nosy old lady with a bird and binoculars. A young woman in a bikini harassed by the police to cover up. A surfer emerging from the water covered in seaweed looking like Sigmund the sea monster. Nuns playing baseball, a group of fully dressed adults doing an interpretive dance and kids dropped off by their mother making a sand castle. Not to mention an artist painting all the goings on, erasing it and starting all over. It's just another day at the beach. At least there's not a middle aged married couple planning on leaving an old person in a sand box. This isn't an Edward Albee play fortunately.

Basically a museum piece, this art film with amateur actors reminds me of films like "The Little Fugitive" and "Weddings and Babies" (and the classic short "The Red Balloon") where reality was more important than movie stars and locations were well utilized to tell a story. As the kids increase the size of the sand castle, the bypassers become fascinated by their work, and the film takes on a mystical approach, turning into something really special. This film defies description. In fact, it's best for the viewer to experience only knowing minimal details. A once in a lifetime treat that shows how special cinema can be.