In Holland, poor but industrious and honorable 15-year-old Hans Brinker and his younger sister yearn to participate in December's great ice skating race on the canal.In Holland, poor but industrious and honorable 15-year-old Hans Brinker and his younger sister yearn to participate in December's great ice skating race on the canal.In Holland, poor but industrious and honorable 15-year-old Hans Brinker and his younger sister yearn to participate in December's great ice skating race on the canal.
- Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy
- 1 nomination total
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Jana Pearce
- Lucretia
- (as Jana Pierce)
Eleanor Sommers
- Trinka Brinker
- (as Ellie Sommers)
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Did you know
- TriviaBroadcast at 8:00 p.m. on a Sunday night of American Prime Time TV, February 9, 1958, as a "A Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation" - an ambitious 50 minute television color special based upon Mary Tapes Dodge's classic children story about a poor Dutch family struggling to overcome adversity; An original television musical-teleplay adaptation of "Hans Brinker and The Silver Kates," - was directed by Broadway Theater Director Sidney Lumet and Produced by George Shaffer; featured an original musical score by Hugh Martin (Meet Me in St. Louis). The NBC "Hallmark Hall of Fame Presentation, Hans Brinker and The Silver Skates" followed in the tradition of the NBC Network's video-taped "live-performance" color special broadcasts: Mary Martin performing in her 1953-55 Broadway Musical, "Peter Pan." The division of RCA Color Television, aligned with their company's affiliated NBC Broadcasting Network, featured these "live" color broadcast specials in an effort to promote the television viewing audience to purchase a new color television receiving electronic set for the home entertainment center. Featuring a popular "Hollywood Movie Star Tab Hunter" in the titled original teleplay-musical skating and singing role as "Hans Brinker" - was a major Broadcast-Network television coup, for network programming viewer-audience ratings. This NBC "Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Hans Brinker and The Silver Skates" event special, commercially sponsored by the Hallmark Greeting Card Advertising Division Agency, was a one-night TV special television production broadcast. "Hallmark Hall of Fame Presents" production's became monthly NBC TV Broadcast Special Events with their own advertising agency's in-house commercials, a TV advertising alliance with NBC TV, to present these special event productions through out the 1950s - 1980s decades.
- ConnectionsEdited into Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951)
Featured review
Unexpectedly delightful
I had the pleasure of seeing this in what was touted as its first showing in 51 years (hard to prove that) at the Museum of Broadcasting in New York today (10 October 2009). The credits are impressive -- no expense was spared, evidently, in hiring top professionals from the theater and movies: the "Meet Me in St. Louis" team of Hugh Martin and Sally Benson as writers, conductor Franz ("My Fair Lady") Allers, orchestrator Irwin Kostal (between gigs on "West Side Story" and "Fiorello!"), choreographer John Butler, and director Sidney Lumet. Seeing it the same day as a near-contemporary TV musical effort, "The Bachelor," it was clear that the level of imagination and skill on this project was something quite special. Instead of flat-on "TV" type camera work, "Hans Brinker" camera is elaborately choreographed, including dolly and crane shots, making the most of some pretty spectacular ice choreography. Tab Hunter, as always, is a pleasure to look at (has anyone ever had a more perfect set of features?) and, despite his still-lingering critical reputation, proves himself here (as elsewhere, in "Battle Cry," for example) quite an ardent and affecting actor, not to mention a better than decent singer and -- biggest surprise, perhaps -- an excellent ice skater. Peggy King sings her numbers beautifully, Carmen Mathews (veteran of many a Broadway flop) is a convincing and lively grandmother, and Jarmila Novotna sings like an angel her little lullaby "Trinka Brinker" -- which, I know, sounds hokey, but is one of Martin's classically beautiful, highly chromatic melodies. Of course the only relic of the visual production is a kinescope (interspersed with charmingly dated Hallmark Valentine's Day card ads) -- in black and white. (Apparently kinescopes were made solely for copyright purposes, since no one seems to have ever considered that making color films of color shows might be worth the trouble for future viewers. It was expected there wouldn't be any -- and of course that's very nearly true.) This is worth seeking out. It would be nice to have it on DVD, but of course I'm dreaming. (A cast album was released -- it's pretty rare now, and has never been released on CD, to my knowledge -- by Dot Records, then heart-throb singing star Hunter's label.)
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- tentender
- Oct 10, 2009
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- Hallmark Hall of Fame: Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (#7.4)
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