Into the Forest: Folktales at DEFA (1955-77) The Film That Made Paul Whitehouse Pee His Pants (as a child)

If you asked a person on the street if they know anything about East German folk tales, there’s a good chance they’ll say no, but if you mention The Singing Ringing Tree to people of a certain generation then some will feel twinges of nostalgia, and possibly trauma. Eureka have released a collection of Märchenfilme (fairy tale film), which date back to the post-war years of the Cold War, when Germany was still a nation divided between the Communist East and the Capitalist West, and yes, The Singing Ringing Tree is one of the films in the set.

DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), was the state-owned Communist film studio of the Democratic Republic of East Germany (DDR), but their output was surprisingly varied and took in all genres, including the Westerns – a boxset of which (Eastern Trails: The Western at DEFA), will be released by Eureka in September. The only rule was that the output had to promote either socialism in some manner, or positive values that would inspire people to be good, rule abiding citizens, and what better way to do that than to get them when they’re young? To ensure that this was the case, the DDR provided substantial subsidies to creatives intent on making entertainment for younger audiences using a series of Soviet-approved fairy tales as their foundation.

Comedian Paul Whitehouse once said that “The Singing Ringing Tree used to make me pee my pants when I was a kid”, which is probably why he went on to parody it with “The Singing Ringing Binging Plinging Tinging Plinking Plonking Boinging Tree” in the ’90s sketch comedy series The Fast Show. The film was broadcast in a serialised format several times throughout the 1960s and ’70s under the umbrella of Tales From Europe, which may have been an attempt to counterbalance American influences on British schoolchildren elsewhere on television. The brainchild of BBC Family Department producer and former wartime translator Peggy Miller, Tales From Europe was created with the intention of procuring productions from across the continent, but many ultimately originated from the Eastern Bloc because shows with state subsidies tended to have high production values, which in turn ensured attractive and eye-catching content for the BBC. Being a child of the ’80s I don’t think I ever actually saw The Singing Ringing Tree as a kid, although I do remember The Flashing Blade, and long before I first watched it a little over a decade ago, its legend is one that I was very familiar with (probably thanks to The Fast Show).

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The Singing Ringing Tree, or to give it its native German title Das Singende, Klingende Bäumchen, was originally derived from a lesser-known fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm called Hurleburlebutz (The Dwarf, the Fox and the Princess), in which a king gets lost in the woods and promises his youngest daughter to a magical white dwarf in exchange for directions home. The magical dwarf later transports the princess to his forest hut using the enchanted word “Hurleburlebutz”, where they eventually marry, after which she must then break the dwarf’s curse and restore him to being a handsome prince. Directed by Francesco Stefani, from a script by him and Anne Geelhaar, The Singing Ringing Tree went into production in 1957 and was made to entertain families in the DDR during the festive season.  It was shot in the Potsdam on the same soundstage as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927), with Eckart Dux stars as the handsome prince and former ballerina Christel Bodenstein as the King’s beautiful daughter.

In an ironic, post-modern way it’s become somewhat common practice to look back on children’s entertainment and call it “trippy”, but with its high production values and off-kilter Eastern Bloc atmosphere, The Singing Ringing Tree is the genuine article that, like the original Grimm fairy tale, creates a truly disturbing experience. It isn’t the Disneyfied stuff, but the proper, unsettling morality tales that had true evil lurking on the periphery of every “happily ever after”, and where handsome princes resorted to assaulting their damsels in distress (like in the original story of Sleeping Beauty). In accordance with its DDR values the story refuses to abide by Western stereotypes of masculine and feminine roles, so while the prince would be the hero in the West, here he descends into ineffectuality and the previously brattish princess steps up to become fearless and resourceful.

With its prince transformed into a bear, its heroine turned into a harridan, a green haired witch, a malevolent and creepy dwarf, and a giant talking fish, The Singing Ringing Tree is a bit like finding LSD in your box of Quality Street, and it’s easy to see what made the then young Paul Whitehouse wet himself. Shot in gaudy, bright colours, it’s a visual treat that’s reminiscent of the technicolour fantasies of Old Hollywood, but that sumptuous feast of vibrant primary hues was originally lost on British audiences back in 1964. It’s a bit like The Wizard of Oz, if The Wizard of Oz was directed by David Lynch, and its message is a simple but practical one – be nice to people or something will bad will happen to you.

Into the Forest: Folktales at DEFA is a genuine box of delights with other bewitching fare that also graced BBC schedules as part of Tales From Europe – some of which are little seen. Directed by Herbert Ballman from a screenplay by Kurt Bortfeldt and Anneliese Probst, The Devil From Mill Mountain (1955), has a more overt anti-capitalist message with its tale of a greedy mill owner and his feudal class co-conspirators wearing devil masks to scare rural peasants into accepting oppressive employment with them. Based on regional folk tales instead of specific fairy tales, the villagers prevails thanks to a defiantly pro-worker stance and the benevolence of some woodland spirits. Eva Kotthaus (Anna), looks every inch the beautiful folk heroine, while the portly, whiskered Willy A. Kleinau is suitably grotesque and belligerent as the despicable mill owner.

Also from 1955 is Herbert B. Fredersdorf’s Rumpelstiltskin, which appeared on the BBC but had big-screen U.S. releases in 1966 and 1974 thanks to Paramount Pictures. Based on the traditional Grimm fairytale, it follows the story of the titular imp who spins straw into gold in exchange for a woman’s firstborn child. The diminutive Werner Krüger proves a very memorable Rumpelstiltskin, his version being much less of a trickster and more kind-hearted, and the message of the story being a morally sound appeal for people to keep their word, which presumably adhered to the DDR’s rules and sensibilities.

To Western audiences, 1962’s Rotkäppchen is the familiar tale of Little Red Riding Hood, but director Götz Friedrich and writer Hans Rodenberg adapted Yevgeny Schwartz’s play rather than the traditional tale. The story deviates from the original to incorporate the heroine’s friends (a bunny rabbit, a squirrel and a bear), and the evil wolf’s sidekick (a fox) – which basically gave DEFA the opportunity to scar another generation of children by dressing their actors up as furries.

The final film, Wer reißt denn gleich vor’m Teufel aus, is also known in the West as The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs (its moniker in this collection), and Who’s Afraid of the Devil? Based on yet another Grimm tale, the story follows jakob – a poor and timid farmer’s boy who somehow becomes betrothed to the princess and is sent by the king to rob the Devil of three golden hairs. It’s a fool’s errand – a suicide mission to rid the King of a naive and hopeless son-in-law, but Jakob completes the task and asks the Devil for a way to end the King’s oppression of his community. Directed by Egon Schlegel and co-written by him, Joachim Nestler and Manfred Freitag, The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs is a comedy that boasts visuals like heads on sticks and gaudy hellscapes, and commits fully to its anti-capitalist morale.

The Limited Edition version of Into the Forest: Folktales at DEFA has just 2000 copies available, and contains 1080p HD presentations of all five films from restorations by the DEFA Foundation, original German soundtracks (complete with English subtitles), and optional English soundtracks for The Singing Ringing Tree and The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs. New Audio commentaries are available for Rumpelstiltskin (Sam Goff, editorial director for Klassiki), and The Devil From Mill Mountain (film historian Michael Brooke). Also included is a 60-page collector’s book featuring a new essay by East German film historian Sebastian Heiduschke on DEFA’s approach to folktales, new notes on the titles in the set by DEFA Märchenfilm experts Sonja Fritzsche, Qinna Shen and Elizabeth Ward, and the Brothers Grimm stories that inspired the films. Featurettes include: Fairytales and Nightmares; a new interview with Bob Fischer (writer, broadcaster and Fortean Times columnist), on the history of The Singing Ringing Tree; and DEFA and the Devil – a new video essay on the depiction of the Devil by film and literature scholar Mary Going. Extras include three cartoons: The Magic Scissors (Bruno J. Böttge, 1956 – a short silhouette animation); Sleeping Beauty Was a Beautiful Child (Katja Georgi, 1987 – a short puppet animation); and The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats (Otto Sacher, 1990 – a short cut-out animation); all of which were and produced by the DEFA Studio for Animation Film.

MARK’S ARCHIVE – INTO THE FOREST: FOLKTALES AT DEFA