The Blue Bird (1976)

Director:

George Cukor

Writers:

Alfred Hayes (writer)
Aleksei Kapler (writer)

Release Date:

5 April 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

A cavalcade of magic. A carnival of fun. The Blue Bird is magic for everyone.

Plot:

A pair of peasant children, Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the Fairy Berylune...

Plot Keywords:

Surreal | Unborn Child | Child | Remake | Based On Play

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Elizabeth Taylor	...	Queen of Light / Mother / Witch / Maternal Love
Jane Fonda	...	The Night
Ava Gardner	...	Luxury
Cicely Tyson	...	Tylette, The Cat
Robert Morley	...	Father Time
Harry Andrews	...	The Oak
Todd Lookinland	...	Tyltyl
Patsy Kensit	...	Mytyl
Will Geer	...	Grandfather
Mona Washbourne	...	Grandmother
George Cole	...	Tylo, The Dog
Richard Pearson	...	The Bread
Nadezhda Pavlova	...	The Blue Bird
Georgi Vitsin	...	The Sugar
Margarita Terekhova	...	The Milk

Also Known As:

Sinyaya ptitsa (Soviet Union: Russian title)

Runtime:

Germany:95 min | USA:99 min

Country:

USA | Soviet Union

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:6 | France:U | Australia:G | Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Finland:K-8 | Iceland:L | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Moscow, Russia

Company:

Lenfilm Studio

Trivia:

There were so many production problems, foul-ups and hard feelings during the shooting of the film in Russia that eventually director George Cukor and producer Edward Lewis spoke to each other only through their lawyers.

Movie Connections:

Remake of The Blue Bird (1918)

Unbelievably entertaining bad movie

On a level of polished film making, this is possibly one of the shoddiest big-budget films ever made, but for viewers with the right (admittedly warped) perspective, it's terrifically entertaining. Most bad movies are merely ineptly made and therefore boring. But this film reaches such a surreal level of ineptitude that the viewer can only wonder, "What did I just watch? Was that a movie or was I hallucinating?" The script here is so disjointed and bizarre, it gave me the impression of what Ed Wood might have done if he had tried to make a children's film and had access to real stars. The plot is indescribable, so I won't try. Some golden moments are Will Geer and Mona Washbourne as the children's grandparents singing a song about how boring it is to be dead; Robert Morley decked out as Father Time in a slightly morbid Land of Unborn children; and my favorite, Ava Gardener in the Palace of Luxury, pointing out to the young boy all the luxuries (all grotesquely personified): the luxury of eating when not hungry, the luxury of loving one's own looks, etc. When the kid asks Ava, "Which luxury are you?" she leers at him and says, "You'll find out about me when you get a bit older."

I saw this film when it was first released. The ad campaign had made it sound like a charming children's fantasy, and the fact that it was filmed in the USSR brought out all the liberal parents and their kids. By the end of the screening, the theatre was empty except for my friends and me, rolling in the aisles with laughter. So, if you like inexplicable bad movies, the ones that make you wonder just what in the world the filmmakers thought they were doing, don't miss "The Blue Bird".