Almost Angels
Encyclopedia
Almost Angels is a 1962 Disney film
about a group of boys in the Vienna Boys' Choir
.
The film shows the choristers recruitment process, the rehearsals and the life in the institution as well. The story also conveys the value of friendship, honesty and loyalty.
The child actors were actual members of the Vienna Boys Choir who perform several traditional Austrian songs throughout the motion picture. The filming took place in the Augarten Palais, the surroundings of Vienna and some other places of the beautiful Austrian landscape.
) is a working-class boy whose greatest desire is to become a member of Vienna's most famous choir. His father however is reluctant about such idea, since he wants his son to follow in his own footsteps as engine driver. Unlike his loving and supportive mother, Tony's father also sees no future for the boy in music.
Despite the objections, Tony manages to join the Vienna Boys' Choir. Once there, he meets Peter (played by Sean Scully
), who is the leading boy in the choir and the first and most experienced solo voice, so when Peter finds out that Tony has a wonderful clear treble voice, he immediately feels threatened by the talented new boy. Peter's jealousy will prompt him to do everything in his power to ruin his rival's public performances and good image as a boarder to the point of endangering Tony's life. The sabotage will eventually end but the break in Peter's voice will change the events drastically.
er, there are some international scores and instrumental music:
and six years after Sissi - The Young Empress, Almost Angels uses the same formula of combining a family story, great scenery, beloved music and Austrian local customs and traditions. Although it had limited distribution in theatres, the movie aroused the interest in choral institutions and in the Vienna Boys' Choir itself. Almost Angels was sporadically seen on the nighttime television series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and should be available on DVD December 14.
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
about a group of boys in the Vienna Boys' Choir
Vienna Boys' Choir
The Vienna Boys' Choir is a choir of trebles and altos based in Vienna. It is one of the best known boys' choirs in the world. The boys are selected mainly from Austria, but also from many other countries....
.
The film shows the choristers recruitment process, the rehearsals and the life in the institution as well. The story also conveys the value of friendship, honesty and loyalty.
The child actors were actual members of the Vienna Boys Choir who perform several traditional Austrian songs throughout the motion picture. The filming took place in the Augarten Palais, the surroundings of Vienna and some other places of the beautiful Austrian landscape.
Plot
Tony Fiala (played by Vincent WinterVincent Winter
Vincent Winter was a Scottish film actor who was successful as a child actor.-Career:Winter was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and made his first film appearance at the age of six in The Little Kidnappers winning, along with his co-star Jon Whiteley, an Academy Juvenile Award...
) is a working-class boy whose greatest desire is to become a member of Vienna's most famous choir. His father however is reluctant about such idea, since he wants his son to follow in his own footsteps as engine driver. Unlike his loving and supportive mother, Tony's father also sees no future for the boy in music.
Despite the objections, Tony manages to join the Vienna Boys' Choir. Once there, he meets Peter (played by Sean Scully
Sean Scully (actor)
Sean Scully Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 28 September 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia is an actor.-Career:Scully began his acting career at the age of 12, going on 13, in the 1960 Children’s Film Foundation film Hunted in Holland, which won the Diploma of Honour at the Cannes Film...
), who is the leading boy in the choir and the first and most experienced solo voice, so when Peter finds out that Tony has a wonderful clear treble voice, he immediately feels threatened by the talented new boy. Peter's jealousy will prompt him to do everything in his power to ruin his rival's public performances and good image as a boarder to the point of endangering Tony's life. The sabotage will eventually end but the break in Peter's voice will change the events drastically.
Cast
- Vincent WinterVincent WinterVincent Winter was a Scottish film actor who was successful as a child actor.-Career:Winter was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and made his first film appearance at the age of six in The Little Kidnappers winning, along with his co-star Jon Whiteley, an Academy Juvenile Award...
as Tony Fiala - Sean ScullySean Scully (actor)Sean Scully Sean Scully Sean Scully (born 28 September 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia is an actor.-Career:Scully began his acting career at the age of 12, going on 13, in the 1960 Children’s Film Foundation film Hunted in Holland, which won the Diploma of Honour at the Cannes Film...
as Peter Schaefer - Peter WeckPeter Weck-Selected filmography:Actor* Mariandl * Almost Angels * Mariandl's Homecoming * The Cardinal * Marry Me, Cherie * When the Grapevines Bloom on the Danube...
as Max Heller - Hans HoltHans HoltHans Holt was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in over 100 films between 1935 and 1990.-Selected filmography:* Florentine * Dir zuliebe * 1. April 2000 * Almost Angels...
Director Eisinger - Bruni Löble as Frau Fiala
- Fritz EckhardtFritz EckhardtFritz Eckhardt was an Austrian actor, director, and writer. He is remembered for playing the lead role as chief inspector Marek in the Österreichischer Rundfunk version of the detective series Tatort. He also played cabaret and wrote numerous theatre plays and film scripts.-References:...
as Herr Fiala - Denis Gilmore as Friedel Schmidt
- Hennie Scott as Ferdie
- Hans ChristianHans ChristianHans Christian is a German-born musician and producer now based in the U.S. in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Christian is a multi-instrumentalist usually associated with Indian world music, ethnic fusion, chamber jazz, and sometimes New Age music, but who also plays classical music...
as Choirmaster - Hermann Furthmosek as Choirmaster
- Walter Regelsberger as Choirmaster
Songs and Music
The film takes advantage of the story itself to present traditional Austrian and German songs performed by the children. Besides the LiedLied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er, there are some international scores and instrumental music:
- "Kaiser-WalzerKaiser-WalzerKaiser-Walzer, Op. 437 is a waltz composed by Johann Strauss II in 1889. The waltz was originally titled Hand in Hand and was intended as a toast made in August of that year by Austrian emperor Franz Josef on the occasion of his visit to the German Kaiser Wilhelm II where it was symbolic as a...
" (Emperor Waltz by Johann Strauss Jr.Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
) - "Willkommen"
- "Heidenröslein" (Little Rose of the Heath) by Heinrich Werner / Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
- Unidentified piece for piano and oboe by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
- "Der Kuckuck"
- "Wohlan die Zeit ist kommen" from Ludwig Schubart
- "Der Lindenbaum" (Am Brunnen vor dem Tore) by Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
/ Wilhelm Müller - "Tra la la, der Post ist da" (The Postman) by Rudolf LöwensteinRudolf LöwensteinRudolf Löwenstein was a German author.When only 9 years of age he was baptized. Educated at the gymnasium at Glogau and the universities of Breslau and Berlin, he received the degree of Ph.D. in 1843....
- "Omnes de Saba Venient" (Graduale by Joseph Eybler)
- "Kindersinfonie" (Toy SymphonyToy SymphonyThe Toy Symphony is a musical work with parts for toy instruments and is popularly played at Christmas....
by Leopold MozartLeopold MozartJohann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
) - "Lustig ist das Zigeunerleben"
- "Das Hennlein Weiss"
- "Guten Abend, Gute Nacht" (Good Evening, Good Night) by Johannes BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
- "GreensleevesGreensleeves"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground of the form called a romanesca.A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of...
" (Traditional English Song) - "LändlerLändlerThe ländler is a folk dance in 3/4 time which was popular in Austria, south Germany and German Switzerland at the end of the 18th century.It is a dance for couples which strongly features hopping and stamping...
" - "An Der Schönen Blauen Donau" (Blue Danube WaltzThe Blue DanubeThe Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
by Johann Strauss Jr.Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
)
Popular culture
Produced and released more than two years before The Sound of MusicThe Sound of Music (film)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the Broadway musical The Sound of Music, with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical...
and six years after Sissi - The Young Empress, Almost Angels uses the same formula of combining a family story, great scenery, beloved music and Austrian local customs and traditions. Although it had limited distribution in theatres, the movie aroused the interest in choral institutions and in the Vienna Boys' Choir itself. Almost Angels was sporadically seen on the nighttime television series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and should be available on DVD December 14.