Davenport Films: Willa, the American Snow White.

Many years ago, Davenport Films put out a series of Brother Grimm tales retold in American milieus. They are marvelous. I will soon start my new A-Z list, Books Based on Fairy Tales. Along the way, I will also be reviewing these movies.

Willa, the American Snow White is cleverly retold. 

For one, the witch/stepmother, Regina (Caitlyn O'Connell), is not simply a vain woman. She is an actress who played ingenue roles for years. Unlike the marvelous Martha Rogers (Susan Sullivan) from Castle, she never graduated to "bravura grandma" roles. She "retires" and returns home. There, her stepdaughter, Willa (Becky Stark) shows signs of not only maturing beauty but--much worse from Regina's point of view--acting ability and the willingness to play multiple roles (the nurse, Romeo, etc.). Willa has the ability not merely to compete with Regina but to expand beyond her. Regina is consumed by jealousy.

The stepmother's servant, Otto (Mark Jaspar), is honestly surprised by Regina's anger. He thought he was serving a grand lady of the theater--who would have the magnanimity to support a prodigy. Instead, he finds himself trying to save a diminished lady from herself. He ends up dead.

The tower unfolds!

Willa escapes and joins a medicine man act (John Neville-Andrews, Floyd King, and Sammy Ross). They start to put on scenes from Shakespeare. They also tell the story of Snow White in the nightly act; rather than being revived by a prince, Snow White is revived by...the medicine! 

"We don't sell romance," the boss says. "We sell tonics and the elixir of life." (The medicine is used very cleverly at the end.)

The show covers how medicine shows--which were a subculture of vaudeville--lost out, as did vaudeville, to moving pictures. Regina, a hold out from the days of theater, is a sad creature who destroys herself.

But that's not the whole story. The prince (Jonny Elkes) is a moving picture entrepreneur. He joins the medicine man show on his way to California. Willa, the American Snow White who joins him, demonstrates both the competition and relationship between vaudeville and the moving pictures. The first moving picture actors, from Cary Grant to Judy Garland, came from vaudeville. Both mediums serve the imagination and human potential. 

As the boss says at the end, "We are such stuff as dreams are made of."

The true message? Adapt, like Willa. Or perish, like Regina.