Movie Review: The Glass Slipper (1955)

The movie stars Leslie Caron, Michael Wilding, Estelle Winwood, Keenan Wynn and Elsa Lanchester.

I was watching another movie Sunday afternoon. But, since it turned out to be a film that wasn't suitable for my kids, I ended up turning it off. When I did that, I put this movie on, thinking we would watch a few minutes of it before picking out another film. However, my daughter, intrigued by a re-telling of the classic "Cinderella" she had not seen before, asked if we could watch it. After doing so, my opinion of it was a bit mixed.

I'll start out by saying the film did definitely turn out to be better than I thought it would. The main plot of the film is a bit different than the traditional Cinderella-like stories and, because of that, I wasn't completely sure if it would be as entertaining. However, the uniqueness of the story did, admittedly, make it a bit more interesting than I thought it would, simply because it wasn't quite as predictable.

I also liked the eccentric character, Mrs. Toquet (Winwood), because she gave the film a bit of mystery. It was pretty obvious, from the moment she was introduced, she wasn't quite what she seemed. But, the movie did a good job of keeping her secret until toward the very end. And, while there were hints about her and what was really going on in Ella's (Caron) life, the filmmakers made sure to disguise those things really well. 

While I did like this movie for the most part, there were some things about it that weren't as good as others. For example, the part about her plain, tom-boy like appearance was very dated, especially when the characters discussed her decision to cut her hair.

I also honestly wasn't that big of a fan of Ella. She was very whiny and a bit self righteous and, while I won't go as far as to say she deserved the abuse she got from her stepmother (Lanchester), I'm also not really sure if her stepmother truly hated her or was just embarrassed by her,

She didn't do herself any favors when it came to the rest of the town either. Basically, it's really hard to feel sorry for her when she's actually nastier to the townspeople at times than they are to her. Plus, was it really all that hard for her to wash her face?

Ella isn't as sympathetic as some other Cinderellas I've seen. But, other than the dated material, the movie did turn out to be halfway decent and worth taking the time to watch.

My Grade: B