The Pied Piper of Hamelin (TV)

The Pied Piper (Van Johnson) is first spotted working magic in Hamelin by a disabled boy, Paul, and playing his signature tune In the Hall of the Mountain King. Paul tells his best friend, the schoolteacher Truson (=true son), also played by Johnson, but Truson is skeptical. The town of Hamelin has entered a competition in order to win a banner from the King. To this end, the Mayor (Claude Rains) exhorts the people to work incessantly, even the children, to the extent that they are denied school and play. Truson protests, but his protests go unheeded by the arrogant Mayor. As part of a competition between several villages, the Mayor and his cabinet plan to construct golden chimes to impress the King's Emissary, who is due to pay a visit to Hamelin. But their efforts are temporarily halted when the town is invaded by rats, which have fled the neighboring city of Hamelout after the Weser River flooded and destroyed the town. It is then that the Piper magically appears before the Mayor and his councilors. (He can appear inside the council room although the door is bolted.) Asking to be paid all the money in the town's treasury, (fifty-thousand guilders) he offers to rid the town of the rats. Whenever the Piper plays a happy tune for the children, only Truson and the children can hear it. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is an American ninety-minute musical film in color, originally made as a television special and first shown by NBC on November 26, 1957, as their Thanksgiving Day offering for that year. Based on the famous poem of the same name by Robert Browning, it was directed by Broadway veteran Bretaigne Windust.