Name: Land of the Ugly Duckling
Genre: Documentary, Short, Biography
Released: 1953-01-03
Duration: 9 min
Rating: 6.5
Cast: James A. FitzPatrick

Land of the Ugly Duckling (1953) 

*** (out of 4) 

This entry in the TravelTalks series is somewhat different from the many others. We travel to Denmark but instead of taking a look at the actual place we instead get a 9-minute history lesson on their most famous son. That would of course be Hans Christian Anderson (1805-75), the author of so many classic fairy tales. We learn that the title "Ugly Duckling" is something the author wrote of himself as he grew up extremely poor and after his father died his mother married an abusive man who pretty much sent Hans packing. Throughout this short we get to see various places that Hans at some point in his life lived and we even visit a museum who still has several of his belongings including a hat, traveling bag and a cane. We even see a fire rope that he owned and we learn that he was terrified of dying from fire so he carried a rope with him in case he was ever trapped on a second floor. Other interesting places we visit are Fairy Garden and the famous stream where Hans' mother would wash his clothes. Of course, the Technicolor really brings the images to life. Fans of Hans Christian Anderson are really going to love seeing all of these locations, many of which influenced his stories. As usual, the narration by James A. FitzPatrick does a nice job in telling the stories.

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Mr. FitzPatrick tells the story of Hans Christian Andersen's life and tours Denmark.

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Land of the Ugly Duckling

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