Old Enemies Teaming Up Against Nazis!

 

I hadn't seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks since it originally played in the theaters in 1971. I actually didn't remember a lot about it. It was mostly the finale that stuck in my mind--the images of magically animated suits of armor fighting Nazis. To my young mind, that was awesome.

Well, by golly, it's STILL awesome. In fact, as a grown-up, I realize it is awesome in many ways that hadn't originally occured to me as a child.

Angela decided one night recently that she wanted to watch it. So we rented it and did so. The plot is a lady learning to be a witch. She lives in a small town near the coast in England during World War II and has just been unwillingly saddled with three children who were evacuated from London during the Blitz. (There was a part of me that was hoping the Pevensie kids would have a cameo when the Bedknob kids are at the train station.)

The kids soon discover that Miss Price (Angela Lansbury) can do magic, though she's not very good at it. She's been taking a correspondence course on the subject.

But when she receives a letter telling her the course was cancelled before she receives the magic words for the final spell (a spell allowing her to bring inanimate objects to life), she uses a magical bedknob to travel (with the kids) to London to find Mr. Brown (David Tomlinson), who taught the course.

Tomlinson is a con artist and street merchant who had no idea the spells he was sending her actually work. But the book from which he was taking the spells is missing the last page. So they all end up trying to track down a source for the magic words--a quest which takes them to a land populated by talking animals. 

So far, it's all been great fun. The animated sequence involving a soccer game played by the animals involves some clever and funny slapstick action. An earlier musical number ("Portobello Road") works both as a lively number AND involves some subtle character development. The prissy Miss Price starts to liven up, while Mr. Brown (despite some shady aspects to his personality) turns out to have a healthy sense of both fun and community. That the two of them end up in love by the end of the film is predictable, but also surprisingly believable. 

But the really, really awesome part is the final act. A small force of German soldiers has landed in England from a U-Boat, intending to destroy British morale by showing they are vulnerable to a full-scale invasion any time. But by now, Miss Price has the words for that magic spell.

She also has access to a surprisingly large number of suits of armor and military uniforms in the local museum. 

The sequence is staged magnificently, with a seemingly endless line of animated armor--immune to bullets because no one is inside them--marching relentlessly towards the Germans and sending them running for the shore in panic. 

And, watching as an adult, I noticed something that got by me as a kid. Its something that isn't even overtly commented on in the movie, but it's there.

The armor and uniforms are from various periods in British history, including examples of those soldiers who would have once fought each other. Redcoats are fighting alongside Highlanders, while we see Roundheads marching towards the Nazies along side a Cavalier. 

They may have tried to kill each other during their time in history, but when the Germans set foot on British soil, all that is set aside. All that matters is kicking Nazi butt and scouring them from the English countryside!

It truly is awesome.