The Pied Piper (1942)

Directed by Irving Pichel; produced by Nunnally Johnson

Mr John Howard (Monty Woolley) is an active Englishman just past middle age; upset at not being found useful in the fight against Nazi Germany, he retreats to rural France, to fish and mope. With his country on its beam ends, though, he changes his mind and heads back home to take on whatever job he can do. A British couple (Lester Matthews, Jill Esmond), hoping to get their children (Roddy McDowall, Peggy Ann Garner) home, even if they themselves can’t, ask Howard to take them. Soon, the reluctant guardian is saddled with a number of kids, and while he finds them an ordeal, they are nothing compared with the hazards of travelling through war-torn France.

A pleasant and amusing movie, The Pied Piper doesn’t quite fulfill its potential. Even so, it benefits greatly from the lead actor and supporting players. Woolley, though an American, has what came to be termed a ‘mid-Atlantic’ accent, allowing him to portray convincingly Englishmen or Americans without altering his speech. (Cary Grant famously had the same quality, as did James Mason.) Howard’s gruff but decent personality allows him to push through obstacles with a determination that is natural and enjoyable to watch.

The other performers include two well-known child-actors of the time, McDowell and Garner. They do well in their roles but don’t contribute as much as they might have. Anne Baxter is rather needlessly added to the cast; if the lead were a younger man, she would be his love-interest. Instead, their connection is through Howard’s son, an RAF officer killed even earlier in the war. Otto Preminger has the biggest supporting role, as an SS officer. His voice is tremendously grating, probably intentionally so.

The principal problem I found with The Pied Piper is the story. It comes from a novel by Nevil Shute, with a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, so the talent is there. Nonetheless, there seems to be a level of digression that hurts the over-all flow of the movie.

Initially, Howard and Ronnie (Roddy McDowell) are rather gentle adversaries, the boy having contradicted the man in the latter’s belief that Rochester is a state and not a city in the U.S. Ronnie shows himself resourceful (not least of which because he can speak French) and mature, and is as much a protector of other children as is Howard. It would have been interesting to have developed their relationship - perhaps paralleling what might have been Howard’s with his own son. Instead, Ronnie is sidelined to make room for Major Diessen (Otto Preminger).

This distraction leaves Howard’s character incomplete. The audience gathers that he doesn’t like children - principally because he says so - but he is hardly rough or even impolite with them. It might have been intriguing to use Howard’s son’s death to put a wall between the man and other children, which those in his care would have broken down.

Diessen’s inclusion is sometimes cited as a detriment, with Preminger’s performance suggested to be that of a stereotype or over the top. Certainly those are legitimate judgements, though the era and the situation in which the movie was made must be taken into account. But I thought - aside from the sudden shift from the adult/child dynamic to an adult/adult confrontation - that Diessen’s part was an interesting twist to the plot, given the solution to the showdown between him and Howard. It also made Diessen more than just a cardboard cut-out.

The Pied Piper, therefore, is mostly entertaining. It is well-acted and directed, and well-written as far as it goes, though it could have gone farther.