Fascinating trivia (and any goofs) connected with the film
- The 15 min (approx) Ballet of the Red Shoes used a
corps de ballet of 53 dancers.
- The Red Shoes (1948) didn't have a big UK premiere. It was first
shown at the Odeon, Haymarket at midnight for an invited
audience. Then it was shown there for the next 10 days before
being put on general release, to try to get back some of the
money it had cost Rank. Because of this quick general release
there was very little publicity and it didn't do at all well
on it's first release. But subsequent showings (in the same year)
proved more popular as word of mouth had spread.
See below for updated comment
- The Red Shoes wasn't at all understood by the distributors at
first. It was only after an independent US distributor showed
it for an unbroken 110 week run in an off Broadway theater (The Bijou) that
Universal realised that it was a worthwhile film after all.
Universal took over the US distribution in 1951.
- When people complained to Michael Powell about the
gory ending, he pointed out that in the original
Hans Christian Andersen story the girl had her feet
hacked off with a woodsman's axe to stop her dancing.
- Designer Hein Heckroth once asked some children which part
they liked best in the original Hans Christian Andersen story.
"When they cut off her feet" they all replied.
"But we couldn't do that in the film," said Hein, "Moira would
not like it".
- The script for The Red Shoes was originally written
by Emeric Pressburger in 1937 (for £2,000) for
Alexander Korda who planned to use it as a vehicle
for his (intended) wife Merle Oberon. It was planned that
the dancing scenes be doubled by a professional dancer.
Powell and Pressburger bought back the rights from Korda
for £12,000 in 1947.
- An entrant in Variety's "Golden Fifty" list of the top money makers
of all time.
- The exterior of The Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate was
shown in the rain because Michael Powell had often
gone there to see plays or the ballet and he reminisced
"it always seemed to be raining when one queued up for
Madame Rambert's productions".
- There is an oft told myth that The Red Shoes wasn't very well appreciated
in the UK and it wasn't backed by Rank with a full release or much promotion.
According to Allen Eyles book on Gaumont British Cinemas, TRS had a full UK
circuit release on the Rank owned Gaumont British circuit in 1948 (around
350 cinemas......), and was also shown widely in independent cinemas
nationwide. Indeed, Robert Murphy lists TRS as one of the UK top ten box
office attractions of 1948.
- There is another myth that TRS was the film that destroyed the Rank
empire because it was so expensive and didn't make any money.
If anything Gabby Pascal's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) takes that honour
with it's budget of £1,278,000 ($6,000,00) compared to the comparatively meagre budget of £551,927 for The Red Shoes.
But really it was their bad investments trying to set up a US distribution
chain and the over-extention into production here just after the war that
got them into so much financial trouble.
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