ALMOST ANGELS (1962)

Made during a bad period at Disney, this modest family film must have been shot under-the-radar as it largely avoids the saccharine tropes and reflexive, kiddie-pandering Mouse House gags of the time.  (Laughter from kids dropped off for virtual babysitting at live-action Disney of the ‘60s & ‘70s, triggered from dogs, cats, ‘beetles,’ Annette Funicello & Tim Conway, may have been technically ‘live,’ but sounded as programmed as a canned sit-com laughtrack.)  Unjustly forgotten, ANGELS was lucky to be made in Austria, with its tiny budget and real locations showing barely a speck of Disney’s dated (even at the time) house-style.  Not that it’s some recovered masterwork, just a nice little film about a bunch of rambunctious boys who sing as the Vienna Boys Choir.  With the real choir boys playing themselves, they have a motley mutt-like appeal far removed from Hollywood casting agencies.  So too, the trio of lead boy actors, nicely varied/superior lip-synch singers.  And a perfect little narrative engine as the new kid with a star-quality voice (top notes most sopranos would kill for) is on the receiving end of hate at first sight with last year’s top boy.  But enemies become frenemies then friends before facing the crisis of the older boy’s life when, right before the annual tour, his voice breaks.  Unless the boys can figure something out, he’ll have to leave the choir.  (Same story arc as BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY/’73, if far less sentimental.)  Director Steve Previn (André’s older brother) suffers some bad acting (mostly from the new kid’s parents), but keeps things from dragging or turning too cute for words while getting everything he can from small boys overwhelmed by ornate, grandiose spaces.*  And what a relief to have Schubert, Brahms & Strauss on the soundtrack instead of the ghastly ‘comic’ underscoring that disfigured even the better Disney pics of the time.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *While the old Golden Age studio house-style was largely a thing of the past in ‘62, it survived another two decades @ Disney & Universal in moldering fashion.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Steve Previn will never be mistaken for Jean Vigo, but of course there’s a pillow fight (with feathers).  See ZERO FOR CONDUCT/’33 for a short second-feature.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Presumably charged with using Disney Deutschmark parked in Europe, producer Peter V. Herald followed with two more German/Austrian based pics: MIRACLE OF THE WHITE STALLIONS/’63, another great idea (saving the famed Lipizzaner Horses in WWII), but poorly handled, and a bad version of the oft-filmed EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES/’64.