The Blue Bird
About The Blue Bird
Mytyl will not lend the family bird to Widow Berlingot. The fairy Bérylune sends Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl after the Blue Bird of Happiness and gives them a hat that shows the souls of things. Fire, water, light, bread, sugar, and milk come along, and so do the dog and the cat. The dog saves Tyltyl. They pass the Palace of Night, a graveyard where they meet dead relatives and lose a blue bird, the Palace of Happiness, and the Kingdom of the Future, where unborn children wait. The bird they wanted was at home. Mytyl gives it to Berlingot. The widow's daughter gets well. The bird flies off. Tyltyl tells the audience to look for happiness at home.
Cast & crew
More about The Blue Bird
Maurice Tourneur directed for Adolph Zukor. Charles Maigne wrote the screenplay from Maurice Maeterlinck's 1908 play The Blue Bird. John van den Broek photographed it. Clarence Brown edited. Paramount released it on 31 March 1918. It runs 75 minutes. It was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Tula Belle plays Mytyl. Robin Macdougall plays Tyltyl. Lillian Cook plays Bérylune. Gertrude McCoy plays Light.
Themes
Making
Tourneur staged Maeterlinck's personified objects, the graveyard, and the Kingdom of the Future as separate studio visions in Fort Lee.
Look
John van den Broek photographed the Fort Lee sets, including the Palace of Night and the Kingdom of the Future.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives, including a color-tinted copy. The Library of Congress placed the film on the National Film Registry in 2004.
Notes
- Charles Ascot plays the Dog. Tom Corless plays the Cat. S. E. Potapovitch plays Fire. Sammy Blum plays Bread.
- Edward Elkas plays Widow Berlingot. Katherine Bianchi plays her daughter.
- The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2004.
- A color-tinted copy circulates.
- The last shot breaks the story and has Tyltyl speak to the theater.
Awards
- National Film Registry, Library of Congress, 2004
Scenes
- Bérylune's hat brings Fire, Water, Light, Bread, Sugar, and Milk to life.
- In the graveyard the children meet their dead and then lose the bird they have caught.
- Mytyl gives the bird at home to Widow Berlingot, and it flies off.
Influenced by
- Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird (1908)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Blue Bird (1918) - Color.webm)
