Considering the lack of attention given to this film by both MGM and Cinerama, I was glad to find an Italian DVD release. Both my computer and DVD player are zone-free, so I had no reason not to buy it for living outside of Europe, the more so since until today (July 10, 2015) there has been no release of a restored version. To my surprise the Italian release had an acceptable image quality. One has to admit though, that beyond the complaint for the division lines of the Cinerama projection, the full experience of inventor Fred Waller's system (opposed to Abel Gance's Polyvision) could only be achieved in a cinema with curved screen. On a flat screen, no matter if the motion picture has been "smileboxed" or not, the image is always slightly distorted. So if you had never seen it, be warned of the distortion, the lines dividing the three panels and the lack of restoration. For me, it was as good as in 1962 and I enjoyed it again very much. I did not know there are many persons who think this is a better film than "How the West Was Won", it is probably right: there is no propaganda here, no patriotic hymns and the script is tighter: instead of the story of three generations in "HTWWW" (Karl Malden's, Debbie Reynolds' and George Peppard's), in "TWWOTBG" you only have the story of the two Grimm brothers with three of their fairy tales inserted along the biography. If you expect CGIs instead of George Pal's animation, see another movie, and if not, enjoy his puppets and dragon. The cast, on the other hand, includes various cult players, as Beulah Bondi, Terry-Thomas, Martita Hunt, Ian Wolfe and Oscar Homolka; popular comedians as Jim Backus, Buddy Hackett and Arnold Stang; young stars of the 60s as Yvette Mimieux, Robert Crawford Jr. and Russ Tamblyn, and good lead players: Laurence Harvey, Karlheinz Böhm, Claire Bloom, Barbara Eden and Walter Slezak. Enjoy it again or discover it.
