Hans Brinker

I can remember being riveted to the TV screen as a seven-year-old (with the full accessory pack of pillow, cookies, and milk) watching Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, the 1962 film based on the beloved novel by Mary Mapes Dodge, which aired on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color as a two-parter. Forty years later (with the full accessory pack of pillow, chips, and low carb beer), I loaded up Hans Brinker and was completely unfamiliar with what I saw--for good reason, it turned out, as this is the 1969 NBC-aired TV movie, not the Disney version. The story's the same, focusing on the Dutch Brinker family: in particular 17-year-old Hans (Robin Askwith, who would go on to star in a series of softcore porn Confessions of… films in the ‘70s) and his sister Gretel (Roberta Torey), who, along with their mother struggle to make ends meet, and dream of one day being able to hire the renowned Dr. Boekman (Richard Basehart) to operate on their brain-damaged father. In addition to longstanding concerns about his father, Hans has his eye set on a local (though socially upscale) girl named Annie and a possible shot at entering an annual ice skating race in which the grand prize is a pair of silver skates. While not the fondly cherished Disney version of my childhood memories, this filmed-in-Holland adaptation (with a handful of decent tunes, and some fairly nice choreography on ice) is reasonably entertaining. Boasting a decent, if unspectacular, digital transfer, and serviceable Dolby Digital stereo sound, this is a strong optional purchase. (R. Pitman)