''The Bashful Elephant'' is a 1961 35 mm black & white

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

for family audiences.

Story

A 12-year-old orphan, Tristy (played by Mollie Mack; ''née'' Mollie Dorrell McGowan; 1946–1965) — escapes from an orphanage in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

(which then, was behind the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...

) to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

with the help of Jeffrey, a huge border guard dog (played by a giant

Irish wolfhound The Irish Wolfhound ( Irish: ''Cú Faoil'') is a breed of large sighthound that has, by its presence and substantial size, inspired literature, poetry and mythology. One of the largest of all breeds of dog, the breed is used by coursing hunters ...

) in hopes of finding a "papa and mama." Austrian police vow to help her find a loving family, but, until then, Tristy would need to stay in an orphanage, away from her new friend, Jeffrey, the big dog. So, she escapes again and makes her first new home with a traveling

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

owned by Kurt (played by

Helmut Schmid Helmut Schmid (1925–1992) was a German actor. He was the husband of actress Liselotte Pulver Liselotte Pulver (born 11 October 1929), sometimes credited as Lilo Pulver, is a Swiss actress. She was one of the biggest stars of German cinema ...

) and befriends Valle, the circus elephant. Kurt is in the middle of a divorce. Steffi (played by

Kai Fischer Kai Fischer (born 18 March 1934) is a German film actress. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1955 and 1999. Selected filmography * ''Operation Sleeping Bag'' (1955) * '' The Bath in the Barn'' (1956) * '' Sand, Love and Salt'' (1957) * ...

) wants to marry Kurt because she loves him, but also so that they can adopt Tristie. More complications arise with the Salzburg police attempting to take Tristie into custody. When the police are defied by the elephant and the dog, they threaten to shoot both of them. Tristie slips away to give herself up but is followed by her four-footed friends, and decides the only course is for them to run away together. Lost in the narrow streets she finds refuge in Saint Peter's Abby but is knocked unconscious by a fall down steep steps, picked up by the elephant and taken back to the circus, where eventually there is a climax that brings about a happy conclusion to the story.

Cast

Starring roles (and age at date of release): * Mollie Mack ''(née'' Molly McGowan; 1946–1965), Tristy () *

, Kurt, the circus owner and elephant trainer ( years) *

Steffi, Kurt's sweetheart and circus performer ( years) Supporting roles: *

Buddy Baer Jacob Henry "Buddy" Baer (June 11, 1915 – July 18, 1986) was an American boxer and later an actor with parts in seventeen films, as well as roles on multiple television series in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1941, he came extremely close to b ...

, tavern owner ( years) * Fritz Weiss, Father Francis *

Arnulf Schröder Arnulf Schröder (born Munich, June 13, 1903 - died there, December 22, 1960) was a German actor and director. He studied at the Oberrealschule with Claire Bauroff. He spent some of his career working in the cabarets of Berlin. Selected filmog ...

, police inspector ( years) *

Hans Schumm Hans Josef Schumm ''(né'' Johann Josef Eugen Schumm; 2 April 1896 Stuttgart – 2 February 1990 Los Angeles) was a German-born-turned-American actor, notably, a prolific and critically acclaimed Hollywood screen character actor who appeared in s ...

, Fritz ( years) *

Hans Pössenbacher Hans Pössenbacher (14 July 1895 – 24 February 1979) was an Austrian-born German actor. Filmography References External links

* 1895 births 1979 deaths German male film actors Male actors from Graz 20th-century German male actors ...

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

( years) * Gernot Duda (de), policeman ( years) Animals: * Giant

Irish Wolfhound The Irish Wolfhound ( Irish: ''Cú Faoil'') is a breed of large sighthound that has, by its presence and substantial size, inspired literature, poetry and mythology. One of the largest of all breeds of dog, the breed is used by coursing hunters ...

, Jeffrey * Elephant, Valle (obtained from a Danish circus)

Production

Tagline – "It's Elephantastic!" ''The Bashful Elephant'' was filmed in Austria with an American production crew. It was a family project and was Molly McGowan's last performance. She died of cancer on April 3, 1965 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

– at the age of . She had been married to Herbert (Johnnie) Lee Hickey (1942–2002) for only months. Mack had appeared several television and feature pictures. She was the daughter of co-director Dorrell McGowan (fr) and the niece of co-director Stuart Edward McGowan (fr).

Distribution

Daily Variety ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

'' of October 18, 1961, announced that

Allied Artists Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...

had secured worldwide distribution rights to the McGowan International Production. The film premiered Wednesday, November 22, 1961, at the

Fox Burlingame Theater The Peninsula Theatre was a movie palace in Burlingame, California, that ran from 1926 to 1974. In 1957, the name was changed to Fox Burlingame. The theater was shuttered in 1974 and demolished in 1975 to make way for a shopping mall. Histor ...

Burlingame, California Burlingame () is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its ...

, as a companion feature with Disney's 1961 film, '' Babes in Toyland''. Later, it was a companion feature with Disney's 1962 film, ''

In Search of the Castaways ''In Search of the Castaways'' () is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1867–68. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains illustrations by Édouard Riou. In 1876, it was republished by George Routledge & Son ...

''.

Selected reviews

A review in ''

'' of February 9, 1962, suggested removing a scene involving a principal character's infidelity to her boyfriend, as it was unsuitable for juvenile audiences.

Relationships

Dorrell and Stuart McGowan's sister,

Roxana Roxana (died BC, , ; Old Iranian: ''*Raṷxšnā-'' "shining, radiant, brilliant", ) sometimes known as Roxanne, Roxanna and Roxane, was a Bactrian or Sogdian princess whom Alexander the Great had married after defeating Darius, ruler of the ...

(1897–1976), was an actress who married twice, both to film directors, first

Albert Ray Albert Ray (August 28, 1897 – February 5, 1944) was an American film director, actor, and screenwriter. He directed more than 70 films between 1920 and 1939. He also appeared in 18 films between 1915 and 1922. He was born in New Rochelle ...

, then John Malcolm Stahl.

Songs

Ronald Stein Ronald Stein (April 12, 1930 – August 15, 1988) was an American film composer. At the height of his career in the 1950s and ‘60s, he was best known for scoring B movies produced by American International Pictures and Roger Corman. Biog ...

composed the music and wrote the lyrics, which were sung by Raffaela. * "Italian Song"

References

References published in the AFI Catalog

''The Bashful Elephant''
(

AFI Catalog The ''AFI Catalog of Feature Films'', also known as the ''AFI Catalog'', is an ongoing project by the American Film Institute (AFI) to catalog all commercially-made and theatrically exhibited American motion pictures from the birth of cinema i ...

)

External links

* *
''The Bashful Elephant''
at

TCM Movie Database Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

Stills from ''The Bashful Elephant''
''via''

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bashful Elephant, The 1961 films Films set in Austria Films set in Hungary Films shot in Austria American black-and-white films Austrian black-and-white films English-language Austrian films Films about dogs Films about elephants Films about orphans Circus films Allied Artists films Films scored by Ronald Stein