Grimm Brothers tale of a strolling minstrel in 1349 Germany who agrees to rid the village of Hamelin of plague-carrying rats is given a serious, perhaps overly-solemn treatment. Jacques Demy has directed the story in a straightforward fashion, without any humor or playfulness, mystery or beauty (with the exception of the sunrise-heightened finale). Pop singer Donovan is well-cast in the title role, and his music compositions are good even if his songs are not of the Medieval period. The other cast members--top-billed Jack Wild, Donald Pleasance and John Hurt--have very little to do; Wild, in particular, is forced to painfully hobble around with a crutch as an alchemist's assistant. Michael Hordern as Melius, who is unable to conjure a cure for the Black Death and is arrested for being a heretic, gives the picture's finest performance, though his final moment tied to a stake may prove to be too heavy for the movie's supposed 'family audience.' The dank, mildewy locations, period costumes and bedraggled extras all lend a convincing air to the film, but "Piper"'s downbeat nature (not to mention all those rats!) makes it a tough sell. ** from ****

The year is 1349, and the people of Hamelin are building a cathedral in hopes of warding off the Plague. The Burgermeister is happily planning the marriage of his daughter to the Barron's son (John Hurt), and a band of actors and a piper (Donovan) come to town.I expected this 1972, Donovan movie to be a hippy-dippy, rock fairy tale, but I was way off. It's dreary and pointless, with a completely forgettable script and soundtrack. The film focuses on the Burgermeister's money problems, and the Piper story is almost an afterthought; his piping-the-children-away doesn't even merit a comment.Donovan has no discernible acting talent or screen presence, mostly plays a modern guitar, and is a minor character. Top-billed Jack Wild, so likable in "Oliver!" plays a disabled apprentice, but he is well-past his boyish-prime and adds nothing to the story. Both children and adults will probably be bored by this cheap misfire.

Jacques Demy invariably wrote his own lyrics - I use the word loosely -and got away with their mediocrity because he usually hired Michel Legrand to set them. This time around he hired Donovan and lost out on both words and music so perhaps it's just as well that he (Demy) was clearly aspiring to something more than just a light musical but a Socially Significant document embracing usury, racial prejudice and pestilence. It wouldn't be Demy without some picture-book visuals and indeed the opening sequences in particular are reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman whose bitter black coffee had been slightly diluted to cafe-au-lait. The casting is Odd to Quaint and doesn't really work but it has to be said that the scenes with the wedding cake, the rat exodus and the children exodus have a certain style.

The bubonic plague often began with the death of the rats before it spread to the people. This movie's version of the pied piper seems far closer to the origin of the story than anything else I've seen.