Walt Disney’s “Cinderella” (1950) is at the forefront of the long parade of Disney animated princesses. (Prince Charming’s singing voice, incidentally, is by Mike Douglas, popular talk show host in the 1960s and ‘70s. And Verna Felton, last seen here playing the sweet old lady neighbor in “Picnic”, voiced the Fairy Godmother.)
Cinderella’s emergence in 1950 perhaps also heralded the beginning of a much shorter parade of film princesses played by some of the1950s greatest actress icons. We’ll spend the next couple of weeks talking about Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Ingrid Bergman as 1950s princesses.
As we shall see, despite the wicked stepmother, the coach turning back into a pumpkin, and the lost shoe, Cinderella didn’t really have it so tough. Compared to what Hepburn, Kelly, and Bergman went through, “Cinderella” was really just kid stuff.
