1952 film by Charles Vidor
Hans Christian Andersen is a 1952 Hollywood musical film directed by Charles Vidor and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. The screenplay by Moss Hart and an uncredited Ben Hecht is based on a story by Myles Connolly.
Although it is nominally about Hans Christian Andersen, the 19th-century Danish author of many world-famous fairy tales, the film is romantic fiction, and does not relate to Andersen's biography: the introduction describes it as "not the story of his life, but a fairy tale about this great spinner of fairy tales." Andersen, as played by Danny Kaye, is portrayed as a small-town cobbler with a childlike heart and a vivid imagination.
A large part of the narrative is told through song (music and lyrics by Frank Loesser) and ballet and includes many of the real Andersen's most famous stories, such as The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Little Mermaid. The film was internationally successful at the time of release.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.