Title : Pied Piper of Hamelin

 (German: Rattenfänger von Hameln)

Storyline : In 1284, while the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation, a man dressed in pied clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the mayor a solution for their problem with the rats. The mayor in turn promised to pay him for the removal of the rats. The man accepted, and played a musical pipe to lure the rats with a song into the Weser River, where all but one drowned. Despite his success, the mayor reneged on his promise and refused to pay the rat-catcher the full amount of money. The man left the town angrily, but vowed to return some time later, seeking revenge. On Saint John and Paul's day while the inhabitants were in church, he played his pipe yet again, dressed in green, like a hunter, this time attracting the children of Hamelin.

One hundred and thirty boys and girls followed him out of the town, where they were lured into a cave and never seen again. Depending on the version, at most three children remained behind.
One of the children was lame and could not follow quickly enough, the second was deaf and followed the other children out of curiosity, and the last was blind and unable to see where he was going. These three informed the villagers of what had happened when they came out of church.

Movie : The 1957 made-for-television special The Pied Piper of Hamelin was a musical version in color, using the music of Edvard Grieg, and starring Van Johnson in a dual role as both the title character and the local schoolmaster .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wCwTo562Xw  (1957)

Moviestory : The Pied Piper (Van Johnson) is first spotted working magic in Hamelin by a disabled boy, Paul, and playing his signature tune In the Hall of the Mountain King. Paul tells his best friend, the schoolteacher Truson (=true son), also played by Johnson, but Truson is skeptical.

The town of Hamelin has entered a competition in order to win a banner from the King. To this end, the Mayor (Claude Rains) exhorts the people to work incessantly, even the children, to the extent that they are denied school and play. Truson protests, but his protests go unheeded by the arrogant Mayor. As part of a competition between several villages, the Mayor and his cabinet plan to construct golden chimes to impress the King's Emissary, who is due to pay a visit to Hamelin. But their efforts are temporarily halted when the town is invaded by rats, which have fled the neighboring city of Hamelout after the Weser River flooded and destroyed the town.

It is then that the Piper magically appears before the Mayor and his councilors. (He can appear inside the council room although the door is bolted.) Asking to be paid all the money in the town's treasury, (fifty-thousand guilders) he offers to rid the town of the rats. An unusual element is introduced into the story here: whenever the Piper plays a happy tune for the children, only Truson and the children can hear it. When he plays "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and leads the rats to their doom in the river, the children quickly fall asleep and only the material-minded adults such as the Mayor, but not Truson, can hear the music.

The Piper rids the town of the rats, but rather than simply paying him, the Mayor and his Cabinet attempt to use legal pettifoggery to trick him into an agreement whereby he must deposit a certain amount of money as a guarantee that the rats will not return, and if they do he must return the rest of the money that he has been paid. Furious, the Piper leaves without his money, and the Mayor plots to use the gold to construct the chimes. Truson, who is in love with the Mayor's daughter Mara (Lori Nelson) is thrown in jail for speaking out against this injustice. The Mayor plans to marry off Mara to the King's Emissary (Jim Backus), but at this point, the Piper takes his revenge. Playing a happy variation on "In the Hall of the Mountain King", he leads the children of Hamelin away and into a beautiful kingdom concealed by a cave which magically opens to let the children in. But Paul is accidentally left behind, after he falls while trying to catch up with the other children and the cave closes before he can pass through.

The rest of the plot concerns the resolution of the Truson-Mara love story, the attempts of the adults to bring back the children, and the townsfolk and the Mayor. A happy ending showing the Piper's forgiveness and his returning of the children was added to the story in order to keep the program a family special.

Animation : The 1933 adaptation was produced as an animated Walt Disney Silly                Symphony short.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTzc2ywuTvE

Book : There are many different stories about Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, but the most well known one is written by the Brothers Grimm http://www.yankeeweb.com/library/storytime/grimmbros/grimmbros_41.html

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107342.The_Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2291759.The_Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin

Moral:

Honor your contracts

Pay what you owe or something bad will happen