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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Sponsored by Patricia and J.L. Jay 1971 | G | Family, Musical | d. Mel Stuart Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum |
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| After director Mel Stuart’s 10-year-old daughter read the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), she begged her dad to make it into a movie. Thus was born Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Dahl wrote the script himself, with uncredited help from David Seltzer. The studio had the title changed from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because of America’s continued involvement in the Vietnam War – Charlie was the commonly used moniker for the Viet Cong. In Dahl’s Dickensian world, bad kids are made not born. Like many of his other works, including Matilda and James and the Giant Peach, parents are taken to task for creating fat, spoiled, smart mouthed kids who get exactly what they deserve during their tour of the chocolate factory. When Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, after Joel Grey was rejected for the role) announces that five golden tickets will be hidden in chocolate bars – tickets that will win a tour of the chocolate factory – the world goes crazy with chocolate fever. Four tickets are found: by overweight Augustus Gloop, rich Veruca Salt, gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde and TV obsessed Mike Teevee. The last one is found by humble, endearing Charlie Bucket. None of the kids realize that this tour is really a search for a worthy, honest heir to the factory. Charlie, though not perfect and tempted by the riches of sweets that surround him, stays true to himself and refuses to betray Mr. Wonka, even when he’s offered money to steal Wonka’s latest concoction: the Everlasting Gobstopper. The good guy – or sweet kid in this film – always wins. The song score from the movie, which included Sammy Davis, Jr.’s chart-topping Candy Man, was nominated for an Oscar. - Ann Horak | ||