Import

The Emperor's Nightingale (Rembrandt Films) is the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, enacted by puppets in the soft hues of Nu-Agfa Color. Produced in Czechoslovakia by Jiri Trnka, the U.S. version keeps the original film's excellent score, adds a well-written narration by Phyllis McGinley, spoken by Boris Karloff in a Dutch-uncle mood.

As unfolded in the dream of a little boy, the movie's tale is still Andersen's universally appealing parable of the ancient Chinese emperor who learned to value carefree nature above sterile pomp and artifice. It is told with a good deal of charm, taste and imagination. But it is also overlong and repetitious. How well its deliberate pace will hold U.S. youngsters, raised on Walt Disney's blur-of-action technique, is a question that only the children themselves can settle.

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