It was weird. Honestly, there is no other way to describe the first time audiences sat down to watch The Little Prince film 1974. You had Stanley Donen—the man who gave us Singin' in the Rain—teaming up with Lerner and Loewe, the legends behind My Fair Lady. On paper, it was a guaranteed Oscar-winning juggernaut. In reality? It became one of the most baffling, haunting, and divisive musical fantasies ever put to celluloid.
Paramount Pictures thought they had a family-friendly goldmine. They didn't. What they actually had was a philosophical, somewhat bleak, and visually psychedelic adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 masterpiece.
If you grew up in the seventies, you might remember the posters. They promised a whimsical adventure. Instead, kids were treated to Bob Fosse dancing like a proto-Michael Jackson in a snake suit and Gene Wilder having a literal existential crisis in the desert. It’s a movie that feels like a fever dream. Yet, decades later, its reputation is shifting from "box office disaster" to "misunderstood cult classic."
The Strange Alchemy of the 1974 Production
Movies are often products of their era, but this one felt like it was from another planet. Literally.
The production was plagued by a clash of egos and styles. Stanley Donen wanted something sophisticated. Frederick Loewe, returning from retirement, wanted the classic Broadway sound. The result is a soundtrack that is remarkably high-quality but feels strangely detached from the desert sands of Tunisia where they filmed. It’s jarring. You have Richard Kiley, playing the Pilot, singing operatic baritone notes while sweating in a real cockpit in the Sahara.
Critics at the time were brutal. They hated the pacing. They hated the tone. They even hated the kid, Steven Warner, who played the Prince. But looking back, Warner’s performance is actually quite grounded. He isn't a "stage kid." He’s airy and distant, which is exactly how the Prince is supposed to be. He’s an alien, after all.
Why the Casting Still Matters Today
Let’s talk about Bob Fosse. If you watch The Little Prince film 1974 for only one reason, make it the "A Snake in the Grass" sequence.
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Fosse choreographed his own numbers. He wore a tight black suit and a bowler hat. If that sounds familiar, it’s because a young Michael Jackson was reportedly obsessed with this performance. The hip thrusts, the glove, the jagged movements—you can see the DNA of the "Billie Jean" aesthetic right here in the Tunisian desert. Fosse plays the Snake with a sinister, slippery charm that feels way too mature for a "children's movie." It’s brilliant.
Then there’s Gene Wilder as the Fox.
Wilder was at the height of his powers here. He had just done Willy Wonka and was about to do Young Frankenstein. His portrayal of the Fox is the emotional heart of the film. When he explains what it means to be "tamed," he isn't just acting for kids. He’s exploring the genuine pain of human (or animal) connection and the inevitable grief that follows. It’s raw.
A Visual Style That Refused to Play it Safe
Most 70s kids' movies were bright and saturated. Not this one.
Donen used a lot of wide shots. He let the desert look like the desert—vast, empty, and terrifying. The minimalism was intentional, mirroring the simple sketches in the original book, but it translated poorly to a public used to the lush sets of The Sound of Music.
The special effects are... dated. Let's be real. The "flying" sequences involving the Prince being carried by birds look exactly like a 1974 bluescreen production. But there’s a charm to it. It feels like a stage play that accidentally wandered outdoors. The juxtaposition of high-budget musical numbers and low-budget practical effects creates a surrealism that modern CGI just can’t replicate.
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The Music: Lerner and Loewe’s Swan Song
This was the final collaboration between Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. They hadn't worked together in years.
- "I Need to Know" – The Pilot’s opening gambit. It’s a song about the frustration of adulthood.
- "Be Happy" – The Rose’s song. It’s vain and flighty, just like the character.
- "Closer and Closer and Closer" – The Fox’s heartbreaking lesson on friendship.
The lyrics are surprisingly faithful to Saint-Exupéry’s text. Lerner didn't dumb it down. He kept the melancholy. He kept the idea that "what is essential is invisible to the eye." Maybe that was the problem? The movie refused to be happy-go-lucky. It insisted on being a meditation on death and the loss of innocence.
What Most People Get Wrong About the 1974 Failure
The common narrative is that the film failed because it was "bad."
That’s a lazy take. It failed because it didn't have a target audience. It was too "arty" for kids and too "musical" for the cynical adults of the mid-70s. We were in the era of The Godfather and Chinatown. A singing Prince from Asteroid B-612 didn't exactly fit the zeitgeist.
However, if you watch it now, the environmental themes and the critique of "matters of consequence" feel incredibly modern. The Businessman on his tiny planet, obsessively counting stars he doesn't own, is basically a parody of modern corporate culture. The King who rules over nothing is a perfect satire of political vanity. The film was actually ahead of its time in its cynicism toward "grown-ups."
The Legacy of the Desert
Is The Little Prince film 1974 a masterpiece? Probably not. It’s too uneven for that. But it is a fascinating artifact of a time when studios took massive risks on high-concept art.
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It remains the most faithful adaptation of the book’s spirit, even if the 2015 animated version is technically a "better" movie by modern storytelling standards. There is a loneliness in the 1974 version that feels authentic to the author’s life as a pilot. Saint-Exupéry disappeared over the Mediterranean shortly after writing the book; the film captures that sense of a man lost in the clouds, looking for something he can't quite name.
Where to Find It and What to Look For
If you’re planning to track this down, don't expect a polished Disney experience.
Look for the nuances in Richard Kiley's performance. He plays the Pilot not as a hero, but as a man who has forgotten how to draw. Watch for the way the camera lingers on the Prince's scarf in the wind. These small details show that Stanley Donen really did care about the source material, even if the studio's edit felt a bit choppy.
The film has been remastered on Blu-ray and is often available on niche streaming services like ScreenPix or for digital rental. It’s worth the 88 minutes just to see the Fosse dance. Honestly.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Collectors
If you want to dive deeper into the world of this specific production, there are a few things you should actually do rather than just watching the movie:
- Listen to the Original Soundtrack: The music often stands better on its own than it does in the context of the film's pacing. The orchestral arrangements are lush and represent the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals.
- Compare the "Snake" Scene to Michael Jackson's "Bad": If you are a student of dance, do a side-by-side. The influence of Fosse’s movements in this film on the King of Pop is undeniable and serves as a great lesson in cultural lineage.
- Read the "Making Of" Accounts: Seek out memoirs involving Stanley Donen. The stories of filming in the heat of Tunisia—dealing with broken equipment and a shrinking budget—provide a lot of context for why the film looks so sparse.
- Check the Aspect Ratio: If you watch a cropped version on YouTube, you lose half the cinematography. Ensure you are watching the 1.85:1 widescreen version to see the intended desert vistas.
The film serves as a reminder that "success" in cinema isn't always measured by the box office. Sometimes, a "failure" stays with you much longer because it dared to be strange. In 1974, they tried to capture lightning in a bottle and ended up with a jar of desert sand—but that sand is still gold if you look at it in the right light.