This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Ballet movie about an inventor named Dr. Coppelius (Walter Slezak) who creates life-sized mechanical dolls and passes them off as real people. When I say ballet movie, I should stress there is no dialogue. It's entirely driven by music and dance with silent acting. This might not be to everyone's tastes. I enjoyed it but this isn't the type of thing I could watch regularly. But every once in awhile is nice. It's a great-looking picture. The colors, the sets, the costumes are all vivid and lavish. The dancing is wonderful. I'm no ballet connoisseur but it all seemed lovely and graceful to me. There was a re-release version in the '70s apparently, which was poorly titled The Mysterious House of Dr. C. This version features narration, animation, and other intrusive elements added to it. Thankfully, that is not the version I saw. Dr. Coppelius might not be for everyone, but if you like ballet or you like to try new things, give it a shot and I'm sure you'll find it entertaining.

I happened on this movie yesterday afternoon on Turner Classic Movies, and I found it charming. If you're used to ballets you understand that they often use fairy tale plots as an excuse for lots of dancing so the stories are in no way intended to be realistic but are used simply as an excuse for dance. Despite the criticisms of lighting and settings, the quality of the dancing and the delightful characterizations of Slezak and the dancer playing his daughter make the movie worth watching. I would love to see it be made available as a DVD so that I could use it to introduce my grand daughters to a ballet with a plot that does not contain frightening scenes or deaths of main characters.

There are two versions of this rare film: "Dr. Coppelius" (1968) and "The Mysterious House of Dr. C" (1976).Here is my review for "Dr. Coppelius" (1968). This ballet film is very rare. I hope a DVD of "Dr. Coppelius" (1968) will be released, because this film deserves more recognition.This is a charming, uplifting film, with ballet, Delibes music, and pantomime only. It combines wonderful dancing, music, comedy, romance, and magic, all in brilliant colors. The costumes and sets are lavish.(Some lite spoilers here.) This is the basic storyline of "Dr. Coppelius" (1968). The film is set in a European village during the 1800s. Dr. Coppelius is an eccentric inventor and alchemist, who creates lifelike mechanical dolls (automatons) in his spooky house on a rocky hill. Franz, a village lad, becomes infatuated with a beautiful automaton named Coppelia, who wears a lovely pink Victorian dress. Franz' girlfriend Swanhilda gets jealous, and sneaks into Dr. Coppelius' house, where she has many adventures. The original "Dr. Coppelius" (1968) film has numerous superb ballets. There is a spectacular large-scale ballet in the village square, with dozens of ballet dancers wearing red folk costumes, illuminated with vivid red and pink light. The 1968 film has a magical, fairy tale atmosphere. I give the 1968 film ten stars. Here is some information about "The Mysterious House of Dr. C." The 1968 film was drastically edited in 1976, adding a voice-over narration, cartoon animation, and songs. Several ballets were cut short. It was renamed "The Mysterious House of Dr. C." The voice-over narration, cartoons and songs are distracting, and interrupt the flow of the film. I much prefer the original "Dr. Coppelius" (1968) movie, which is a true classic ballet film.

Stilted Spanish-made adaptation of the ballet libretto "Coppelia", busy on its feet and yet with little personality behind or in front of the camera. In a small village, the curious Dr. Coppelius keeps the townspeople at bay by setting off innocuous explosions; what he's really hiding is a fantastic workshop filled with life-size dolls of his own creation. When intrepid young sweethearts break into the doctor's house, they discover his secret, with the girl impersonating the doctor's latest invention. "Dr. Coppelius" was apparently a labor of love for Ted and Jo Anna Kneeland--he directed, she choreographed the dancing, and they both had a hand in the writing; yet, despite an imaginative art direction and production design, the film seems rather unwieldy, most especially during the dance sequences which are poorly-staged. Barely circulated in the late-1960s, the Kneelands tried for another release in 1976 (using the title "The Mysterious House of Dr. C."), adding horrendous narration and character voice-overs, two animated dream sequences, and songs to explain nearly every bit of human interaction. It's certainly a curio--and a good-looking one, with changing light cues in garish golds, blood reds, mad pinks, and frosty blues--yet the effort is best described as a misfire. ** from ****