FAQ for
The Red Shoes (1948) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

The Red Shoes is based on a fairy tale of the same name by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen [1805-1875]. It was first published in Copenhagen on 7 April 1845 in Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Tredie Samling (New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Third Collection). The tale was adapted for the screen by screen-writers and directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, a British team of film-makers known collectively as The Archers, with additional dialogue by Keith Winter. Based on the Archers' production, The Red Shoes was also made into a short-lived 1993 Broadway production with lyrics by Marsha Norman and Bob Merrill (credited as Paul Stryker), music by Jule Styne, and an accompanying book, also by Marsha Norman.

Yes. You can read The Red Shoes online here.

Vicky (Moira Shearer) thought that she had been invited for dinner, since Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook) had previously sent her a note that said: I hope you are free this evening. My car will call for you at eight.

Yes. Moira Shearer was herself a professionally-trained ballerina. She had been dancing since 1942 with the Royal Ballet at Sadler's Wells in London when she was asked to star in The Red Shoes. She continued to dance professionally until 1952 with Sadler's Wells, where she was second only to Margot Fonteyn and eventually became their principal dancer.

Yes. Irina Boronskaja was played by the French prima ballerina Ludmilla Tchérina. Léonide Massine (Grigory Ljubov) was born in Moscow and became the principal dancer in the Ballets Russes when he replaced world-renowned Vaslav Nijinsky in 1921.Australian Robert Helpmann (Ivan Boleslawsky) was the principal dancer at Sadler's Wells from 1933 to 1950. Amazing, isn't it, how much talent was brought together for this movie production!

Notwithstanding the ability of cinematography to enhance colors, Moira Shearer's hair was indeed naturally red. In fact, she was known for her red hair and even starred in The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955), a movie that featured it.

That's a hard call to make because there are so many different types of love. Some viewers feel that his crestfallen face when he learns about Vicky and Julian Craster (Marius Goring), the act of smashing his fist into the mirror, etc. are evidence of Lermontov's repressed romantic feelings towards Vicky. Others feel that Lermontov had but one love -- the Ballet Lermontov -- and he believed that, in order for Vicky to become an accomplished dancer, she had to forego any romantic entanglements that would serve as distractions. Most likely, his true feelings lay somewhere between those two, such that he "loved" Vicky as his creation and feared that she could never reach her heights unless she made dancing her sole master.

What you are seeing in the ballet isn't what the audience in the theater would see. You are seeing how Vicky imagines the story. For example, when Craster and Lermontov suddenly appear on the stage, this shows the conflict brewing in Vicky's mind as the two men beckon her to follow them in diametrically-opposed directions, giving credence to Lermontov's belief that Vicky would be distracted onstage if she tried to serve two masters.

When Vicky suddenly quits right in the middle of their season, Lermontov needs someone (and quickly) to take over her roles. There were many female dancers in his company, of course, but he needed a principal female who could dance leading roles and had "star" quality. Irina fit the bill. There is also the possibility that, by taking back Irina even though she was married, Lermontov hoped to send the message to Vicky that he would accept her return, too.

In the ballet, the red shoes don't appear on Vicky's feet until they are given to her by the shoemaker. However, Vicky needs to break in a new pair of red slippers prior to her second performance. Just before she's about to go onstage, her maid can be seen bringing her the regular peach-colored slippers that she is supposed to wear in the opening scenes. Unfortunately, she doesn't get to change into them in time.

It's impossible to tell. In the closing scenes, Vicky races down the stairs and out onto the balcony, where she sees Julian preparing to board the train. Without any apparent hesitation, she leaps over the balcony rail and lands right in front of the approaching train. Some viewers interpret this as intentional suicide on Vicky's part, others see it as an accidental fall when she tries to call out to Julian, and still others maintain that it was the red shoes that made her keep dancing...right off the balcony.

A case can be made for all three. In keeping with the endings of both Andersen's fairy tale and Lermontov's ballet, the wearer of the red shoes must literally die because of the power they hold over the dancer, making her dance and dance until death is the only way out. Figuratively, however, Vicky was being forced to decide between one of two paths...either to become a great ballerina or to become a wife to the man she loves. Since neither man -- Julian or Lermontov -- would have it any way but their way, they were quite probably instrumental in causing her such stress and confusion that it ultimately destroyed her.

In the final scenes of the movie, Vicky is shown lying on a stretcher, bruised and bloodied, Julian at her side. A doctor says, "Pas d'espoir" ("no hope"), and Vicky asks Julian to take the red shoes off her feet, which he does. Vicky is alive when we last see her, but her dancing days are apparently over as evidenced by Lermontov's tearful address to the audience when he says, "Miss Page will not dance tonight ... nor any other night...We think she would have wished it", implying that he realizes that she will die from her injuries. In Marsha Norman's novelization of the story (written to accompany her short-lived 1993 Broadway production), Vicky does die.

Kate Bush's song and album "The Red Shoes" was inspired by the film. The music was subsequently used in The Line, the Cross & the Curve (1993), a film written, directed, and starring Kate Bush.

Mikhail Lermontov, Russian novelist, is the source of the character's name.