Fairy Tale: The Magic Purse

Fairy Tale: The Magic Purse

Lupus Pictures (2006)

Continuing from my previous post, ‘Fairy Tale: The Magic Purse’ was released four years after ‘The Fairy Tale’.  It begins when a Traveler meets an Old Man in the forest.  The old man begs for food and the Traveler shares what little he has.  In repayment, the Old Man gives him a magic purse which is always filled with gold coins.  The Old Man vanishes and the Traveler goes on his way.  Eventually the Traveler arrives at a farm house where he asks for food and shelter for the night.  At first they refuse but they agree when they learn he can pay.  As the evening goes on the Farmer and his family realize the power of the Magic Purse so the two daughters decide to steal his purse after he goes to bed.  The Maid overhears the daughters but the Farmer’s Wife catches her and the Farmer decides to teach the Maid a lesson.  He orders his farm hands to drag the Maid into the barn and tie her (off camera) so the Farmer can give her a severe thrashing.

 

The daughters succeed in stealing the purse but, as the Traveler is leaving in the morning, the Maid tells him what they have done.  Of course the Traveler is furious and he confronts the Farmer but the Farmer throws him out of the house.  The Traveler goes back to the forest where he finds the Old Man and tells him what has happened.  The Old Man casts a spell on the family that causes the daughters to grow horns on their heads.  Then, the Old Man gives the Traveler a disguise of a Wizard and sends him back to the farmhouse.  The Traveler convinces the Farmer that the curse can only be removed if his daughters are punished for their theft.  The girls are tied naked to sawhorses in the garden in front of the family and servants.  The Traveler thrashes both of them with a variety of switches including one that has a forked end.  These are lengthy thrashings and, as one switch breaks, the Traveler goes on with another.  The two thrashings run about 10 minutes and they are among the most severe punishments I can recall in any RGE/Lupus video.

After the thrashings are complete, the Farmer returns the purse and the horns disappear from the girl’s heads.  The Traveler gives money to the two farm hands so they can leave and then the Maid joins him as he continues on his way but he meets the Old Man outside the farmhouse and has to return the purse which angers the Maid.

‘The Fairy Tale’ runs just over 25 minutes while ‘Fairy Tale: The Magic Purse’ runs about 45 minutes.  Neither are among my favorite RGE/Lupus videos but both are very good (and I think the Magic Purse is probably the better of the two.).  The technical quality and sets are up to the usual standards but I was never able to get the subtitles to work on either video; this is a recurring problem that I am usually able to solve but not in these two cases.