Film appreciation: Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum
Director: Mel Stuart

With its candy-cane colours, sugar-coated plot and sometimes syrupy musical numbers, could easily have been a saccharine children's fantasy in the mould of (1964) or (1971). But while the film is largely remembered as a kaleidoscopic feel-good fantasy for kids, its enduring cult appeal lies in the sinister ingredients that bubble just beneath the surface of its waterfall-churned chocolate river.

The movie is based on the 1964 book by Roald Dahl, a writer unparalleled in his ability to weave dark and subversive humour into wondrous tales for children.

The film preserves the essence of its source material by keeping Willy Wonka - played to perfection by Gene Wilder, three years before and cemented his place as one of the great comic talents of his generation - as a morally ambiguous character and by adding a macabre edge of its own.

The first half of the film is largely taken up by the search for the hallowed golden tickets hidden in bars of Wonka chocolate, prizes that grant their holders a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the reclusive candyman's fabled chocolate factory. But from the moment Wonka appears, the film becomes all about him and his dominion.

The first sight of Wonka is telling. Dressed in a bright purple frock coat and Mad Hatter-channelling top hat, he limps slowly towards the waiting crowd at the factory gates and starts to fall over before launching into a forward roll and landing with a flourish. This action was added at the insistence of Wilder, who reasoned that: "From that time on, no one will know if I'm lying or telling the truth."