Directed by Bryan Forbes, the film stars Gemma Craven as the heroine, Richard Chamberlain as the prince, and features a supporting cast led by Michael Hordern, Kenneth More, Edith Evans, and Annette Crosbie.
Whilst putting flowers by her parents' grave, she inadvertently stumbles upon the prince, and his friend and bodyguard John, who are visiting the Royal crypt.
As luck would have it a fairy godmother, who has a talent for sensing the wishes of those who are pure in heart, arrives and creates three beautiful gowns while Cinderella rests.
She transforms Cinderella's shabby dress into a lovely gown, arranges her hair in the period fashion, and a coach and horses are magically prepared.
Finally, frustrated by his fruitless search, Edward breaks the monument, tossing the slipper into the woods where Cinderella finds and starts to dance with it, which catches John's attention and he rushes off to inform the Prince.
The Lord Chamberlain conveys this to Cinderella, explaining also that a military alliance through marriage must be established with one of the neighboring kingdoms to protect them against war and to secure the safety and future existence of Euphrania.
Realizing the situation at hand and how the King and Queen won't give up their stance on a political marriage, he agrees to marry whomever they choose, but says that his marital duties will go no further than the altar.
It was shot between England and Austria, some of the locations include: Salzburg and Anif Palace, Broughton Castle near Banbury in Oxfordshire and Southwark Cathedral in London.
At 24 March 1976 Royal Film Performance of The Slipper and the Rose the Queen Mother commented to the songwriters, "The waltz you wrote for the ballroom scene is the most beautiful song I've ever heard.
Canby added that as the Prince and Cinderella, "Mr. Chamberlain and Miss Craven have impossible roles that are less like characters in a fairy tale than pictures on a jar of peanut butter.
"[9] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote, "The songs aren't memorable, but the king and fairy godmother are.
"[10] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times stated, "The virtues of the movie, not necessarily in this order, are that it is richly produced, pleasantly witty, and graced by some colorful and engaging performances.
"[11] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that the film "won't be remembered as one of the great musicals, but it's more diverting than I supposed," further noting that the script "does have agreeable outbursts of silliness and fancy.
Michael Hordern as the worried, abstracted king and Annette Crosbie as Cinderella's brisk, humorous fairy godmother are consistently delightful.
"[12] Brenda Davies of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "The songs are not very memorable but they are enjoyable and appropriate in their context; the choreography too fits neatly into the plot but is not in itself particularly imaginative.
[citation needed] In 2000, independent distributor Castle Hill (who had acquired US distribution rights in the mid-1990s) licensed the film to Image Entertainment for a US VHS and DVD release in its full length UK theatrical version.
Extras on the DVD version include a video interview with the Sherman Brothers, an audio commentary by director Bryan Forbes, and a promotional featurette.
This release utilizes a new 4K restoration of the UK theatrical version performed by Pinewood and a PCM 2.0 mix of the 4-Track Stereo, a 5.1 DTS Master Audio remix, and the isolated score in DTS-MA 5.1.
In addition to porting over all the extras and the audio commentary from the Image Entertainment DVD, the only new supplement is the UK theatrical trailer mastered from a 35mm element.
This reissue is almost identical to the prior Inception Media Group release utilizing the same Pinewood restoration and supplements, only down to video encoding differences and the 2.0 stereo track being DTS Master Audio.