Zwerg Nase (1953)

Twelve-year-old Jakob helps out at his mother’s vegetable stall and also carries customers’ purchases home for them. One day, an old woman with a long nose comes to the stall and says the herbs are poor and were better 50 years ago. Jakob is angry that she holds every herb up to her nose and crushes it. “Get that away from your long nose!” he shouts, striking her hand. “Don’t you like my beautiful long nose?” the woman mocks. “Then you shall have one too, much longer than mine.” Eventually, she buys some cabbages and wants Jakob to carry them home for her. Jakob resists, but his mother persuades him. The other market women whisper about whether the old woman might be the evil fairy Herbwise. In her house, the old woman begins to work magic and gives Jakob a soup that puts him in a dreamlike state. He has to work for the old woman for seven years, including three years as a cook, and as punishment for his outburst is transformed into a dwarf with a long nose. After seven years, Jakob wakes up and runs back, but his parents do not recognize him, and he is left to fend for himself. He applies for a job as a cook at the Duke’s court, where the head cook puts him to a cooking test. The Duke is delighted and immediately hires him as assistant head cook under the name “Dwarf Nose,” and he becomes famous throughout the country. A goose bought at the market—the enchanted Princess Mimi—starts talking; Jakob secretly keeps her in his room. The Duke receives a visit from the Prince, and Jakob cooks for two weeks. At last, the Prince demands the queen of all dishes, the Souzeraine pâté. Jakob does not know how to make it, but Mimi does, and the two of them cook it together that night. However, their guest is missing the little herb Niesmitlust. The Duke is extremely displeased and promises the Prince that the next day he will have the pâté just as he knows it—or the head of his assistant head cook. Mimi, who had merely forgotten the herb, leads Jakob the following night to the magic herb that grows by moonlight. Jakob recognizes it as the herb from Herbwise’s soup. Back in his room, he smells it deeply and loses his long nose, dwarf stature, and hump. The two flee to the castle of Mimi’s father, who restores his daughter’s human form and, at Jakob’s request, magically summons his parents.