Promoted as a family musical by Paramount Pictures,
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is more of a black comedy,
perversely faithful to the spirit of Roald Dahl's original book Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory. Enigmatic candy manufacturer Willy Wonka
(Gene Wilder) stages a contest by hiding five golden tickets in five of
his scrumptious candy bars. Whoever comes up with these tickets will win
a free tour of the Wonka factory, as well as a lifetime supply of
candy. Four of the five winning children are insufferable brats: the
fifth is a likeable young lad named Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), who
takes the tour in the company of his equally amiable grandfather (Jack
Albertson).
In the course of the tour, Willy
Wonka punishes the four nastier children in various diabolical methods
-- one kid is inflated and covered with blueberry dye, another ends up
as a principal ingredient of the chocolate, and so on -- because these
kids have violated the ethics of Wonka's factory. In the end, only
Charlie and his grandfather are left. Ostensibly set in England, Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was lensed in Germany (as revealed by
the film's final overhead shot).