Before the Disney cartoon or Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre or even Shirley Temple's Storybook, Janus Films brought this "tale as old as time" to American audiences in Jean Cocteau's definitive 1946 version of Beauty and the Beast. One of the most beautiful movies ever made, even though the director always regretted not being able to make it in color, Beauty and the Beast is regularly hailed by film critics and historians as the best film ever made from a fairy tale. One of the most versatile artists of the 20th century, Cocteau had first sprung to prominence as a poet before establishing himself as a visual artist, dramatist and, eventually, filmmaker. He created a sensation with his dream-like 1930 short The Blood of a Poet, but was more in demand as a screenwriter during Germany's World War II occupation of France. One of the film's most dazzling elements is Cocteau's use of special effects. Working in primitive conditions, he achieved most of them through purely mechanical means. For Beauty's first walk through the castle, he wanted her to float, so Day stood on a wagon hidden under her skirts and pulled through the set by a small rope. When she returns home and tries to give one of her sisters a necklace, it turns into a wreath of burning leaves the sister drops to the floor, at which point the leaves turn back into jewels. Cocteau used simple sleight of hand, with the wreath whisked behind the actress' back as the real necklace fell to the ground. When the sisters look in Beauty's magic mirror to see their true selves-an aged crone and a monkey-Cocteau simply used clear glass, with the monkey on the other side.