IMDb > The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) More at IMDbPro »

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) -- Open-ended Trailer from HBO

Overview

User Rating:
7.1/10   1,627 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?

Down 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.

Director:

Norman Z. McLeod

Writers:

James Thurber (story) and
Ken Englund (writer)
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Contact:

View company contact information for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty on IMDbPro.

Release Date:

1 September 1947 (USA) more

Plot:

Walter Mitty, a daydreaming pulp-fiction writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures... more | add synopsis

NewsDesk:
(3 articles)

NBC Calls 911, Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant Answer
 (From Collider.com. 12 October 2009, 9:31 PM, PDT)

Actress Virginia Mayo Dies at 84
 (From WENN. 18 January 2005)

User Comments:

Danny Kaye in his most fun-filled film role...great fun! more (34 total)


Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Danny Kaye ... Walter Mitty

Virginia Mayo ... Rosalind van Hoorn

Boris Karloff ... Dr. Hugo Hollingshead
Fay Bainter ... Mrs. Eunice Mitty
Ann Rutherford ... Gertrude Griswald
Thurston Hall ... Bruce Pierce
Gordon Jones ... Tubby Wadsworth
Florence Bates ... Mrs. Emma Griswald
Konstantin Shayne ... Peter van Hoorn
Reginald Denny ... Colonel
Henry Corden ... Hendrick
Doris Lloyd ... Mrs. Letitia Follinsbee
Fritz Feld ... Anatole of Paris
Frank Reicher ... Maasdam
Milton Parsons ... Butler
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Additional Details

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1 more

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Germany:12 | Sweden:11 (re-release) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #12017) | Australia:G


Fun Stuff

Trivia:

Danny Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine, wrote the lyrics to a song in which Walter Mitty fantasizes that he is the homosexual women's hat designer Anatole of Paris, whose show he stumbles upon while escaping from villains in Stacey's Department Store. She was a musical-theater buff and introduced a reference to the song "Ol' Man River" (from Show Boat (1936)) into the lyrics of the song "Anatole of Paris" and satirical references to "Show Boat" in one of Mitty's daydreams. more

Goofs:

Continuity: During the scene in the Mitty home's kitchen, after Rosalind van Hoorn has come in the middle of the night during a rain storm to ask for Walter's help, she removes her dress to dry it. As they are talking, Rosalind is shown putting her dress back on and buttoning it all the way to the neck. As the scene shifts and pans back, she is shown once again buttoning the top button of her dress. more

Quotes:

Walter Mitty: [singing while daydreaming that he's Anatole of Paris] And why do I sew each new chapeau with a style they must look positively grim in?/Strictly between us, entrez-nous, I hate women.
[giggles]
more

Movie Connections:

References Show Boat (1936) more

Soundtrack:

Anatole of Paris more


FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful.
Danny Kaye in his most fun-filled film role...great fun!, 30 January 2003
Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

Danny Kaye at his best in a fantasy/comedy about a hen-pecked (by his mom and girlfriend) man who daydreams that he's a hero rescuing a damsel in distress (Virginia Mayo) from all sorts of perils. In real life he stumbles across her path and instantly becomes involved in an espionage plot involving villainous Boris Karloff. It's all played for laughs and Danny even gets to do a couple of his tongue-twisting musical routines.

Especially enjoyable in the supporting cast are Ann Rutherford as his silly girlfriend and Florence Bates as her overbearing mother. Thurston Hall has fun with his role as Kaye's harried, blustery boss who, while browbeating him, is nevertheless prone to borrowing ideas from Kaye for new sales angles in the pulp fiction market.

Kaye has a field day when his dreams take over, impersonating everyone from a sea captain to a riverboat gambler to a fashion designer--all with his own distinct flair for comic routines. A funny, witty, always entertaining little gem that has somehow been overlooked through the years. Virginia Mayo makes a delightful co-star.

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