The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Director:

Norman Z. McLeod

Writers:

James Thurber (story) and
Ken Englund (writer)

Release Date:

1 September 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Pulp Fiction | Murder | Lifting Person In Air | Daydream | Female Removes Her Dress

Cast

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

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

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

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

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.

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.

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]

Movie Connections:

References Show Boat (1936)

Soundtrack:

Anatole of Paris

Danny Kaye in his most fun-filled film role...great fun!

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.