User reviews

Along with Star!(68 and Darling Lili(70) this elephantine musical spoof was the death knell for movie musicals and Julie Anndrews' film career. Though Andrews is charming, looks great and is in good voice, the rest of the cast works too hard to little effect, and the leading men recede into the background. In addition, Mary Tyler Moore seems uncomfortable; her smile seems pained and forced, and she and Andrews are a bit too mature for their roles. Carol Channing is a raving, grinning albino who appears ready to devour everyone and everything in sight. She should have devoured the film and crapped out a better one. Channing received an Osacr nod for supporting actress. The script is a bizarre mishmash seemingly written by someone suffering from ADD. George Roy Hill who directed the excellent and undervalued Slaughterhouse-Fine(72) as well as the overrated Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(69) and The Sting(73)seems out of his element here though no one could really do much with what he had to work with. 1967 produced two other expensive musical duds: Dr. Dolittle and Camelot. How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying released the same year is far more diverting. Watch that instead.

I was going to give this movie 1 star until I realized that I gave "Moulin Rouge" that ranking, and I can't possibly hate a movie as much as that one. You might think from my ratings of these two movie musicals that I don't like movie musicals. Not so. I like GOOD movie musicals, not stinky ones like this. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the powers that be sat around the table planning this one. There must have been a lot of acid in that conference room.

If this movie had ended at intermission, it wouldn't have been so bad. As it is, this one is deadly, and it doesn't help that it comes in at a ass-numbing 2 1/2 hours. No one, but no one comes out the better for having been involved with this movie. Let's just start with Julie Andrews, since she is the star of the show. She's completely miscast, and about 15 years too old for the part. She does her best to make something of this mess, but too frequently simply gives up and resorts to playing her part like Maria from "The Sound of Music" (a movie musical I liked, by the way).

James Fox, who plays her love interest, is almost unbearably mannered in his performance, with a full repertoire of facial contortions and nervous tics that will send you to the kitchen for countless refills of popcorn, long after the popcorn is gone.

Mary Tyler Moore is simply dreadful in the most thankless role ever put to screen. I was going to chalk her disastrous performance up to being a novice, but then I remembered that she had already been in the "Dick Van Dyke Show" and was starring in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" even as this film was released, so she has no excuse for being rotten.

Beatrice Lillie as the villianess might have been funny if she was given anything funny to do.

Carol Channing is Carol Channing, weird and hyper. However, she alone of the cast seems to know what the hell she's doing, and any scene involving her ends up being a highlight of the film.

I don't know why they decided to make this a musical. Musicals were gasping for breath by 1967 anyway; for every "My Fair Lady" or "The Sound of Music," there was a "Doctor Dolittle" and "Camelot." The music in "Millie" seems added on as an afterthought, since hardly any of the songs have anything to do with the plot, and director George Roy Hill couldn't direct a musical number if his life depended on it.

Speaking of Hill, I'll save my last comments for him. He's all wrong for this film. I'm assuming the movie was intended to be a satirical send-up of 20's silent melodramas, since it comes complete with reaction shots aimed directly at the camera and title cards elaborating on characters' emotions. But if that's so, why does Hill set everything to such a plodding pace? The thing staggers along like a rabid dog before finally collapsing under the weight of its inanity. One wishes Atticus Finch would emerge from behind a tree and put this particular rabid dog (and the audience) out of its misery.

You know what the most memorable thing about this movie is? The title song. You'll be singing it for days and days and days and days afterwards. Enjoy.

Grade: D- (because only "Moulin Rouge" is entitled to a grade of F)

This "musiclal" takes place in 1922. Millie (Julie Andrews) comes to the big city to meet a man and get married. She runs into beautiful if feather-brained Dorothy (Mary Tyler Moore--seriously), a strange landlady (Beatrice Lillie), the "charming" Jimmy Smith (James Fox), her dashing boss (John Gavin) and rich Muzzy (Carol Channing) who yells "rasberries" for no apparent reason. Trust me, it's even worse than it sounds!

Now I like everybody in the cast and the film looks great in terms of fashion and set design...but it's a chore to sit through. I was "lucky" enough to see the 153 minute roadshow version and I had trouble staying awake! The script is virtually nonexistent and throws in everything they can think of...including white slavery! The acting varies. Andrews is good but Moore seems bewildered, Fox looks desperate, Gavin is wooden (to say the least) and Channing is so ON she's downright frightening. There are far too many songs and dances and not one of them is memorable. For no particular reason there's an elevator in this movie that won't operate...until people tap dance! This leads to a llooonnnnggg number where Andrews and Moore have to tap dance to get to their floor! To make things worse these "amusing" cards pop up (like in silent movies) to tell us what Millie is thinking. Too bad that none of them are fun. The final nail was the script. It's full of horrible lines and "jokes" that are just downright painful to listen to! I rolled my eyes and groaned more than once. I had to struggle to stay awake through this one. The bad lines, acting and musical numbers are deadening. This only gets a 2 because I like Andrews and Moore and Andrews puts her all into the singing numbers that are far beneath her talents. If you must watch have your finger close to the fast forward! Just dreadful.

Can't believe I enjoyed this movie when it came out! Every time they show it on tv I give it a try but to no avail. It's long long and long again and, more importantly, why??? Andrews never looked less appealing on screen; weak songs and numbers (sorry Elmer!); Changing overacts beyond belief; male leads suck, James Fox included. Not a classic musical either: so much noise for what? Really unwatchable. If one thinks that on that very year Les demoiselles de Rochefort came out and Funny Girl and On a Clear Day were round the corner...