The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Boring

A different way of telling a story

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Instead of LIFE magazine and a journey dealing with life reaffirmation, the forties 'Mitty' instead has our hero as a daydreaming author of cheap pulp stories, and engaged to a vapid airhead with a snappy dog and overbearing mother. One day however, Mitty's life gets turned on its head when the mysterious blonde from his daydreams actually enters his life, protecting the secrets of an elderly collector from a villainous mastermind known as The Boot. Misunderstandings, hijinks and Mitty's bumbling-turned-heroics ensue.For all its earnesty and warmth, the '47 'Mitty' ends up feeling bloated. This is in part due to an overuse of the daydream gimmick, here all taking cues from the character's pulpy background; sailing on stormy seas, ww2 ace, Southern Gentleman Gambler and Western showdown among others. Each one is colourful, and the actors all embrace the archetypes, but after the third vignette, the daydreams loses any story function and feels more like a showcase for Danny Kaye's comedy talents, and the pacing is irreparably crippled. What should be as straightforward as a fish out of water/unlikely hero story for 'Mitty' keeps getting interrupted by these daydreams, despite the rest of the narrative having enough momentum, and it gets really grating. If you are one of those people who thought the new 'Mitty' had padding/filler, the older version will have you ripping your hair out.A shame, as we have buckets of amusing gags within and around these bits, as well as charismatic performances spearheaded by the sadly forgotten Kaye who is able to go from goof to suave smoothly, and even has decent singing chops. Heck, we even get the always magnificent Karloff as a secondary villain, a killer doctor, and he's just as much fun as you'd think he would be in this role. What's more, because of the choice of vignettes and occupation, this film also serves as a fun little spin/capsule on 40s popular culture, and even little jabs at it, especially with the character of Mitty's boss, the Publisher.In the end, the '47 'Mitty' is by no means a bad or even horribly dated film, but honestly, I have to give the point to the newer version. Yes, it may have had some sap in it, but it flowed much more tightly and smoothly as a narrative, and the daydreams served a story purpose as opposed to being a cheap gimmick like here. If you want to get into more fantastical 40s comedies, I recommend Kaye's other film, 'Wonder Man' (1945) instead.

Talk about a problem with source fidelity! "Monkey Business" director Norman Z. McLeod and scenarists Ken Englund of "No, No, Nanette" and Everett Freeman of "George Washington Slept Here" kept one scene from James Thurbers' short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and jettisoned everything else. Indeed, Mitty is still a day dreamer in the story as he is in the film. The filmmakers replicated one scene from the story and changed everything else. The Walter Mitty that comedian Danny Kaye incarnates is a mild-mannered bachelor who lets his overbearing mother bully him. In the story, Mitty is married, but he is only dating a girl in the movie. The scene that was lifted from the short story is the surgery scene when Mitty repairs a piece of hospital equipment so doctors can operate on their patient. Since the story is pretty short, the filmmakers had to flesh things out and have they ever more fleshed things out. Mitty works for a firm that publishes crime and romance magazines. In the short story, we never learn what business that Mitty is in as a career. The premise of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is that the Dutch are trying to recover famous artwork and Mitty has a notebook about these artifacts. Mitty meets the heroine, Rosalind van Hoorn (Virginia Mayo of "White Heat"), and she is trying to locate with the help of another man a number of valuable paintings that disappeared during World War II. Everybody is searching for a black notebook and nobody believes Mitty when he tries to convince others that he is up to his ears in trouble with some ruthless characters. Danny Kaye is perfectly cast as the eponymous character. Fay Bainter plays is obnoxiously overwrought mother who constantly reprimands him. Mitty day dreams about surviving a storm at sea in the opening moments. Naturally, our bumbling hero thwarts the villains, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" is a hilarious comedy.

Ever since seeing him in Hans Christian Andersen when I was 8 or so(a film I still love) I've liked Danny Kaye a lot, and feel that like many commentators here that he is deserving of more attention. He is wonderful in The Secret of Walter Mitty, one of his best performances and quite possibly his most endearing. His antics are genuinely funny and he is charming in a way that comes naturally to him and is conveyed just as much to the audience. He has a fine supporting cast too, Virginia Mayo is astonishingly beautiful and as likable as Kaye, Ann Rutherford is charming and naïve, Boris Karloff plays cool and subtly sinister to perfection, Florence Bates is wholly convincing in overbearing mode and Thurston Hall is appropriately blustery without overdoing it. The Secret of Walter Mitty looks beautiful, the scenery is bursting with colour and vibrancy and the photography is expertly. The music fits with the action and comedy very well indeed, and the songs are catchy and a lot of fun. The best being Anatole of Paris though Symphony for Unstrung Tongues has some great lyrics/lines and is interesting for future director Robert Altman as an extra. The writing is witty and infectious, it never feels forced or mushy and it holds up well today too. The story is sweet and instantly lovable, children will be spellbound and amused by the dream sequences especially. Overall, a wonderful film with Kaye on top form. If you want to get acquainted with him or see what the fuss is about, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a great place to start. 10/10 Bethany Cox

James Thurber's whimsical day dreamer Walter Mitty was a perfect character for Danny Kaye to apply his many talents with. Make note however this is not film based on Thurber's short story, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, but the character is used to fashion a plot whereby this day dream believer gets into a real life adventure. And gets the girl one only dreams about.Poor henpecked Danny Kaye as Mitty works as a proofreader for publisher Thurston Hall who specializes in putting out pulp fiction works of adventure and romance. He's put upon by everyone, from his mother Fay Bainter to his girlfriend Ann Rutherford, her mother Florence Bates, his best 'friend' Gordon Jones and not the least by his boss Hall. His escape is in daydreaming and it's in these imaginary sequences that Kaye's real talents of singing and mimicry are given full range. During one of those sequences while at a fashion show Kaye does one of his most famous routines Anatole Of Paris.While on a train Kaye meets the beautiful girl of his dreams Virginia Mayo who is carrying some documents vital to her native Dutch government. And she's being pursued by the kind of international criminals that appear in James Bond or Austin Powers. Konstantin Shayne is the master criminal known only as 'the Boot' and he's assisted in his nefarious schemes by Boris Karloff. After he meets them poor Danny spends the rest of the film trying to help or rescue Virginia Mayo and convince the others in his life that he's in a real situation. The rest of his circle put his ravings down to an overactive imagination and he's even referred to a psychiatrist who turns out to be Boris Karloff. I'm not sure who was playing straight for who in the psychiatrist sequence, but it's funny nonetheless.It's not James Thurber. Thurber's story would be almost impossible to create accurately for the screen since it's all in his protagonist's mind. But as a character for Danny Kaye, Walter Mitty is a natural.