The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Touches You

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY is an amiable, imaginative comic fantasy starring everyone's favourite jester, Danny Kaye. Kaye plays an ordinary and rather boring fellow who escapes the humdrum of modern life by venturing into various fantasies where he's always cast as the hero, rescuing damsels in distress and defeating nefarious enemies.Unfortunately for him, soon reality and fantasy begin to collide when he meets a classic Hitchcock femme fatale who propels him into a world of murder and intrigue. What follows is a riotous 'wronged man' style comedy with plenty of slapstick and broad shenanigans to recommend it. Overall this is a colourful and lively production, boosted by Kaye's endless energy and the interesting casting of key roles, like the excellent Boris Karloff as a sinister psychiatrist.The only flaws here for me were the actual fantasy sequences themselves, particularly the early ones. Some of them feel quite twee and dated and seem go on on forever, like when Kaye's singing that stupid song. It feels like they're there for padding rather than any proper reason. Still, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY works much better when it's taking place in the real world, and that slapstick is hard to dislike.

Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) is a simple man, working at a publishing company, with the simple goal of making it through the end of the day alive, hoping not to be too harassed by his obnoxious mother (Fay Bainter), his boss who takes him for granted (Thurston Hall), and his childish fiancée (Ann Rutherford). The only place it seems Walter can escape to his own mental fantasy land, made up of whatever he wants them to be. His daydreams feel like the kind of material fit for a pulp magazine or a thriller novel, and become so much a part of his life that when he's interrupted in the middle of one it's difficult to assimilate back to reality. Walter then meets a mysterious woman named Rosalind van Hoorn (Virginia Mayo), who he can't distinguish to be part of his reality or his alternate reality, resulting in nothing but more problems from his overbearing family who just can't let the poor man be.Norman Z. McLeod's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is sharp around the edges because of the fact that it understands life as a simple man, with simple goals, who mentally escapes to a place of greater satisfaction. The trio of writers (Ken Englund, Everett Freeman, and Philip Rapp, respectively) make Mitty so innocent and so humble that his commonality and instantly-likable charm is hard for us to ignore. He clearly is motivated and doesn't want to do wrong, but is constantly treated like an imbecile by his family who seem to not appreciate anything he does.Such a character may have been hard to like if he wasn't played by Danny Kaye, a cinematic master of timing and zealous energy. Kaye is on top of his game here, racing around the sets, owning the screen in nearly every scene he is in, and beautifully utilizing difficult comic skills such as fast-talking, miming, and character dialog in order to create a character we enjoy watching and sympathize, maybe empathize, with. This is my first Danny Kaye film, but could also very well be his tour-de-force performance. The focus is almost always on him and his daydreams.His daydreams, on the other hand, are also noteworthy, because while campy and lighthearted - like the pulp magazines they are trying to emulate - create a certain suspense in their espionage glory, to the point where they're not trivial. They're, in fact, what the film has to thrive on. We, the audience, need to see why Mitty is sucked into this dream world and why it's more interesting and fun to him than his own reality. The trio of writers, combined with director McLeod (known for his work on quite a few Marx Brothers films, as well as other comedies of the thirties and forties), work wonders here when it comes to articulating the excitement and the sensational effect Mitty's dreams have on him and us.The final aspect is the darker element, which comes to light when Mitty, himself, begins to feel as if he does have a mental illness (thanks to being convinced by everyone) and that these consuming daydreams may be harmful to his psych after all. He sees a therapist (Boris Karloff of all people) who begins to see this in him as well, as Mitty states how greatly the daydreams interfere with his life and work. Consider this from Mitty's point; he has a redundant job, where he is grossly undervalued, a manipulative mother, a fiancée who doesn't seem to appreciate him, and a life scarcely providing benefits. His only outlet, his elaborate daydreams, is one that's highly criticized, the subject of him possibly possessing a mental illness, and regarded as a humanistic flaw rather than an ability. Mitty lives a sad life and the filmmakers don't sugarcoat it; it's a tough life as Walter Mitty and we're shown how dreary it can be.I sought this film out, obviously, because of the recent remake, with Ben Stiller serving as the director, producer, and lead actor of the film. I have no idea what to make of the film other than it looks very ambitious and has the grand potential to inspire and captivate. Kaye, however, seems to be having more fun with the idea, while illuminating the film's darker qualities. Stiller's approach seems more driven on ambition and motivation; a go-for-broke kind of attempt that could hit big or miss big, depending on the way of the writing and the emphasis on the themes. However, being released in a very busy time period in cinema, the original Secret Life of Walter Mitty may deserve more than an honorable mention of the forties decade.Starring: Danny Kaye, Fay Bainter, Thurston Hall, Ann Rutherford, and Boris Karloff. Directed by: Norman Z. McLeod.

I gave this film a '4' for Technicolor. Otherwise, it would be a '3.' Danny Kaye, like Jerry Lewis, has never been a favorite of mine; same with The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, etc. I don't care for slapstick.Had the antics of Danny Kaye been eliminated from the film it would have been improved upon. Author, James Thurber didn't like Kaye nor the music. Thurber's short story is void of music and Kaye isn't a good songster.I saw this film when it opened in 1947. I was barely six years old, fell asleep toward the end and missed the part where Walter actually was NOT fantasizing; no big deal - I still hate the film 66 years later. I also daytime and nighttime dream but write them down and turn them into narrative. I sell enough to supplement my measly social security benefit which I paid for during 45 years of an internal audit career. With a college degree, CPA/CIA, I get $18,000 a year on social security with a recent 1.5% increase for 2014. Throw a dog a bone. Back then, we sent our kids to college, vacationed, bought new cars and spent our money enjoying life. Social security and a small pension was supposed to be enough. Dream on, Walter Mitty.

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.