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The Happiest Millionaire
Much of the creative force behind the classic Mary Poppins were reunited for 1967's The Happiest Millionaire, an overblown and endless family musical that, despite some incredible production values and an impressive cast, seemed about seventeen hours long. I think I had a birthday while watching this movie..
It's turn of the century Philadelphia (why are so many musicals set at the turn of the century?) where we meet John Lawless (Tommy Steele), an Irish immigrant who has been sent to the home of a millionaire named Anthony Drexel Biddle (Fred MacMurray) to be the new family butler. Biddle is a grumpy eccentric who has pet alligators and is on a chocolate cake diet. He is also in complete denial about the fact that his oldest daughter, Cordelia (Lesley Ann Warren) is growing up (and sometimes forgets that she's a girl) and is not happy when her Aunt Mary (Gladys Cooper) arranges for Cordelia to go to an exclusive girls school far from Philly, where Cordelia meets the wealthy man of her dreams (John Davidson).
Apparently, this story has some basis in fact because this movie was adapted by AJ Carothers from a play by Kyle Crichton, which was in turn based on a book by one Cordelia Drexel Biddle. Don't get it twisted, just because this might be a fact-based story, does not change the fact that this story is positively snore-inducing, with a running time of almost three hours and it's three hours that move at a snail's pace. Everything is just overdone here...too much talking, too much singing, too much dancing, I guess in an attempt to recapture some Mary Poppins onscreen magic, but it just doesn't work.
The first two thirds of the movie are spent listening to MacMurray's character bellow at everyone else in the story, including his very patient wife (Greer Garson), between some really unremarkable musical numbers. Some life is injected into the final third of the film when we meet Davidson's mother, played with bitchy perfection by the fabulous Geraldine Page, but by this time in the proceedings, we are just struggling to keep our eyes open.
The rather unremarkable score by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, who also wrote the music for Mary Poppins, produced a few highlights, like Steele's "Fortuosity", "What's Wrong with That?" (which loses some of its effectiveness being reprised at least four times), "I'll Always Be Irish", "Are We Dancing", "Let's Have a Drink On it", and an odd love song for Warren and Davidson called "Detroit", but for me, the musical highlight was a crisp duet between Cooper and Page called "There are Those."
The performances are a matter of taste...MacMurray was one-note and a little abrasive to me and had no chemistry with Garson. Lesley Ann Warren does reveal a glimpse of the actress that she would become and the only performer who had comparable onscreen energy to Tommy Steele was Mickey Rooney. Steele is a scene-stealer as the family butler and Hermione Baddeley pretty much duplicates her role in Mary Poppins and needless to say, Page stole every scene she was in. The film features incredible set designs and costumes, but it's all for naught because this one just drags across the screen...three hours of my life I'll never get back.
Much of the creative force behind the classic Mary Poppins were reunited for 1967's The Happiest Millionaire, an overblown and endless family musical that, despite some incredible production values and an impressive cast, seemed about seventeen hours long. I think I had a birthday while watching this movie..
It's turn of the century Philadelphia (why are so many musicals set at the turn of the century?) where we meet John Lawless (Tommy Steele), an Irish immigrant who has been sent to the home of a millionaire named Anthony Drexel Biddle (Fred MacMurray) to be the new family butler. Biddle is a grumpy eccentric who has pet alligators and is on a chocolate cake diet. He is also in complete denial about the fact that his oldest daughter, Cordelia (Lesley Ann Warren) is growing up (and sometimes forgets that she's a girl) and is not happy when her Aunt Mary (Gladys Cooper) arranges for Cordelia to go to an exclusive girls school far from Philly, where Cordelia meets the wealthy man of her dreams (John Davidson).
Apparently, this story has some basis in fact because this movie was adapted by AJ Carothers from a play by Kyle Crichton, which was in turn based on a book by one Cordelia Drexel Biddle. Don't get it twisted, just because this might be a fact-based story, does not change the fact that this story is positively snore-inducing, with a running time of almost three hours and it's three hours that move at a snail's pace. Everything is just overdone here...too much talking, too much singing, too much dancing, I guess in an attempt to recapture some Mary Poppins onscreen magic, but it just doesn't work.
The first two thirds of the movie are spent listening to MacMurray's character bellow at everyone else in the story, including his very patient wife (Greer Garson), between some really unremarkable musical numbers. Some life is injected into the final third of the film when we meet Davidson's mother, played with bitchy perfection by the fabulous Geraldine Page, but by this time in the proceedings, we are just struggling to keep our eyes open.
The rather unremarkable score by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, who also wrote the music for Mary Poppins, produced a few highlights, like Steele's "Fortuosity", "What's Wrong with That?" (which loses some of its effectiveness being reprised at least four times), "I'll Always Be Irish", "Are We Dancing", "Let's Have a Drink On it", and an odd love song for Warren and Davidson called "Detroit", but for me, the musical highlight was a crisp duet between Cooper and Page called "There are Those."
The performances are a matter of taste...MacMurray was one-note and a little abrasive to me and had no chemistry with Garson. Lesley Ann Warren does reveal a glimpse of the actress that she would become and the only performer who had comparable onscreen energy to Tommy Steele was Mickey Rooney. Steele is a scene-stealer as the family butler and Hermione Baddeley pretty much duplicates her role in Mary Poppins and needless to say, Page stole every scene she was in. The film features incredible set designs and costumes, but it's all for naught because this one just drags across the screen...three hours of my life I'll never get back.