The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

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 | Milquetoast | Based On Short Story | Beautiful Woman | Magazine

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:

Henry Corden's first project.

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:

Dr. Hollingshead: Perhaps you are mistaking me for someone else.
Walter Mitty: Oh, no. No one looks as much like you do as *you* do.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Murphy Brown: The Secret Life of Jim Dial (#7.11)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

Anatole of Paris

great

Though it is not as good as another one of Danny Kaye's films "Wonder Man", this film is very entertaining. Kaye is as usual in great shape, and Boris Karloff is also in the film as a phony sinister psychiatrist. The awful Goldwyn Girls are not as bad as they are in most Goldwyn films, and Virginia Mayo is quite fitting in the role of the girl that Kaye falls in love with. The best things in this film are the scenes with Boris Karloff and Walter Mitty's dream sequences, especially the one where he is a tough cool gun-slinging cow-boy. The musical numbers that Kaye sings are pretty well-known, but talking from a personal point of view they are not my favorite. But a very good film with some truly good moments. Enjoy! 9/10