The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

Viewed for a second time, the Danny Kaye version of 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' is not quite as fresh and original, but it still stands up as one of the more offbeat films of its year - and far superior to the Ben Stiller version. Bright-eyed Kaye is well cast as a perpetual daydreamer cartoonist who uses fantasy to escape the mundane nature of his everyday life. The first third of the film is spent acquainting us with the flaccid border between fantasy and reality in his mind before the plot sharply veers towards absurdism as Kaye encounters Virginia Mayo's damsel in distress and finds his life thrown into disarray with a more elaborate conspiracy than anything he had ever dreamed of - just like one of his comic book heroes' lives. The Technicolor sets and costumes (especially the hat show) are great. Further delights include a brief but brilliantly menacing Boris Karloff performance and a thoughtful audio design linked in with the fantasy/reality divide. Not only are the "tapocketa, tapocketa" sounds a great running gag, but many background noises in the film are also played at louder than usual volumes during the reality-based scenes. Less delightful are the musical numbers that Kaye is stuck with singing. The tunes are decent but jar with the narrative flow and the first one goes on for way too long as Kaye imitates a former lecturer. Never to mind, the film's celebration of the human imagination is nicely tantamount to a celebration of the power of cinema itself; after all, how far removed is writing cartoons from writing inventive motion pictures?

A delightful comedy-fantasy showcasing the many talents of Danny Kaye in James Thurber's popular short-story, although it's interesting that the author didn't want it filmed and apparently hated Kaye in the lead.And so what, says I! Yes, helmsman Norman Z MacLeod, perhaps worn down from his days as the director of the Marx Brothers in the 30's, does indulge his star a little too much by unnecessarily giving him two lengthy patter-songs which while highlighting his tongue- twisting and accent-mangling skills, nonetheless don't belong in the film and likewise our hero's pratfall goofiness is overdone too.Nevertheless when, I suspect, Kaye sticks more to the script, there is some genuinely funny humour, often of the grown-up variety, like the scenes where Kaye's Mitty attempts to intercept the delivery of a corset (containing the Maguffin of the mysterious little black book listing Dutch art treasures pursued by a German criminal mastermind) to an unknown female with a suitably large and jealous husband, Virginia Mayo undressing to her slip after being out in the rain and the funny exchange where Mitty is convinced by evil psychologist Boris Karloff that he sees fully-dressed women instead in bathing-suits. Along the way, the movie gently satirises the then fashionably popular pulp-fiction magazine business, international women's fashion and of course various movie genres in Mitty's various day-dreams and it's in the latter that the film is most successful and funny.The pleasing conclusion where Mitty finally comes out of his shell and bites back at everyone that's trodden over him in the past from his mother on down is slightly let down however by a pointless final scene where Mitty at last gets his overdue promotion, but I won't hold that against it. Kaye and Mayo, here teamed for the third of four movies, combine delightfully and are well backed by their supporting cast, especially Karloff spoofing his horror-movie past. Filmed in glowing Technicolour around contemporary post-war New York, (even if some of the location shots are clearly processed), this is a vibrant, funny feature from Hollywood's Golden Age.

Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) is a meek man who escapes from his life through daydreams. In these daydreams he's always a hero or a big success. In his real life he's a pushover who lets his mother dictate his love life and lets his boss steal his ideas. One day he meets a mysterious woman (Virginia Mayo) who looks exactly like his love interest in his daydreams. She gets Mitty mixed up in a plot involving a little black book and some bad guys trying to get it.Entertaining Danny Kaye vehicle that goes on too long but is still lots of fun. The Technicolor here is gorgeous. It really just pops out at you. Virginia Mayo looks especially lovely. Kaye plays to his strengths quite well. Ann Rutherford and Fay Bainter are wonderful. Boris Karloff has a great (but small) role as one of the baddies. Not Danny Kaye's best film but a very good one.

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.