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Manic, magic, madcap … Julie Andrews is superb in the role of the flying nanny, in a film filled with amazing songs

Brilliant, entrancing, exhausting, and with thermonuclear showtunes from Richard and Robert Sherman, Disney’s hybrid live-action/animation classic from 1964 is now rereleased on home entertainment platforms for its 60th anniversary. And it has a brand-new certificate from the BBFC: upgraded from a U to a PG on account of “discriminatory language” from the eccentric seadog character Admiral Boom, who fires a cannon from his roof shouting “Fight the Hottentots!” (an obsolete term for South Africa’s indigenous Khoekhoe people). However the BBFC is evidently not bothered by the foxhunting scene in which the fox has a cod Irish accent, nor by the cheerful suicide reference made by one of the servants: “Nice spot there by Southwark Bridge, very popular with jumpers!”

In an upmarket part of Edwardian London created...

The age rating for the 1964 “Mary Poppins” has been increased in the U.K. due to “discriminatory language.”

On Friday, the British Board of Film Classification upped the Disney movie’s cinema rating from U, meaning it contained “no material likely to offend or harm,” to PG for “discriminatory language.”

In a statement to Variety, a BBFC spokesperson said that the film “includes two uses of the discriminatory term ‘hottentots’. While ‘Mary Poppins’ has a historical context, the use of discriminatory language is not condemned, and ultimately exceeds our guidelines for acceptable language at U. We therefore classified the film PG for discriminatory language.”

The word is a racially insensitive term for the Khoekhoe, an indigenous group in South Africa. The BBFC further explained that the word is used in the film by Admiral Boom (Reginald Owen), including when referring to the chimney sweeps whose faces are covered in soot.

"Mary Poppins" has been a beloved children's film since its release in 1964. The musical comedy was a veritable hit among British and American audiences alike and launched the career of the incomparable Julie Andrews, who became one of the brightest stars of the late 20th century.

The Disney classic swept the 1965 Oscars, earning Andrews an Academy Award for her performance and snagging additional awards for visual effects, editing, and music. The film was a great triumph for the studio as well as the stars. It was immediately recognized as the masterpiece that it is and has only retained and strengthened its legendary status with age.

Sadly, as the picture ages, so too do the actors that made it such an unforgettable romp. Very few members of the main cast are still alive today and the ones that haven't made it might surprise you. Glynis Johns, who played suffragette and mother...

Screen veteran Glynis Johns, who very memorably played Mrs. Banks in the beloved movie Mary Poppins, has died.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Johns passed away on Thursday at an assisted living facility in West Hollywood. Her passing was confirmed by her manager, Mitch Clem. Johns, who officially became the oldest living Disney Legend following Betty White's passing in 2021, was 100 years old.

Johns, considered to have been one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, had an impressive career with more than eight decades spent in show business, having portrayed dozens of characters on stage and on the screen. One of her most well-known roles is as Winifred Banks, the feminist mother of Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber), and wife of George Banks (David Tomlinson). Walt Disney, who produced the classic film, had hand-picked Johns for the role of Mrs. Banks, with...

Glynis Johns, most known for playing the high-spirited Mrs. Winifred Banks in Disney’s Mary Poppins, has died. She was 100 years old. Johns’ publicist, Mitch Clem, told ABC Eyewitness News that the legendary actor died of natural causes on Thursday, January 4. She was living in an assisted living facility. Before she played the suffragette in the 1964 Julie Andrews classic, Johns starred in another Disney film called The Sword and the Rose. She was named a Disney Legend in 1998 alongside Mary Poppins co-star Dick Van Dyke. Andrews was named one in 1991, with David Tomlinson (Mr. George Banks) being added in 2002 and Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber (Jane and Michael Banks) being added in 2004. With the death of Betty White in 2021, Johns became the oldest living Disney Legend. With the death of Olivia de Havilland in 2020, she became the oldest living Oscar nominee for acting. Karen Dotrice, Glynis Johns, Matthew Garber, David...

Dick Van Dyke isn’t the only star of the classic 1964 Walt Disney musical fantasy “Mary Poppins” who appears in the current sequel “Mary Poppins Returns,” which stars Emily Blunt taking over from Julie Andrews as the practically perfect nanny. Karen Dotrice, who played Jane Banks in the original film, has a cameo as a woman walking down Cherry Tree Lane and asks grown-up Jane (Emily Mortimer) for directions.

Dotrice, 63 and the mother of three, is the daughter of the late British acting couple, Kay and Roy Dotrice. She made her acting debut on the London stage as a four-year-old in “The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” which starred her godfather, the legendary Charles Laughton. And it just so happened a casting director looking for a little girl to star in Disney’s 1964 “The Three Lives of Thomasina” caught her performance. And soon she was making the movie with Matthew Garber, who...

21 years ago today, Jagged Little Pill hit record stores, soon to be a smash hit and eventually one of the best-selling albums of all time. The album is now the age that Alanis Morissette was when it was released — it came out a couple weeks after her 21st birthday. It was the third album from the Canadian singer but a major deviation from her first two studio albums, records that had a generic teen dance-pop sound before Morissette found the voice that would make her a breakout star. Alt-rock Jagged Little Pill captured the rollercoaster that is life as you’re transitioning from your teenage years into your 20s. Morissette was 19 when she wrote it. As evidenced by the album’s massive sales, there were plenty of people who identified with her lyrics and the raw emotion in the music, from “You Oughta Know,” an anthem for any woman who has been betrayed by someone they thought they loved, to the spiritual yearning in opening track “All I Really Want” to “You Learn,” one of the least angsty songs on the album, an ode to making mistakes and learning from them. Jagged Little Pill was nominated for nine Grammy Awards. Morissette’s win for Album of the Year in 1996 made her the youngest artist to receive the honor. She held that record for 14 years, until Taylor Swift won the award in 2010. Other notable June 13 happenings in pop culture history: • 1967: The Temptations’ single “You’re My Everything” was released. It got to the #3 spot on the U.S. R&B chart and #6 on the U.S. Pop chart. • 1969: The Rolling Stones introduced new guitarist Mick Taylor at a press conference in London’s Hyde Park. He made his live debut with the Stones that July at a free concert in Hyde Park. • 1970: The Beatles’ album Let It Be hit the top spot on the U.S. album chart. It held the #1 spot for four weeks. Also on this day, The Beatles’ “Long and Winding Road” hit #1 on the singles chart. • 1977: Matthew Garber, who had played Michael Banks in Mary Poppins, died at age 21. • 1988: Paula Abdul released her debut album, Forever Your Girl. • 1989: Jerry Lee Lewis was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. • 1989: The premiere screening of License to Kill is held in London. The James Bond film — Timothy Dalton’s second and final turn as 007 — opened in the U.S. the following month. • 2003: English group Arctic Monkeys played their first gig at The Grapes, a pub in Sheffield, England. • 2009: The final episode of Pushing Daisies finally aired, after the series’ cancelation back in November.

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

Fifty years ago this month, Mary Poppins chim-chim-cher-ee'd its way into cinemas. The sugary sweet spectacular was rapturously received by cinemagoers of the era and audiences are still in love with the magical movie more than half a century on from its original release.

You’ve probably watched the film a hundred times. You might even know all of the words to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." But in celebration of Mary Poppins’ fiftieth anniversary here are ten fun things that you might not know about the movie.

It took Walt Disney more than 20 years to acquire the rights After his daughters fell in love with the books Walt Disney promised he’d adapt P.L Travers’ hit story for the silver screen. However, convincing the notoriously sceptical author proved harder than he could have ever imagined and after first pursuing the project in 1938 it took more than twenty years for Disney to finally secure the film rights.

Based on P.L. Travers' series of books, Mary Poppins follows the adventures of a magical nanny Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) as she helps her wards Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber) and their parents George (David Tomlinson) and Winifred (Glynis Johns) learn how to be a happy family again. When Mary Poppins arrives, George is too wrapped up in his work at the bank to be a father to his children. He also believes that as the head of his household, society expects him to keep his children at arm's length, patting them on the head and sending them off to bed. Winifred is similarly distracted from her family by her activism for women's suffrage. She leaves her children with the nanny to go to rallies and throw eggs at the Prime Minister, and when it comes to parenting, she usually defers to her husband's judgment. Mary Poppins sweeps in,...

‘Gilda,’ ‘Pulp Fiction’: 2013 National Film Registry movies (photo: Rita Hayworth in ‘Gilda’) See previous post: “‘Mary Poppins’ in National Film Registry: Good Timing for Disney’s ‘Saving Mr. Banks.’” Billy Woodberry’s UCLA thesis film Bless Their Little Hearts (1984). Stanton Kaye’s Brandy in the Wilderness (1969). The Film Group’s Cicero March (1966), about a Civil Rights march in an all-white Chicago suburb. Norbert A. Myles’ Daughter of Dawn (1920), with Hunting Horse, Oscar Yellow Wolf, Esther Labarre. Bill Morrison’s Decasia (2002), featuring decomposing archival footage. Alfred E. Green’s Ella Cinders (1926), with Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, Vera Lewis. Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet (1956), with Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Robby the Robot. Charles Vidor’s Gilda (1946), with Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready. John and Faith Hubley’s Oscar-winning animated short The Hole (1962). Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), with Best Actor Oscar winner Maximilian Schell,...

By Todd Garbarini

Mary Poppins (1964) was a first for me in two ways: one of the earliest movies I can remember seeing in a theater (I was five years old when it was reissued in 1973 and the Rialto Cinema in Westfield, New Jersey, the theater where I saw it, is actually one of the few remaining theaters from that era that is still in business) and one of the first movies I saw played back on a Vcr (in 1980). I could hardly believe my eyes at age 5 and wondered just how in the world Mary Poppins (she is never, ever to be called just “Mary”), the chimney sweeper, and her two young charges managed to make their way into the sidewalk paintings with all of the colorful characters. 40 years later, I could pretty much figure it out for myself having seen many behind-the-scenes documentaries. And yet even though the man...

Bankers are dicks. This is a truth more or less universally acknowledged, and while there's been ample real-world evidence, the real reason we all know this to be the case is because Mary Poppins taught us in childhood. Robert Stevenson's beloved wish fulfillment classic isn't actually about the magical nanny of the title – played with sharp vim by Julie Andrews – nor even about the neglected children whose lives she whips into shape.

It's all about David Tomlinson's emotionally shut-down Mr Banks, an oblivious cold fish who gradually learns how to love his family under the shrewd influence of Poppins. And what's the turning point in his redemptive journey? He stops being a banker. We're just saying.

"You should have seen the look on his face. He doesn't like us at all," says little Michael (Matthew Garber), lip wobbling, after a dressing down from Banks. Watching him proved wrong...

On December 13, Disney is releasing Saving Mr. Banks in theaters, the story of how Walt Disney convinced author P.L. Travers to make Mary Poppins. Fans can also revisit the original classic with the Mary Poppins 50th Anniversary Blu-ray, debuting on December 10. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released the trailer for this fully-restored classic starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, available on Blu-ray for the first time ever. We don't have any details on pricing or special features, so stay tuned for more information.

Mary Poppins was released August 27th, 1964 and stars Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Reta Shaw, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber. The film is directed by Robert Stevenson.