Fitzwilly

But that is the theme of this most unusual Christmas movie that is a Christmas movie more because of the spirit of the thing than the time of year in which it is set.

Dick Van Dyke, in probably his best screen role, plays Claude R. Fitzwilliam, Fitzwilly for short, butler to Miss Vicky (Edith Evans). He is head of the household servants and they all act as thieves for him, running a series of con games and out and out brazen thefts all so that their beloved employer Miss Vicky will think that she is still wealthy and can live out the rest of her life in the manner to which she is accustomed. The fact is that when her father died she was left the whopping total of 180 dollars. Dad was flat broke. Fitzwilly runs this operation with military precision, aware that if Miss Vicky ever found out she would demand that they all return the money, which they cannot. You see, Miss Vicky's servants are not the only generous people in this film - albeit with other people's money - Miss Vicky is too, always giving away her money to charities. She just can't seem to say no. Now Fitzwilly usually apprehends her checks when the mail goes out, but occasionally a check will get through. This assures that they are continuously operating while teetering on bankruptcy.

And then an outsider intrudes into Fitzwilly's well oiled machine. Miss Vicki has decided to employ a secretary, Juliet Nowell (Barbara Feldon), to help her with her alternative dictionary that shows all of the ways that each word can be spelled incorrectly. This dictionary was Fitzwilly's idea to keep Miss Vicky busy, but now it has blown up in his face as this secretary begins snooping around and asking questions about the goings on in the mansion.

What is so great about this film is that there really are no bad guys. Everybody has good motives. Miss Vicki is a philanthropist with no money, her servants could easily land jobs doing less for more without the worry of being incarcerated, and Miss Nowell is suspicious that these servants are stealing from their employer.

I've never seen anything quite like it and I highly recommend it. It truly has the Christmas spirit.

Dick Van Dyke plays the title role in this gentle comedy about the staff of an eccentric old woman who thinks herself far richer than she is. Dame Edith Evans's money disappeared a long time ago, but she's such a grand old girl that no one can tell her otherwise. So she dispenses checks as a leading philanthropist while Van Dyke and her entire household staff have become experts at pulling heists to pay her to the manor born style of living. Not incidentally as a side benefit, they live pretty good too.

It all might fall apart though when Barbara Feldon is hired as a secretary to help with one of Evans's projects, Dictionary For Dummies. Staff always gets cleared through Van Dyke as the butler. He's thrown for a loss. Equally Feldon gets suspicious of strange things going on.

Van Dyke and Feldon have a good chemistry going with them. Evans is properly dotty as the role calls for. Best in the supporting cast as John McGiver as one of the servants who is a former minister. He needs reassurance from Scripture every time the crew pulls a heist.

There's a hilarious final caper during Christmas shopping season at Gimbels which as we know is no more in New York City. I guess someone decided that Gimbels needed a cinema advertiser the way Miracle On 34th Street is for Macy's.

After 50 years Fitzwilly still holds up quite well.

This is one of those movies where you sit back, laugh and enjoy. For those who thought its morals were obscene really need to get a life. It was a fun movie with a fun plot all done with great actors. We need more movies like this. A timeless treasure.

Fitzwilly is one of the great caper-comedies from the 60's with a fine cast of outstanding character actors. You may not recognize names like John McGiver, John Fiedler, or Noam Pitlik; but, you probably know their faces. The great comedies of the 50's, 60's and 70's were filled by actors like these who, although not well known to the public, were well known amongst their peers. They give consistently good performances in a variety of roles. I knew Pitlik's name mostly from the credits of the "Barney Miller" tv series, but I've seen him on dozens of tv shows and movies from the 60's and 70's. It's these types of performers who are often missing from today's comedies. Too often, the film is built entirely around the lead actors, without gifted character actors to flesh out the scenes. It's these character ensembles that separate many of the classic comedies from the star vehicles of today.

Dick Van Dyke is wonderful as the scheming, yet lovable Fitzwilly and he is matched by the beautiful and bright Barbara Feldon. I had a huge crush on her as a child, dating from her role as "99" on "Get Smart." She exudes warmth, charm, intelligence, and a sense of fun. Together, they make a great couple. Van Dyke's film career is often hit-or-miss, but, this is definitely a hit.

As a side note to a previous review, this film was not produced by the Disney Studios. I assume the confusion is based on Van Dyke's many previous Disney movies. As far as morality goes, the people who were being hurt by the scams were mainly faceless corporations; an easy target for the general public to forgive. The Robin Hoods of the world are generally forgiven their larcenies as serving a greater good. Since it is established that Miss Vickie is very generous with her money, we can forgive the robbing-the-rich because it does, mostly, end up with the poor. Anyone who has ever grumbled about store prices is likely to forgive someone who "sticks it" to the companies who "rob" their customers. Yes, it's not that simple in the real world; but, this is a movie, after all.

I was surprised by one review deeming it unethical. The butler was in the wrong though for unselfish reasons. The story both had romance (& like another reviewer I too had a crush on Barbara Feldon in my preteen 1960's years) and rebuke: she saw the butler's heart and insisted that he end his life of crime and help the old lady only through honest ways. Good heart & bad action was changed to good heart & good action, wasn't it. And it was great fun too. This is a film that I'm looking to get my hands on. Dick van Dyke has had some good films (eg Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), and this is one of his best.