The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Watching the Danny Kaye version after having watched the Ben Stiller remake is a fascinating experience. The modern remake has definite virtues - notably Stiller's little-boy-lost performance in a sophisticated world of New York advertising, as well as the subtext offering an elegy to LIFE magazine, now doomed to appear on the internet only. On the other hand Norman Z. Mcleod's Technicolor version of the Thurber story contains one of Danny Kaye's best performances on film. He was nothing short of a genius - a brilliant slapstick comedian, with an apparently limitless range of facial expressions, with a natural instinct for delivering comic songs full of verbal pyrotechnics. Structurally speaking, the film has a story of sorts, but is basically a star vehicle for Kaye to show off his talents, playing a distressed sea- captain, an English flying ace (complete with cut-glass RP accent), a brilliant card-sharper (complete with cheroot) and a cowboy storming into a studio-set bound western town. His wife Sylvia Fine provides the music and lyrics for two specialty tunes; in one of them he plays a mid- European professor impersonating most of the instruments of the orchestra. With all this verbal and visual wizardry going on, it's hard to concentrate on the plot; but it doesn't really matter, as Kaye is such an endearing performer that he can quite easily win his way into the audience's affections, especially when he plays direct to camera as if performing in the live theater. The film contains one or two good supporting performances, notably from Virginia Mayo as the love-interest playing several roles in Kaye/Mitty's fantastic dreams, and Boris Karloff as a crooked psychiatrist trying to push Kaye/Mitty out of the window of an upper-floor skyscraper, and then putting him under psychological influence in an attempt to extract vital information out of him. But basically the film belongs to Kaye, a superb star vehicle for a fantastically talented actor and performer, who was as much at home in front of a live audience as he was in front of a movie camera.

First I have to admit that Danny Kaye was completely unheard of to me before I saw this movie. During the summer one year, the 'Morning Movie' featured 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.' A wonderful surprise for me was the actor Danny Kaye who I had never heard of before. Instead of another boring movie that I would have to watch because there is nothing else to watch. Danny Kaye became the actor I needed to see more of because I couldn't stop laughing. Unquestionably, this movie is full of characters that complement Danny Kaye, but he is the 'star' that makes this movie shine. The variety of the storyline is well written, but not just any actor could lead this cast. If you are looking to see what a real funny movie should look like, check this one out. The movie is good, but Danny Kaye is what makes it great.

Before there was Mike Meyers, Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, JIM CARREY -- of course -- there was the great and late Danny Kaye. In "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", Mr. Kaye gives a brilliant and hysterical performance as the highly imaginative Walter Mitty, who escapes his own real life and pictures himself as a whole new person, whether it's a hat designer, professional gambler, a war hero, surgeon, etc. Yet his imagination is no longer fiction when a real life event and adventure takes place in the dull, but unique life of Walter Mitty.

Anyhow, I was really surprised at this movie. I thought it was going to be boring, because 1947 is 34 years before I was born, but I was really impressed by this movie. As a matter of fact, I thought it was A LOT funnier than a few comedy films they have these days. Danny Kaye really puts a smile on your face in this film. Anyone would love watching this film! It's a true classic! :o)

Ever since seeing him in Hans Christian Andersen when I was 8 or so(a film I still love) I've liked Danny Kaye a lot, and feel that like many commentators here that he is deserving of more attention. He is wonderful in The Secret of Walter Mitty, one of his best performances and quite possibly his most endearing. His antics are genuinely funny and he is charming in a way that comes naturally to him and is conveyed just as much to the audience. He has a fine supporting cast too, Virginia Mayo is astonishingly beautiful and as likable as Kaye, Ann Rutherford is charming and naïve, Boris Karloff plays cool and subtly sinister to perfection, Florence Bates is wholly convincing in overbearing mode and Thurston Hall is appropriately blustery without overdoing it. The Secret of Walter Mitty looks beautiful, the scenery is bursting with colour and vibrancy and the photography is expertly. The music fits with the action and comedy very well indeed, and the songs are catchy and a lot of fun. The best being Anatole of Paris though Symphony for Unstrung Tongues has some great lyrics/lines and is interesting for future director Robert Altman as an extra. The writing is witty and infectious, it never feels forced or mushy and it holds up well today too. The story is sweet and instantly lovable, children will be spellbound and amused by the dream sequences especially. Overall, a wonderful film with Kaye on top form. If you want to get acquainted with him or see what the fuss is about, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a great place to start. 10/10 Bethany Cox

James Thurber's whimsical day dreamer Walter Mitty was a perfect character for Danny Kaye to apply his many talents with. Make note however this is not film based on Thurber's short story, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, but the character is used to fashion a plot whereby this day dream believer gets into a real life adventure. And gets the girl one only dreams about.

Poor henpecked Danny Kaye as Mitty works as a proofreader for publisher Thurston Hall who specializes in putting out pulp fiction works of adventure and romance. He's put upon by everyone, from his mother Fay Bainter to his girlfriend Ann Rutherford, her mother Florence Bates, his best 'friend' Gordon Jones and not the least by his boss Hall. His escape is in daydreaming and it's in these imaginary sequences that Kaye's real talents of singing and mimicry are given full range. During one of those sequences while at a fashion show Kaye does one of his most famous routines Anatole Of Paris.

While on a train Kaye meets the beautiful girl of his dreams Virginia Mayo who is carrying some documents vital to her native Dutch government. And she's being pursued by the kind of international criminals that appear in James Bond or Austin Powers. Konstantin Shayne is the master criminal known only as 'the Boot' and he's assisted in his nefarious schemes by Boris Karloff.

After he meets them poor Danny spends the rest of the film trying to help or rescue Virginia Mayo and convince the others in his life that he's in a real situation. The rest of his circle put his ravings down to an overactive imagination and he's even referred to a psychiatrist who turns out to be Boris Karloff. I'm not sure who was playing straight for who in the psychiatrist sequence, but it's funny nonetheless.

It's not James Thurber. Thurber's story would be almost impossible to create accurately for the screen since it's all in his protagonist's mind. But as a character for Danny Kaye, Walter Mitty is a natural.