The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

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)

This is probably the finest role in Danny Kaye's career. I think its because I can relate to the fact that he is a daydreamer with a vivid imagination and he let's his imagination goes wild. Walter represents every put upon person and his daydreams are his way of escaping. I especially loved the gambler sequence, especially when he wakes up and the cards go flying.

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.

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

Danny Kaye at his best in a fantasy/comedy about a hen-pecked (by his mom and girlfriend) man who daydreams that he's a hero rescuing a damsel in distress (Virginia Mayo) from all sorts of perils. In real life he stumbles across her path and instantly becomes involved in an espionage plot involving villainous Boris Karloff. It's all played for laughs and Danny even gets to do a couple of his tongue-twisting musical routines.

Especially enjoyable in the supporting cast are Ann Rutherford as his silly girlfriend and Florence Bates as her overbearing mother. Thurston Hall has fun with his role as Kaye's harried, blustery boss who, while browbeating him, is nevertheless prone to borrowing ideas from Kaye for new sales angles in the pulp fiction market.

Kaye has a field day when his dreams take over, impersonating everyone from a sea captain to a riverboat gambler to a fashion designer--all with his own distinct flair for comic routines. A funny, witty, always entertaining little gem that has somehow been overlooked through the years. Virginia Mayo makes a delightful co-star.