BEFORE: I'm not usually one for binge-watching, unless, of course, you count this entire project as one long 7-year movie binge. No, I mean binge-watching a TV series all at once, which apparently is all the rage these days - why wait for an entire TV season's storyline to unfold gradually when you can watch it all over the course of a 24-hour day. Who needs to eat and sleep, anyway, when there's so darn much to WATCH? Anyway, I've made an exception for the HBO Documentary series "The Jinx", which details the comings and goings, the trials and tribulations of alleged murderer Robert Durst. I watched 4 episodes yesterday, and will probably finish with the other two tonight - gripping stuff, like a real-life "True Detective", and it's amazing what someone with a criminal mind can get away with, if he's smart and knows how to manipulate the system.
But today is also April Fool's Day, and my apologies if you were expecting the Danny Kaye film "The Court Jester". I admit that would have made perfect sense, but I feel that I've probably seen that whole film before, as a kid. I wouldn't mind watching it again sometime as an adult, but now is not the time - I only added "The Inspector General" at the last minute because it provided the necessary acting link to this film. TCM ran this one a while back, as sort of a cross-promotion with the Ben Stiller remake, so I'm counting on Danny Kaye to act foolish in this film and not disappoint me.
AFTER: I need not have worried, there's plenty of tomfoolery here - or is that Danny-foolery? Danny Kaye plays a meek man who gets pushed around at work, his boss steals his ideas and demands that he come in on time - you know, acting all bossy and stuff - and for good measure, he's also a momma's boy, running a ton of errands for her every day while he's in the city. I'm not sure why she can't run her own errands, but hey, you can't spell "SMOTHER" without "MOTHER". And his fiancée is a carbon copy of his mother (and her own) so unless something changes, this guy's going to be a pushover for the rest of his life. His best friend "Tubby" even likes to pull pranks on him, and may even be putting the moves on his girl.
All this explains why he has so many daydreams, I guess. He imagines himself as an RAF fighter pilot, or a talented surgeon, or a French hat designer, or a cowboy - though by the time they get to the Western gunfight, I think the use of dream sequences as a format was wearing rather thin. Mitty works for a publishing company that makes salacious "pulp" magazines, so that helps to explain where the daydreams come from - but why is he just a proofreader, and not a writer, if he's got such a vivid imagination? I guess he's just too meek to get his ideas down on paper and submit them to the editors?
I guess I can understand this character - being in a position right now where I'm looking for some extra part-time work myself. God, I'd love to work for Marvel Comics in some sort of administrative capacity, like if they need someone to straighten out their character's continuity or keep track of their histories or secret identities, but the thought of doing creative work like writing comics gives me the willies. I'm happy just to work in the administrative aspect of filmmaking, doing payroll and print traffic and travel plans for a director. That's my life, and I'm comfortable with it.
But back to Walter Mitty - he gets caught up in a very real conspiracy, one that I'm not sure I understood fully. It had something to do with a museum and art that was stolen by the Nazis, but it was all so nebulous, and there was nothing really tangible to find or seek after, it was all just some information in a little black book. I'm sort of reminded of "The Maltese Falcon", where the characters just all sat around in a little room and waited for the statue to be delivered - because that looks SO exciting on film.
What I don't understand is, this guy's been dreaming of adventure his whole life, anything that will lift him out of the drudgery of his meek existence. When it finally arrives, in the form of a beautiful, mysterious woman and some confusing plot related to - I don't know, was it art? jewels? Help me out here - why wasn't he all over that like white on rice? And why did he continue to have his daydreams, even after his life became all exciting and mysterious - dammit, man, this is what you've been waiting for!
This is perhaps why people consider this to be a poor adaptation of James Thurber's original story - it makes sense to have Mitty daydream when his life is so dull, but by making his life exciting and getting him involved in a murder (spy? heist?) plot, it removed the need for him to fantasize.
NITPICK POINT - Mitty's daydream of being a fighter pilot contains a too-long sequence where said pilot does an impression of his old music teacher. Really? Is this the most exciting thing they could imagine a fighter pilot doing? Not going on an exciting bombing raid, but going to a pub and doing impressions? I realize this was a way to work in Danny Kaye's trademark goofy faces and silly sound effects, with a song about the different instruments in the orchestra, but leading in to this from the World War 2 pilot sequence made no sense. There should have been a separate daydream where he imagined himself as a famous composer or conductor, and this might have worked better.
I've also got a copy of the remake of this film, starring Ben Stiller, and I've heard that's got a vastly different plot from this one (and also different from the Thurber story as well) - my original plan was to watch the two versions back-to-back, but the plan has changed. I'll still get there, but most likely at the end of the month, in the week before "Avengers: Age of Ultron". I've got other things to get to before that.
Also starring Virginia Mayo (last seen in "White Heat"), Boris Karloff (last seen in "The Raven"), Fay Bainter, Ann Rutherford (last seen in "Gone With the Wind"), Konstantin Shayne, Florence Bates, Gordon Jones, Reginald Denny (last seen in "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"), Henry Corden (last seen in "I Confess"), with a cameo from Fritz Feld (last seen in "Bringing Up Baby").
RATING: 4 out of 10 corset models
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