Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)

RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Danny Kaye is a henpecked mama's boy working as an editor at a large NYC comic book publisher. He spends his time having elaborate daydreams to escape his pathetic life. He becomes involved in a real-life adventure involving Virginia Mayo and a spy ring, who are after a little black book full of names. Filmed in eye-popping Technicolor, the daydream segments range from silly to almost surreal, my favorite being the stark western set towards the end. However, it fails as a comedy, having strayed far from the James Thurber source material, who said it should have been titled: "The Public Life of Danny Kaye", which is funnier than anything in the movie.

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