Movie Review: Mary Poppins (1964)

Genre: Musical Fantasy Comedy  

Director: Robert Stevenson  

Starring: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson  

Running Time: 139 minutes  

Synopsis: In London of 1910, practically perfect nanny Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) descends from the sky and takes the job of caring for difficult children Jane and Michael Banks. Their father George (David Tomlinson) is a pompous banker, and their mother Winfred (Glynis Johns) is pre-occupied by the suffrage movement. Mary is stern but loving, and teams up with chimney sweep Bert (Dick Van Dyke) to show the kids a magical good time and teach them about kindness.

What Works Well: This inventive musical celebrates a make-believe fantasy world by innovatively mixing animation with live action, delighting child audiences by redefining the art of the possible in special effects. The legendary musical numbers are full of whimsical energy and creative visuals, including A Spoonful Of Sugar; Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious; Chim Chim Cher-ee, Feed The Birds, and Let's Go Fly A Kite. Despite her character requiring only a limited range, Julie Andrews is a magnetic presence, oozing confidence behind sparkling eyes and unleashing a quite magical voice.

What Does Not Work As Well: Almost every scene and all the song-and-dance sequences are longer than needed, and some distractions (including the cannon-happy Admiral Boom and laugh-addict Uncle Albert) occupy too much space. The upper crust of prim and proper Edwardian England is the target of some good-natured ribbing, but otherwise this is plot-free entertainment, and even the low bar of George learning to appreciate family is ultimately undermined.

Key Quote:

Mary Poppins: Close your mouth, please, Michael. We are not a codfish.

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Movie Review: The Comic (1969)

Genre: Hollywood Dramedy

Director: Carl Reiner

Starring: Dick Van Dyke, Michelle Lee, Mickey Rooney

Running Time: 94 minutes

Synopsis: Upon his death in 1969, former Hollywood star comedian Billy Bright (Dick Van Dyke) narrates his own story. He arrived in Hollywood during the silent era and established himself a star of slapstick comedies. Billy forges a lifelong friendship with fellow comedian Cockeye (Mickey Rooney), marries co-star Mary Gibson (Michelle Lee), and creates a successful production company. The husband-and-wife couple star in a series of hit movies, but infidelity, the arrival of talkies, and changing public taste threaten the good times.

What Works Well: Loosely based on the career trajectories of Buster Keaton-type stars, the second half evolves into a touching drama of loneliness and regret, as the elderly Billy lives out his years as a long-forgotten star. Van Dyke does his best work evoking faded glory hanging on to pride, able to meet the moment when advertisement work offers a flicker of former dignity, but now susceptible to a gold digger's crass ambition.

What Does Not Work As Well: Director and co-writer Carl Reiner struggles to pad the flimsy material, and the first half is oversaturated with black and white reels of juvenile slapstick representing Billy's peak achievements. Here Van Dyke is at his over-cooked worst, aiming no higher than the clumsy clown level. Elsewhere, Billy's adoration of Mary is never provided the oxygen to blossom before he resorts to destructive affairs.

Conclusion: Ironically, this comic is better when he abandons laughs and embraces pathos.



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Movie Review: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

It's hard to find a big-budget musical that has more hammy over-acting than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This is not necessarily a bad thing. As directed by Ken Hughes and produced by Albert Broccoli's James Bond production team, the film is squarely aimed at the child market, and it is, after all, based on an Ian Fleming story he wrote for his children. Over-the-top exaggerated emotions and song-and-dance numbers dominate, but the overblown running length of 2 hours and 27 minutes does challenge any attention span.

Dick Van Dyke is Caractacus Potts (there are no subtleties in this movie), an eccentric but broke inventor and single dad, who transforms an old race car into a gleaming, floating, flying beauty of a machine. His two children are thrilled, but the evil Baron Bomberst (Gert Frobe), the overblown ruler of the mythical Vulgaria, decides to steal the magical car at whatever cost. Instead he ends up kidnapping Potts' dad (Lionel Jeffries), who is eccentric enough to makes his son appear normal. The second half of the movie has Caractacus and his kids on a wild mission to rescue granddad and save the people of Vulgaria from their tyrannical ruler.

Part of this adventure is a story-within-a-story, but that does not really matter -- it is all a vehicle for grand fun, some good laughs, rudimentary special effects, and an old fashioned romance between Caractacus and Truly Scrumptious (no subtleties at all), the daughter of the town's candy baron. Scrumptious is played by Sally Ann Howes -- the only performer in the cast almost trying to take her role semi-seriously.

Consistent with the grand comic theme, the supporting cast is terrific and colourful: Benny Hill as the toymaker of Vulgaria; the two Vulgaria spies (Alexander Dore and Bernard Spear) who provide the best laughs; James Robertson Justice as Truly's dad; and Anna Quayle as Baroness Bomberst. A scary candy-seller/kidnapper is a good source of don't-talk-to-strangers nightmares for the young. The music and lyrics by Richard and Robert Sherman are patchy but do provide some good musical moments, most notably Me Ol'Bamboo and The Roses of Success. Unfortunately, there is also the truly atrocious and seemingly endless Lovely Lonely Man that Howes is saddled to deliver.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang boasts the "I suppose you blue-faced baboons have an explanation for this outrage?!" line, brilliantly delivered by Robertson Justice. In the context of the movie, it works and it is very funny. Surrender to the child-like charms of this movie, and it will deliver an afternoon of innocent fun.

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