I am a fan of Virginia Mayo, Danny Kaye, Boris Karlof -and James Thurber. Also I like comedy-mysteries in general (for example the ones with Bob Hope, Red Skelton and Abbott and Costello). So this movie should have been really good. Instead it is incredibly horrible. The acting was fine- the cast did all that could be done. The problem was the writing. Comedy mysteries aren't easy to write because they can very easily step over the line into the absurd. That is what happened here. It has been made into a farce that in my opinion just isn't funny. And nothing falls flatter than an embarrassingly bad farce. I can see why James Thurber who wrote the original short story on which this movie is based hated it. I don't know why Danny Kaye agreed to do this one. Don't waste your time on this turkey !! Incidentally, I saw this on TCM a day after seeing The Seven Year Itch and I was struck by the similarity between the Tom Ewell and Danny Kaye characters. They both worked for a publisher that specialized in sex and gory violence and both suffered from excessive repression but a very active fantasy life!. However, Seven Year Itch succeeded brilliantly while the Danny Kay movie didn't. !
Review of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
