Kyle Crichton's non-musical play, based on the book "My Philadelphia Father" by Cordelia Drexel Biddle, has been given the Walt Disney treatment with songs. But Broadway audiences got Walter Pigeon in the lead and moviegoers were saddled with Disney mainstay Fred MacMurray (cast at Walt's insistence), and he's about as joyless as always. MacMurray plays wealthy Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, heading up the household of a frantically gay, unconventional family in 1916 Philadelphia. 'Old-fashioned' in the worst sense, the movie seems to combine the weakest qualities of "Mary Poppins" with the scenarios of other morally uplifting family dramas of the 1940s (such as "Life With Father"). Lesley Ann Warren tries hard as MacMurray's daughter (about to be wed to John Davidson, playing a mama's boy) and Geraldine Page is a surprising choice as a high-society in-law (she has a terrific number, "There are Those", with Gladys Cooper). However, the escaped alligators, the generally colorless songs by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, and Tommy Steele--often addressing the camera directly as an Irish immigrant employed as the family's butler--are fearsome. The film premiered at 164 minutes and was later shortened for general release to 118 minutes--and it still feels too long. *1/2 from ****
Review of The Happiest Millionaire
