Live Disney musicals that were made after Mary Poppins had an almost impossible standard to meet. Even with a lot of the same talent that brought us Mary Poppins, The Happiest Millionaire falls well short of the accolades that Mary Poppins won.
Not that it's a bad film by any means, just not an outstanding one. Uncle Walt once again made use of the Sherman Brothers to write the score. Their best number is right at the beginning of the film and sung by Tommy Steele, Fortuosity.
The film is based originally on a book of memoirs that Cordelia Biddle Duke wrote about growing up in Philadelphia with her eccentric father. The book was co-authored with Kyle Crichton who also authored a Broadway play The Happiest Millionaire which ran a respectable 271 performances in 1956-57 and starred Walter Pidgeon.
Taking Pidgeon's place for the screen is Disney's favorite star Fred MacMurray. The story takes place 1916-17 in Philadelphia where we meet Anthony Drexel Biddle a man who keeps pet alligators he captured in the Everglades and believes that Christianity should walk hand in hand with pugilism. He gives both Bible and boxing classes in the stately Biddle manor.
Although she did television through the next decade occasionally The Happiest Millionaire marked the farewell big screen appearance of Greer Garson. Greer's fine in the part as the ever patient wife, but I see traces of that other perfect wife of the big screen, Myrna Loy in the part.
Although daughter Cordelia wrote the book, the film is really seen through the eyes of the newly hired butler, who himself is newly arrived from Ireland. My favorite in this film is Tommy Steele as John Lawless the butler who just fits right into the general zaniness of things. And Steele has the best song.
Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson make an appealing pair of young lovers as Davidson is quite intimidated by the eccentric MacMurray. Others in the cast are Geraldine Page as Davidson's grand dame of a mother, Gladys Cooper as an even grander dame as MacMurray's aunt and Hermione Baddely as a maid who lets nothing faze her.
The Happiest Millionaire is not Mary Poppins, but it's still contains it share of magic from the Magic Kingdom.
Not that it's a bad film by any means, just not an outstanding one. Uncle Walt once again made use of the Sherman Brothers to write the score. Their best number is right at the beginning of the film and sung by Tommy Steele, Fortuosity.
The film is based originally on a book of memoirs that Cordelia Biddle Duke wrote about growing up in Philadelphia with her eccentric father. The book was co-authored with Kyle Crichton who also authored a Broadway play The Happiest Millionaire which ran a respectable 271 performances in 1956-57 and starred Walter Pidgeon.
Taking Pidgeon's place for the screen is Disney's favorite star Fred MacMurray. The story takes place 1916-17 in Philadelphia where we meet Anthony Drexel Biddle a man who keeps pet alligators he captured in the Everglades and believes that Christianity should walk hand in hand with pugilism. He gives both Bible and boxing classes in the stately Biddle manor.
Although she did television through the next decade occasionally The Happiest Millionaire marked the farewell big screen appearance of Greer Garson. Greer's fine in the part as the ever patient wife, but I see traces of that other perfect wife of the big screen, Myrna Loy in the part.
Although daughter Cordelia wrote the book, the film is really seen through the eyes of the newly hired butler, who himself is newly arrived from Ireland. My favorite in this film is Tommy Steele as John Lawless the butler who just fits right into the general zaniness of things. And Steele has the best song.
Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson make an appealing pair of young lovers as Davidson is quite intimidated by the eccentric MacMurray. Others in the cast are Geraldine Page as Davidson's grand dame of a mother, Gladys Cooper as an even grander dame as MacMurray's aunt and Hermione Baddely as a maid who lets nothing faze her.
The Happiest Millionaire is not Mary Poppins, but it's still contains it share of magic from the Magic Kingdom.