The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod

Film Review

James Thurber's popular short story gets the full Sam Goldwyn treatment in this colourful, big budget adaptation, a suitably zany vehicle for the talents of Goldwyn's biggest star, Danny Kaye.  Thurber may not have approved of the liberties taken with his story but Kaye's typically energetic performance and some hilarious comic diversions make it an enduring comedy classic from this era.  With Mitty's flights of fancy getting increasingly absurd as the film progresses the audience soon begins to wonder where the dividing line between reality and fantasy lies, which is part of the fun of the film.  Once again, the lovely Virginia Mayo is the perfect helpmate for Kaye - no other actress could hold her own against the human dynamo that was Danny Kaye.  Boris Karloff crops up unexpectedly and manages to out-stage even Kaye with a brilliant send-up of his sinister screen persona (he was rarely as funny as he is here).  On the downside the overblown musical numbers appear completely out of place and are some of the weakest in Kaye's filmography.  If these had been excised, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty could well have been the highpoint of Kaye's screen career.  The film was remade by Ben Stiller in 2013.

Film Synopsis

Walter Mitty is a mild-mannered young man who lives with his mother in New Jersey and works as an editor for a pulp magazine company.  He spends most of his days dreaming, imagining he is a hero in a series of exciting adventures which he could never live in real life.  Then he runs into Rosalind van Hoorn, a young woman who is mixed up with the recovery of some jewels stolen by the Nazis during WWII.  Before he is killed by an assassin, an acquaintance of Rosalind passes on to Walter a book revealing the present whereabouts of the missing jewels.  Unfortunately, a gang of ruthless criminals are also after the jewels and are prepared to kill to achieve their objective.  Is Walter imagining all this or is he living his first real-life adventure...?