The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947 film)
| The Secret Life of Walter Mitty | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Norman Z. McLeod |
| Produced by | Samuel Goldwyn |
| Screenplay by | Ken Englund Everett Freeman Philip Rapp |
| Based on | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber |
| Starring |
Danny Kaye Virginia Mayo Boris Karloff Fay Bainter Ann Rutherford |
| Music by |
Sylvia Fine (songs) David Raksin (score) |
| Cinematography | Lee Garmes |
| Edited by | Monica Collingwood |
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Production
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| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $3,350,000 (US rentals) |
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a 1947 Technicolor comedy film, loosely based on the short story of the same name by James Thurber. The film stars Danny Kaye as a young daydreaming proof reader (later associate editor) for a magazine publishing firm and Virginia Mayo as the girl of his dreams. The film was adapted for the screen by Ken Englund, Everett Freeman, and Philip Rapp, and directed by Norman Z. McLeod.
Walter Mitty (Kaye) is an "inconsequential guy from Perth Amboy, New Jersey". He is henpecked and harassed by everyone in his life including his bossy mother, his overbearing, idea-stealing boss Bruce Pierce, his dimwitted fiancée Gertrude Griswold, Gertrude's obnoxious would-be suitor Tubby Wadsworth and her loud-mouthed mother, Mrs. Griswold.
His escape from their incessant needling is to imagine all sorts of exciting and impossible lives for himself, fueled by the pulp magazines he reads every day as an editor at the Pierce Publishing Company. But his dreams only seem to land him in more trouble. In one scene, while stoking the heating boiler, he dreams what it would be like to be an RAF fighter pilot. He is awakened from this daydream by his mother, who orders him to come to dinner. Believing he is still a British fighter pilot, he salutes, and places a red-hot poker under his arm—only to burn a hole in his suit jacket.
Things become much more complicated when he runs into a mysterious woman, Rosalind van Hoorn (Mayo), who just happens to perfectly resemble the girl of his dreams. Rosalind is working with her uncle, Peter van Hoorn, to help secure some Dutch crown jewels hidden from the Nazis during World War II. Caught up in a real-life adventure that seems unbelievable even to him, Walter attempts to hide his double life from his mundane family and friends. Eventually, he acquires the courage to stand up to those who kick him around.
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Wikipedia