The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a 1939 short story by James Thurber (read the story: ).

Related Topics:
1939 - James Thurber

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Short story:

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The short story deals with an absent-minded man who drives his wife to the hairdressers, and then must run an errand while she is there. During this time he has four heroic daydream episodes. The first is as a pilot of a U.S. Navy hydroplane in a horrific storm, then he is a magnificent surgeon performing a one of a kind surgery, then as a cool assassin testifying in a courtroom, and finally as a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot volunteering for a daring, secret, suicide mission to bomb an ammunition dump.

Related Topics:
U.S. Navy - Hydroplane - Storm - Surgeon - Surgery - Assassin - Courtroom - Royal Air Force - Pilot - Suicide - Mission - Bomb - Ammunition dump

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Movie:

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It was made into a 1947 movie, that stars Danny Kaye as a young daydreaming editor for a book publishing firm. The film was adapted for the screen by Ken Englund, Everett Freeman, and Philip Rapp, and directed by Norman Z. McLeod. It is enhanced by being in color, which was rare for that era. Henpecked and harrassed by his bossy mother, his overbearing, idea-stealing boss, his childishly dimwitted fiancee, her obnoxious would-be suitor and her loud mother, Walter Mitty imagines all sorts of exciting things he would rather be doing. In one set of scenes, whilst stoking the heating boiler, he dreams what it would be like to be an RAF fighter pilot. He is awoken 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 the red-hot poker under his arm -- only to burn a hole in his suit jacket.

Related Topics:
1947 - Movie - Danny Kaye - Adapted - Directed - Norman Z. McLeod - Walter Mitty

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His daydreaming gets even more complicated when he meets a mysterious woman, Rosalind van Hoorn (Virginia Mayo), who is working with her uncle, Peter van Hoorn (Konstantin Shayne), to help secure some Dutch crown jewels hidden from the Nazi's during World War II. He becomes caught up in this real-life adventure, as a result of which he saves the girl from kidnap, survives attacks by several would-be killers, including one known only as The Boot. All these events gives him the courage to stand up to those who push him around. And of course he ditches his fiancee and marries the girl.

Related Topics:
Virginia Mayo - Konstantin Shayne - Nazi - World War II

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However, his patter-song ("ta-pocketa-ta-pocketa-ta-pocketa") that really goes through the roof is his playing a women's milliner, or professional hat-designer, named "Anatole of Paris." This is based on "Antoine de Paris," a women's hair-salon professional of that era, who became known to the general audience through being seen in The March of Time newsreel with many examples of the preposterous hairstyles he was able to get women to pay him to set up for them. Danny Kaye plays this character as fey and bubbly as he shows off absurd hats on models. The song, the lyrics of which were written by Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine, is an example of the ridicule that gays would have received, though the last words in the song are "I hate women!" So it could have been a vindictive notion that the Walter Mitty character was acting out in his daydream.

Related Topics:
Patter-song - The March of Time - Newsreel - Sylvia Fine

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Thurber did not want Samuel Goldwyn and MGM to make this film, he offered Goldwyn $10,000 not to, and was very unhappy with the final result. Goldwyn had the writers customize the film to showcase Kaye's talents, altering the original story. The studio was more interested in making a financial success for Kaye's singing and comedic abilities, rather than what Thurber had intended.

Related Topics:
Samuel Goldwyn - MGM

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Main cast:

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• Danny Kaye as Walter Mitty
• Virginia Mayo as Rosalind van Hoorn
• Boris Karloff as Dr. Hollingshead
• Fay Bainter as Mrs. Eunice Mitty

2006 film:

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The film is currently being remade and will be out in either late 2006, or 2007. At first producer-directors Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg, with a host of screenwriters, and Jim Carrey as Mitty, were going to re-do the film, but it has fallen through. Now over at Paramount Studios, producers Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., his brother John Goldwyn, and Richard Vane, with director Mark Waters and Owen Wilson cast as Mitty are working on the remake of the 1947 film with a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese. This new script is based more on the 1939 short story than the 1947 film and is being made without the singing.

Related Topics:
Ron Howard - Steven Spielberg - Jim Carrey - Paramount Studios - Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. - John Goldwyn - Mark Waters - Owen Wilson

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Probably owing to the production of this film the DVD version was withdrawn from distribution and was momentarily an expensive collector's item.

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