The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

1/9/1947 1h 50m 6.7/10

Overview

Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According to her, it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden since World War II. Soon, Mitty finds himself in the middle of a confusing conspiracy, where he has difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction.

Director

Norman Z. McLeod

Top Billed Cast

Ann Rutherford

Gertrude Griswold

Danny Kaye

Walter Mitty

Virginia Mayo

Rosalind van Hoorn

Fay Bainter

Mrs. Mitty

Thurston Hall

Bruce Pierce

Florence Bates

Mrs. Griswold

Reviews

John Chard

4/3/2020

7/10

I wake up dreaming. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is directed by Norman Z. McLeod and adapted loosely to screenplay by Ken Englund and Everett Freeman from the short story of the same name written by James Thurber. It stars Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Fay Bainter, Thurston Hall, Ann Rutherford, Konstantin Shayne and Gordon Jones. A Technicoor production with music by Sylvia Fine (songs) and David Raskin (score) and cinematography by Lee Garmes. Milquetoast Walter Mitty (Kaye) escapes the incessant needling of those around him by dreaming up exciting adventures for himself. Upon meeting gorgeous Rosalind van Hoorn (Mayo) he gets thrust into a real adventure involving Dutch treasure, but this is real stuff and his life is under threat! A lovely Danny Kaye vehicle full of neatly constructed comedy, pleasant tunes and Technicolor supreme. It's too long at ten minutes shy of two hours, and non Kaye fans are unlikely to be converted, but for the fans this is a delightful way to spend an afternoon as the spy plot unfolds in a whirl of energised malarkey. Karloff a bonus as well. 7/10