Aron Kincaid, Eddie Hodges, Frances Robinson
Reportedly the last feature to be personally shepherded by Walt Disney himself, The Happiest Millionaire is a stubbornly old-fashioned musical intended to build on the success of Mary Poppin...( read more
), relying on songs and score from Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, the studio's resident songwriting team responsible for the hits of Poppins. Despite that pedigree, and a cast headlined by Fred MacMurray, Greer Garson, Tommy Steele, Geraldine Page, and, in their screen debuts, Lesley Anne Warren and John Davidson, the would-be successor wound up a white elephant.
Released in 1967, a watershed year for youth culture and social upheaval, The Happiest Millionaire romanticizes Philadelphia's upper crust circa 1916. Its title character, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle (MacMurray), is a militant industrialist urging America's mobilization against Germany, and noteworthy for an eccentric lifestyle that includes his own bible study classes, martial arts training, and (in a lone nod toward any remotely modern social values) a readiness to empower his lovely, headstrong daughter, Cordelia (Warren).
Under Norman Tokar's busy but routine direction, the project does muster moments of charm, and packs its story line with enough twists to partly explain its excessive 144-minute length. But the unintended irony of paeans to capitalism and conservative politics in an era of Sgt. Pepper isn't masked by the Shermans' music, which is eminently forgettable, despite the game mugging of Tommy Steele as an immigrant Irish butler. Equally game is MacMurray, but as a singer, he's no Rex Harrison. --Sam Sutherland
DVD Release Date: July 20, 1999
Stats: 156 reviews
Extremely overlong Disney concoction would have benefitted greatly by a heavy dose of editing. The veterans in the cast are the saving graces of this although Fred is required to be a bit buffonish at times. The younger members of the cast are uniformily vapid. Lesley Ann Warren,...( read more)
what a nice film, a good musical with a plot to it that is interesting. tommy steele is great and so are the other haracters, its a feel good kind of film about normal stuff. i liked it.
Not sure why this film gets the bashing it does from the critics - I suppose it wasn't really in keeping with the social mood of the year it was released - but nowadays it holds a real sentimental charm. In my mind Fred MacMurray and Tommy Steele could make drying paint watchable...( read more)
It's a little long for me, but is entertaining. I feel sorry for the gators stuck in the ice.
A film by Dinsey and starring Tommy Steele...what could possibly beat that?
Great musical numbers, a quirky family you can't help but love and pet alligators also add to the fun in this film.
Definatly one I would recommend for lazy days in.
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i absolutely love this film, and tommy steele is brilliant.
check out his other movies.
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