Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

JohnnyLee1 Delightful fantasy - or is it? Would love to have given it more stars (for Danny Kaye's performance) but the story is too simple for a 150 mins movie. Based on a short story, not a novel.

jarrodmcdonald-1 The audience is led to think this is a light and happy Danny Kaye movie. However, there are quite a few scenes that present disturbing psychological issues. Any way you look at it, the film has a rather simple thesis: get away from an overbearing mother with the girl of your dreams.Some of the daydream sequences are a bit extended and reveal two things. First, that the screenwriters have unleashed their imagination at the expense of a more succinct and tidy plot. And second, that producer Samuel Goldwyn is selling a sort of extravagance that rivals anything MGM ever put out. Perhaps Goldwyn hopes moviegoers will become so mesmerized by his shimmering Technicolor production that they will not care about its obvious faults.This is not a bad film, and indeed, it has many redeeming elements. But it mystifies this writer how Mr. Kaye and costar Virginia Mayo manage to keep their hair, makeup and clothing perfectly intact during a scene that is filmed inches away from a bubble machine. And how is it that the minute we find out Boris Karloff has been cast as the psychoanalyst our greatest fears are about to be confirmed?

edwagreen Danny Kaye was made to play such a role- a day-dreamer who eventually gets caught up in reality and must convince those he loves that what he is experiencing is true.Faye Bainter gets it right as the sweet, over-protective, yet over-bearing mother. Ann Rutherford is totally churlish as his fiancé, more concerned with her daughter, and Florence Bates is very good as her mother, sarcastic to the core.Walter's day-dreaming allows him to escape from his life of being forever bossed around by all. Thurston Hall shines as his boss, always ready to find fault, but accepting his ideas.Walter's dreams take him to being a top surgeon or an ace pilot. He finally gathers reality by becoming mixed up with Virginia Mayo, the girl of her dreams, who leads him to possible danger in exposing past Nazi art stealing criminals in their search for a black book.

Spikeopath 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