THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY is an amiable, imaginative comic fantasy starring everyone's favourite jester, Danny Kaye. Kaye plays an ordinary and rather boring fellow who escapes the humdrum of modern life by venturing into various fantasies where he's always cast as the hero, rescuing damsels in distress and defeating nefarious enemies.
Unfortunately for him, soon reality and fantasy begin to collide when he meets a classic Hitchcock femme fatale who propels him into a world of murder and intrigue. What follows is a riotous 'wronged man' style comedy with plenty of slapstick and broad shenanigans to recommend it. Overall this is a colourful and lively production, boosted by Kaye's endless energy and the interesting casting of key roles, like the excellent Boris Karloff as a sinister psychiatrist.
The only flaws here for me were the actual fantasy sequences themselves, particularly the early ones. Some of them feel quite twee and dated and seem go on on forever, like when Kaye's singing that stupid song. It feels like they're there for padding rather than any proper reason. Still, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY works much better when it's taking place in the real world, and that slapstick is hard to dislike.
Unfortunately for him, soon reality and fantasy begin to collide when he meets a classic Hitchcock femme fatale who propels him into a world of murder and intrigue. What follows is a riotous 'wronged man' style comedy with plenty of slapstick and broad shenanigans to recommend it. Overall this is a colourful and lively production, boosted by Kaye's endless energy and the interesting casting of key roles, like the excellent Boris Karloff as a sinister psychiatrist.
The only flaws here for me were the actual fantasy sequences themselves, particularly the early ones. Some of them feel quite twee and dated and seem go on on forever, like when Kaye's singing that stupid song. It feels like they're there for padding rather than any proper reason. Still, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY works much better when it's taking place in the real world, and that slapstick is hard to dislike.