I can easily see why any person of color would find this movie extremely upsetting. On the surface it's this cute story of how Millie, a very traditional, modest white girl (Julie Andrews), throws caution to the wind and embraces "modern times." This happens in the first scene and gives us the incredibly clever title song.
The movie progresses quickly to introduce us to Millie's roommate, "Miss Dorothy" (Mary Tyler Moore), who plays a sweet, naive girl who never can seem to find her checkbook or any money in her purse, potential boyfriend "Jimmy" (James Fox, at the height of his beauty) and boss "Trevor Graydon" (John Gavin, at the height of his beauty), plus housemother "Mrs. Meers" (Bea Lillie), who runs the apartment house where Millie and "Miss Dorothy" board.
The movie quickly takes us through some wonderful moments: Having to tap on the elevator floor to make it work was a cute trick, "Tapioca" was a funny dance and a clever song; the Jewish wedding, although completely unnecessary, had some impressive dancing and singing, and finally, Julie Andrews's stellar soprano soared through everything.
Later on we meet Carol Channing as "Muzzy" who seems to have all the money in the world and does whatever she pleases 24/7. She's constantly over the top and her eyes are huge and she's totally "on." She's fun at first, but then she starts to grate at the nerves.
Where the movie fails is in what is apparently supposed to be its "B plot": Mrs. Meers is involved with her two Chinese henchmen (who were actually Japanese-American actors Jack Soo and Pat Morita) in white girl slavery, and the entire apartment house is a front for doping these girls and kidnapping them.
Sadly, the movie basically insults every Chinese person alive (as well as any Asian person), in a multitude of ways. It tries to "save" this situation by making Jimmy's houseboy (no other way to describe him, even though he's portrayed as being ancient in the film) "Tea" (played by Korean-American actor Philip Ahn) turn out to be "the man who raised him after his father ran out on him when he was a child." (Because you treat your father-figure as a basic slave, right?) This was stupid and pathetic and insulting and Philip Ahn was totally exploited and I felt for him.
So, while there was a lot of physical humor that was actually hysterically funny (Jimmy and Millie coming in/flying out of the 20th floor at the same time; Mrs. Meers and Tea exchanging bows, but Mrs. Meers taking advantage of that by knocking Tea out), Millie accidentally setting an entire fireworks warehouse on fire with a flick of her innocent wrist, I couldn't help but think, "This is a movie for rich, conservative white people."
Granted, it was made in 1967 and the above assessment is, I think, not only accurate, but accepted at the time. After all, who else did they make movies for?
So: Julie singing "Baby Face," "Jimmy" (incredibly wonderful melody evocative of the 20s) and anything else she applied her golden throat to were wonderful moments and Julie was at her peak of beauty and health. And Bea Lillie and Cavada Humphrey (as Miss Flannery) had superb comic timing. But... don't watch it unless you can do so and not be upset by its racial superiority. I'm Caucasian and my husband is Japanese, and I was wincing in agony as I thought, "Why did I suggest this movie?" But I hadn't seen it in over 50 years... so, I can be forgiven on that count. My husband did laugh (one of the funniest scenes is when Bea Lillie poisons a cup of fruit punch, but then forgets which cup she put the poison in), but he wisely pointed out that it started off as a fun musical, but then tumbled into this bizarre white slavery potboiler. So, there are moments to enjoy, but also moments to cringe at.
The movie progresses quickly to introduce us to Millie's roommate, "Miss Dorothy" (Mary Tyler Moore), who plays a sweet, naive girl who never can seem to find her checkbook or any money in her purse, potential boyfriend "Jimmy" (James Fox, at the height of his beauty) and boss "Trevor Graydon" (John Gavin, at the height of his beauty), plus housemother "Mrs. Meers" (Bea Lillie), who runs the apartment house where Millie and "Miss Dorothy" board.
The movie quickly takes us through some wonderful moments: Having to tap on the elevator floor to make it work was a cute trick, "Tapioca" was a funny dance and a clever song; the Jewish wedding, although completely unnecessary, had some impressive dancing and singing, and finally, Julie Andrews's stellar soprano soared through everything.
Later on we meet Carol Channing as "Muzzy" who seems to have all the money in the world and does whatever she pleases 24/7. She's constantly over the top and her eyes are huge and she's totally "on." She's fun at first, but then she starts to grate at the nerves.
Where the movie fails is in what is apparently supposed to be its "B plot": Mrs. Meers is involved with her two Chinese henchmen (who were actually Japanese-American actors Jack Soo and Pat Morita) in white girl slavery, and the entire apartment house is a front for doping these girls and kidnapping them.
Sadly, the movie basically insults every Chinese person alive (as well as any Asian person), in a multitude of ways. It tries to "save" this situation by making Jimmy's houseboy (no other way to describe him, even though he's portrayed as being ancient in the film) "Tea" (played by Korean-American actor Philip Ahn) turn out to be "the man who raised him after his father ran out on him when he was a child." (Because you treat your father-figure as a basic slave, right?) This was stupid and pathetic and insulting and Philip Ahn was totally exploited and I felt for him.
So, while there was a lot of physical humor that was actually hysterically funny (Jimmy and Millie coming in/flying out of the 20th floor at the same time; Mrs. Meers and Tea exchanging bows, but Mrs. Meers taking advantage of that by knocking Tea out), Millie accidentally setting an entire fireworks warehouse on fire with a flick of her innocent wrist, I couldn't help but think, "This is a movie for rich, conservative white people."
Granted, it was made in 1967 and the above assessment is, I think, not only accurate, but accepted at the time. After all, who else did they make movies for?
So: Julie singing "Baby Face," "Jimmy" (incredibly wonderful melody evocative of the 20s) and anything else she applied her golden throat to were wonderful moments and Julie was at her peak of beauty and health. And Bea Lillie and Cavada Humphrey (as Miss Flannery) had superb comic timing. But... don't watch it unless you can do so and not be upset by its racial superiority. I'm Caucasian and my husband is Japanese, and I was wincing in agony as I thought, "Why did I suggest this movie?" But I hadn't seen it in over 50 years... so, I can be forgiven on that count. My husband did laugh (one of the funniest scenes is when Bea Lillie poisons a cup of fruit punch, but then forgets which cup she put the poison in), but he wisely pointed out that it started off as a fun musical, but then tumbled into this bizarre white slavery potboiler. So, there are moments to enjoy, but also moments to cringe at.