Mitty Pity

[JFK]

The story of the 2013 Walter Mitty's tortured path includes Sam Goldwyn, Jr., whose dad produced the odious 1947 film adaptation ,
Jim Carrey, Walt Disney Pictures, New Line Cinema, Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Imagine Entertainment, Chuck Russell, Peter Tolan, Paramount Pictures, Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks, Zach Helm, John Goldwyn
(Son of Sam, Jr.), Richard LaGravenese, Mark Waters, Owen Wilson, Scarlett Johansson, Brad Grey and Gail Berman,
20th Century Fox , Mike Myers, Jay Kogen, Sacha Baron Cohen, Steven Conrad, Gore Verbinski, and Ben Stiller.
In search of a hit, it looks like a studio has, once again, cast improperly and abandoned the Thurber story.

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1947 film info.........................................................................................2013 film info
Click for '47 radio version with Danny Kaye Virginia Mayo-------..------- Click for '44 radio excerpt with Robert Benchley

[FrankFay]

Odious is a bit too strong a term. A terrible adaption, yes I'll grant you that, but considered as a Danny Kaye picture it's not that bad and far from his worst: I'd put The Man From The Diner's Club in or around that position. Like many Goldwyn pictures it suffers from well mounted excess and musical numbers that stop the picture dead...but when one of them is "Anatol of Paris" I wouldn't complain too much. Goldwyn considered changing the title to "I Wake Up Dreaming" and I wish he had.

[entredeuxguerres]

Odious is a bit too strong a term.

Yes, let's be charitable--"insufferable" will suffice; and for Benchley, likewise.

[JFK]

1. considered as a Danny Kaye picture it's not that bad and far from his worst...
2. Goldwyn considered changing the title to "I Wake Up Dreaming" and I wish he had.

1. I would agree: a nice vehicle for Kaye, but a hearse for the Thurber story.
2. Yes, if they'd changed the title and character names, along with the plot
(and then paid off Thurber -in 1947, or his estate -for the 2013 version),
I'd have fewer complaints.
But I'd've preferred a film faithful to the comically downbeat source,
directed by someone like Terry Gilliam in Brazil mode..
As it is, the Benchley radio version comes closest,
Benchley had even written similar stories e.g. Take The Witness ! (1935)
( filmed as The Witness(1942) ).

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Less Funnily Sans Nunnally

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- January 12, 1945
"Dear Jim :
Just to clarify this matter, I had had a clipping of "Walter Mitty" on my desk for nearly three years. It seems that one of Harold Ross's missions in life has been to get it made into a picture. Every time he saw me in New York he attacked me with such violence that it generally took five or ten minutes for me to find out that he was denouncing me for not doing this, and about every eighteen months he sent me a vituperative letter describing me as only one idiot in an industry of idiots for not making The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and wound up by declaring that he was giving me one more chance to prove my membership in the human race. Enclosed always was another clipping of the story.
I must say that I have studied it over and over again in order to see how it might be reasonably expanded into a full-length picture without disturbing its remarkable quality as a short story. I heard Benchley's broadcast and thought it was very good, considering Bob's limitations as an actor, and I heard that Moss Hart had mentioned it on "Information, Please." But it was neither of these broadcasts that solved the problem for me. Last Sunday afternoon a fellow named Hy Kraft and I were talking about it and during the conversation he made some suggestions which seemed to throw open a pair of double doors for me. I could only brood over how stupid I had been not to have seen the possibilities as they were suggested to me then by Kraft. So beginning Monday I began discussing it with Leo Spitz and Bill Goetz, my partners in this business, and they also caught on fire. It was during the heat of conflagration, while [Robert] Goldstein was trying to get you on the telephone, that we learned for the first time of the Goldwyn situation. I can't tell you how disappointed I was, after all this buildup, to find the story already claimed.
Herndon [Thurber's literary agent] was very nice about it. He consulted Goldwyn yesterday, Thursday, and it was his conclusion that while Goldwyn was still skeptical about the material a writer named Everett Freeman, on Goldwyn's payroll, is so filled with enthusiasm that Goldwyn decided to give him every opportunity to do what he could with it. My sincere hope under the circumstances is that Freeman falls flat on his tokus with it. It will take ninety days from December 19th, however, for its fate with Goldwyn to be decided.
So for the time being there is nothing for us to do but wait. If Freeman fails to satisfy Goldwyn and the option is not taken up, Herndon says he will bring it to me, since we are prepared here to meet 20th Century-Fox's offer. My original idea was that it should be for Jack Benny and if I do it that is probably who would play it. With good direction I am certain he would get exactly the right note in it. He certainly should have done it on the radio. Bob was good, very good, but Benny has a certain facility in front of the microphone that Bob simply hasn't got.
The first of the two pictures I am going to do this year will be Asbenden, or the British Agent, the old Somerset Maugham book, and I still hope that something will happen that Walter Mitty can be my other production. I know you did what you could about it but I have no one to blame for the disappointment but my own obtuseness.My eventual recognition of the picture possibilities in this story after about three years of study must constitute the slowest literary "take" in history.
My very best to you and Helen."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Couple Anticipating 2013 Mitty Opening With Mixed Reactions-------------------------------------

[WaverBoy]

I've never read the Thurber story, but as a Danny Kaye musical comedy, it's absolutely tops. My number one fave Kaye in fact, with THE COURT JESTER nipping at its heels. A wonderfully entertaining film, and Boris K has a great bit part.

[Lamar]

A friend of mine saw a preview of this not long ago. She had no knowledge of Thurber or the story. She gave it two stars and she's not very picky about movies. Ben Stiller is enough to turn me off any movie.