2h 21min | Comedy, Family, Musical | 26 October 1967 | Color, ws
Director: Norman Tokar
Stars: Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Greer Garson, Gladys Cooper, Geraldine Page, Hermione Baddeley, John Davidson, Lesley Ann Warren.
Watched online, blurry print; runtime 2h 53min.
~16 songs in the Soundtracks.
Much, much, much too long. (Note that the print I saw was 1/2 hr longer than the runtime on IMDb title page, but the tech specs show 5 different versions.) The Amazon Video version is 2h 45m, the dvd is 2h 13m.
2nd film of 50 and counting for LW (b. '46). 1st of 5 films credits for JD (b. '41). Only 2 more films of 86 for FM (b. '08). Final film of 25 for GG (b. '04). Penultimate film of 42 for GC (b. '88).
This might be a good film for parents entering empty nest syndrome. I can't see that children would care about this, except perhaps for the alligators.
Lots of songs, but nothing great. Lots of singing, nothing great. Lots of dancing, nothing great. Unless I missed something because it was much, much, much too long. I know I said that already. Everything in the film was beaten to death, it seems appropriate to echo the technique here.
I need to prevent me from watching this again, so I've got to rate it 5. I started with 6. There's nothing wrong with it beyond its length, and the fact that I don't care about the characters after all that time invested.
If I had to choose sides, I'd go with the not-so-happy millionaire (FM & co.), because JD's mother GP is horrid: stuffy nouveau riche New Yorker looking down her nose at the older monied Philadelphia FM family headed by GC. And mom GP doesn't realize son JD wants to do something other than the family business.
FM has raised his children to be independent thinkers, so daughter LW doesn't like JD's mother at all. And GP has convinced JD to give up his dream of building automobiles. (The most outdated idea in this WW1-era film is that Detroit is the golden city on the hill.) So LW calls off the wedding, and TS has to babysit JD in his drunken consideration of what to do next. Spoiler alert: they elope. Then we go home with FM and GG to the empty home. But FM gets accepted into the Marines, where he's been trying to get America ready for the war. (Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that went on in the almost 3 hours, it just isn't worth the time.)
I need to read that book about the studio mentality that created this Road Show culture, because it's so obviously wrong. Why did they think they should charge more $ for a longer picture? Because to motivate people to leave home it has to be an event. Yeah, but an event you don't regret attending!
Disney, dir. Tokar; 5
