The title sequence for Doctor Doolittle, nominated for Best Picture of 1967, is quite charming with its animated animals presenting the names of the filmmakers. An alligator opens its mouth, for example, to reveal the identities of some of the crew members, and three birds "bring" the names of the supporting cast to a perch. After that, however, the charm is pretty much non-existent. This was an expensive musical flop when it opened, and it's often cited as an example of how easily Academy members could be persuaded by vigorous studio campaigns to nominate behemoths like this. Studios benefited from (and still do) Oscar nominations, so Doctor Doolittle received eight of them, shockingly winning two awards (Best Special Effects and Best Original Song for "Talk to the Animals").
The story concerns the good doctor (played by Rex Harrison as if he were exhausted from doing the 40th touring company of My Fair Lady), a veterinarian in 1850s England, Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, to be specific. No one understands him and his affection for animals, well, no one human except for his friend Matthew Mugg (Anthony Newley), who delivers fish to women in the town. Certainly, the magistrate, aptly named General Bellowes (played by Peter Bull as if either his last name or the character's last name is a stage direction), doesn't understand why Doolittle would put glasses on a horse so it could see better or try to preserve a fox from the brutality of the hunt after its mate has been slaughtered.
The magistrate's neice, though, Emma Fairfax (Samantha Egger), is another story. Initially, she too despises Doolittle because of the way he treats her uncle. Gradually, of course, she starts to understand the depth of his concern for the animals he treats, and despite a number of initial hints that she and Matthew are falling in love, she instead chooses the (far, far) older man to be her love interest. He, naturally, is oblivious to her charms, even going so far as to sing a song entitled "I Think I Like You," a virtual rehash of the sentiments in "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from Harrison's earlier stage and film success. Why she doesn't stick with Matthew and leave Doolittle to his animals is a mystery the film never bothers to address.
I should mention that before Doolittle romances Emma (who is repeated called "Fred" by Newley's Matthew for reasons that are just too silly), he sings a love song to a seal ("When I Look in Your Eyes"). The seal, you see, needs to be rescued from a circus so that she can be reunited with her husband who's at the North Pole, which hasn't even been discovered yet by mankind. Doolittle knows about the seal's dilemma because he's been raising money by allowing the circus to display a rare animal called a Pushme-Pullyu, a sort of llama with heads at both ends. A friend of his in Tibet has sent him the Pushme-Pullyu because the friend knows that Doolittle wants to go in search of the Great Pink Sea Snail and needs to buy a boat for the journey.
All of this is possible because Doolittle has the ability to understand all kinds of animals, thanks to help of a parrot named Miss Polynesia (or something to that effect). We learn about this from an oddly choreographed number to "Talk to the Animals" (which beat out "The Look of Love" from Casino Royale and "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book for the Best Song Oscar--appalling). And, throughout the film, Harrison has to interact with all kinds of animals in order to translate for the rest of us.
Does this sound silly and/or muddled to anyone else? I recall as a child having a Doctor Doolittle coloring book with some of the more familiar scenes in it, such as the seal being garbed in a woman's hat with veil so that she could ride a coach to Bristol and be thrown into the sea. (That act gets Doolittle sentenced to an insane asylum for his claims that he can talk to animals.) And I'm sure that I saw the movie when I was younger as well, but I could barely stand to watch this time.
As an aside, I do think this movie is interesting as one of the earliest defenses of animal protection and animal rights. Doolittle explains (in song, no less) why he is a vegetarian (something like "one shouldn't eat his friends"). And he stands opposed to fox hunting, an English tradition that has been the subject of a great deal of controversy over its cruelty to the foxes, which are hunted for their fur. Those sentiments wouldn't be out of place even today.
There are a couple of other intriguing moments. Richard Attenborough has a small part as Blossom, the head of the circus Doolittle turns to as a money-making venture. His song "I've Never Seen Anything Like It" is quite fun, with all of the circus folks and the animals joining in. And Newley gets to display his trademark vibrato on "After Today," arguably the best song of the score (which, admittedly, isn't saying much). I also particularly enjoyed the appearance of Geoffrey Holder as William Shakespeare X, or "Willie," the leader of Sea Star Island, the floating island Doolittle and his friends travel to in hopes of finding the sea snail. Not only does Holder seem like he's enjoying himself, he's actually quite spectacular looking in an orange wraparound brief-and-robe combo that is accented with shells. That's not a look many men could manage to pull off, but Holder does.
Still, there are far too many false steps in this movie to consider it one of the year's best of 1967 or any other year. The Pushme-Pullyu and the Giant Pink Sea Snail look too fake even to be campy (although they look brilliant compared to the octopus that looks like it stepped out of an Ed Wood film). Most of the music is pretty mundane as well, despite having been penned by Leslie Bricusse. Harrison seems to be having an awful time, and Newley keeps getting saddled with having to ask such odd questions as "What can you hope to get out of a conversation with a goldfish?" Presumably, that dialogue was meant to be funny in 1967, but I doubt it worked. Don't even get me started on the pacing of this film, as it takes almost two-and-a-half hours to unspool. I can't imagine many children sitting still for that long unless a lot more action takes place.
Yes, I've seen the Eddie Murphy remake and at least one of its sequels, but I don't think it's truly a remake so much as a reimagining. The film with Murphy doesn't borrow anything from this film except for Doolittle's ability to talk to and understand animals, and that was probably a good thing.
Oscar Wins: Special Effects and Original Song ("Talk to the Animals")
Other Oscar Nominations: Picture, Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Music Score, Music Score (Adaptation or Treatment), and Sound
No comments:
Post a Comment