Movie Odyssey Retrospective
After the animators’ strike in 1941 saw many of his talented artists depart for cross-Hollywood rivals or create their own studios, Walt Disney bristled with bitterness. Disney – an artistic visionary, an anti-unionist, and fervent anti-communist (he believed the strike was ignited by communist agitators) – had felt betrayed by the striking animators he considered his family, and would no longer be as emotionally or personally involved in any of the studio’s post-Bambi (1942) animated features. His attention turned to supporting America’s World War II efforts; the studio’s entrance into live-action films in the 1950s; television; and the construction of Disneyland in Anaheim, California. As one of the most honored individuals in Hollywood, one accolade eluded him: a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. His best chance by that point came with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) – which was instead honored with a novel honorary Oscar presented to him by Shirley Temple. Disney had poured his soul into the innovative Snow White and, privately, he was perturbed by the Academy’s (and the public’s) belief that animation was subordinate to live-action cinema.
By the early 1960s, Disney was reflecting on Snow White, the then-critical (not commercial) disapproval of Song of the South (1946), and how his daughters in the late 1930s asked him to make a film about P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins. After on-and-off negotiations with Travers beginning in 1938, Disney finally secured the rights to the Mary Poppins books, and Travers was brought on as a consultant on the film. Directed by Robert Stevenson, this would be the final film that Walt Disney truly felt passionate about. Though Travers instantly disliked (but made some peace with) this adaptation of Mary Poppins, the cinematic heavens broke loose. Mary Poppins is the greatest live-action Disney film ever made; there is, as of the publication of this write-up, no serious competition.
The film begins with a chimney sweep/one-man-band/screever named Bert (Dick Van Dyke) breaking the fourth wall to introduce a corner of London on the cusp of dramatic change. It’s grand to be an Englishman in 1910; King Edward’s on the throne and it’s the age of men. At least that is what George Banks (David Tomlinson) thinks. George is married to the constantly out-of-the-house suffragette Winifred (Glynis Johns) and their children, Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber) have just driven out their latest nanny. George, a high-ranking banker, is consumed with work – making him emotionally distant from his children. One day, Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) floats into 17 Cherry Tree Lane, essentially hires herself (to explain this in words to those who have not seen the movie will make little sense), and meets with Jane and Michael for the first time. With Mary Poppins, Jane and Michael and Bert – who is platonically familiar with Mary – have their share of fantastical adventures in London. Though it may appear at first Mary Poppins has arrived for the children, that is only the secondary reason for her arrival at the Banks household.
Mary Poppins also features the maid Ellen (Hermione Baddeley); next-door neighbors Admiral Boom (Reginald Owen) and first mate Mr. Binnacle (Don Barclay); the gleeful Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn); and Banks’ boss Mr. Dawes, Sr. There are also brief cameos for two of the best actresses of Old Hollywood: Elsa Lanchester (the title role in 1935′s Bride of Frankenstein, 1957′s Witness for the Prosecution) plays Katie Nanna and, in her final film appearance upon the personal request of Walt Disney, Jane Darwell (Ma Joad in 1940′s The Grapes of Wrath, 1943′s The Ox-Bow Incident) as the “Bird Woman”.
Upon her arrival at 17 Cherry Tree Lane, the Banks family is obviously dysfunctional. From the initial parental perspective, Jane and Michael are undisciplined, too often indulging in play, and not following the regimented lifestyle of their father. Through Mr. Banks, their childhoods are being wasted on trivial pursuits. Mrs. Banks is well-meaning, but absent – despite being the impassioned suffragette, she is reluctant to speak out against her husband (this is never explored, but is her activism a way to express herself outside a stifling household?). Jane and Michael’s parents are often unavailable, leaving their small gestures of compassion ignored or shrugged off. This is not a familial situation to be wished on anyone. Enter Mary Poppins. The idea that she arrives at the Banks household primarily to correct the behavior of the children has been resilient since the film’s initial release. While with the Banks family, she advocates for cleanliness and manners – something that Jane and Michael sometimes lack, yet their cases are not extraordinary compared to what one might expect from children. Mary Poppins, the character, almost never explains her intentions, does not explicitly attempt to “fix” the children, and will act in ways reminding Jane and Michael that their parents are important than she. Mary Poppins retains a mysterious, unknowable distance from most everyone in the film – a feature respectful of Travers’ literary characterization of the flying nanny, and fully dependent on a magnificent performance from Julie Andrews.
Mary Poppins is ostensibly about the title character or her attempts to “save” the children. Mary, Jane, and Michael are the concentration for most of the film. It is when we see the less visible source of the Banks’ troubles that the film shifts its focus to its inner heart. Mary Poppins, through the children, reminds their father of what being a caring, supportive parent means. Mr. Banks – as Bert tells the children late in the film (“they makes cages from all sizes and shapes, you know – bank-shaped some of them, carpets and all”) – has no one to look after him at the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. Mr. Banks’ cutthroat working environment is predicated on making as much money as possible. His workplace is impersonal, without regard to any of the employees’ unspoken desolation. When Mr. Banks comes home, he is unable to unwind, to appreciate his children enjoying their childhood – a lot of earned praised comes Dick Van Dyke’s way, but save a thought for David Tomlinson, who delivers a heartrending performance as the film finally centers on his character in its final act. He does not talk about the previous day, proceeding to chastise Jane and Michael for not being as uptight as him. Mr. Banks nor the bank are antagonists; this is a rare Disney live-action film without a villain. In their cloistered, specific culture, Banks’ fellow bankers have eroded his ability to remember what is important – that kindness and mindfulness for their own sake are never for naught. Life is too fleeting for anything else.
Jane and Michael learn that the difficulty of their father’s work impacts how he acts around them. More subtly, they also learn how to care for him. This is not easy for children watching for the first or even the tenth time to fully comprehend. Mary Poppins may seem – to those who have not seen it recently or at all – to be a sugary children’s musical. It is anything but. The Walt Disney Studios filmography, as far back as Snow White, is too often painted with such generalizations.
Despite being a bit overlong and Robert Stevenson’s typical uninspired direction, this is a film of incredible technical achievement. With Song of the South’s echoes still reverberating in Disney’s imagination, there is a lengthy animation sequence melded with live-action – the first Disney film to do so since So Dear to My Heart (1948). And like Song of the South, Mary Poppins’ animation/live-action segment has a showstopping musical number based on a fictional word. The seamless use of animation – opposed by Travers – is mostly thanks to animator/special effects technician Ub Iwerks (who had worked with Disney since the silent era) adjusting the Technicolor camera and process that were previously used for So Dear to My Heart. Even with the advent of computerized animation today, Mary Poppins’ animation – steeped in the post-One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) limited animation aesthetic that would dominate Disney animation for the next few decades – is as flawlessly integrated as it appeared on its premiere.
The Sherman Brothers – Richard M. Sherman and the late Robert B. Sherman – wrote more film musical scores than any other duo. Robert was the melancholic half who mostly did the lyrics; Richard remains the jocular one who usually composed melodies (their duties were interchangeable, so it is rare to delineate each Sherman brother’s contributions). Near the start of their songwriting careers, they became staff composers at Walt Disney Studios after charting with a single sung by Mouseketeer Judy Harriet and, later, her fellow Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. 1964 would be a banner year for the Shermans, beginning with “It’s a Small World (After All)” for the 1964 New York World’s Fair (the attraction from the World’s Fair would reopen at Disneyland in 1966, where it remains). Their score and soundtrack to Mary Poppins came next. The final product is in the conversation for the strongest collection of original songs composed for a movie musical.
Those who have never seen Mary Poppins should skip the next four paragraphs and the two lyrical passages that follow.
Two of the early songs will be reprised multiple times during the film: “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “The Life I Lead”. The former is Bert’s primary song, like a working-class waltz, with the verses changing depending on when the reprise appears in the narrative. It is meant to expedite exposition, revealing plot points and locations through the only character who breaks the fourth wall. “The Life I Lead” will be used as George Banks’ primary song and leitmotif in the score – reprised and retitled as “A British Bank” and “A Man Has Dreams” (this latter reprise is sung with Bert, who sends Mr. Banks into deep thought without confrontation or humiliation) – and is composed like a march. With a set of lyrics like these, Mr. Banks’ character is outlined in a brisk couple of minutes:
A British bank is run with precision
A British home requires nothing less!
Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools
Without them – Disorder! Catastrophe! Anarchy! –
In short, we have a ghastly mess!
Moving into the middle third of the score, one encounters musical numbers that are known even to those who have never seen a clip of Mary Poppins: “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”. “A Spoonful of Sugar” will be Mary Poppins’ motif in the film’s score and is used to teach Jane and Michael to see busy work through a different lens: that, with the correct attitude, it can be productive and fun. Mary Poppins does not remark on Jane and Michael’s cleanliness much, but recall this is not the foremost problem that the children face, and this is largely resolved through this song. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is the greatest song with a fourteen-syllable word title ever composed – a lyricists’ nightmare to craft, yet impeccably performed and constructed. Both songs’ reputations are earned, but the best is yet to come.
Not all songs can be stunners, as seen with the nevertheless-incredible “Stay Awake”, “I Love to Laugh” (an entertaining diversion and nothing more), “Fidelity Fiduciary Bank” (its humor underrated), and “Step in Time” (which I admire for its choreography, not the music). “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” is a valedictory musical hurrah basking in unbridled joy. The song’s lyrics may seem simple, but given that it appears in the final minutes and considering what has just occurred, it is a musical and contextual triumph. Mary Poppins’ most resonant song is the one that does not trumpet uptempo energy. “Feed the Birds” is a masterpiece musically and thematically. The lyrics, shifting from E minor to G Major, on paper, do not initially appear singable. But the melody is perfect (the score’s best cue is “Mr. Banks is Discharged”, which combines “Feed the Birds” with “The Life I Lead”), allowing lyrics like these to appeal to the audience’s hearts:
All around the cathedral, the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares.
Although you can’t see it, you know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares.
To see the world through another’s eyes – especially those most in need (in which “need” is relative and appearing in various forms) – is worthwhile. It lessens the suffering of others, inspiring them to act in goodwill when they can. “Feed the Birds” and “Stay Awake” would be the only two songs that P.L. Travers approved of. The former encapsulates what Mary Poppins has to say.
The Shermans never wrote a better musical. Their work on Mary Poppins flows with the plot, incorporating the film’s central ideas without being pedantic or repetitive. Just a glance at what films they composed for afterwards will inspire awe: the Winnie the Pooh films (1966-2018), The Jungle Book (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), The Slipper and the Rose (1976), and beyond. This is not even diving into their works for the Disney parks!
Originally not invited to the film premiere because of her outspoken opposition to many of the cinematic decisions, P.L. Travers shamed a Disney executive into letting her attend. Travers appreciated Mary Poppins as a film, but not as an adaptation of her books – forbidding anyone involved in the Disney adaptation except Julie Andrews from starring in any other Mary Poppins-related adaptations (Travers specifically singled out the Sherman Brothers by name). Disney’s intransigence, recalling his conduct during the animator’s strike, strained relations between Travers and the studio. Recently, Saving Mr. Banks (2013) told the story of the making of Mary Poppins from Travers’ perspective, taking numerous historical liberties. Travers’ estate approved the production of Mary Poppins Returns (2018) – a sequel to this film.
Disney received that Academy Award nomination for Best Picture – the nomination itself was the validation he wanted from his Hollywood colleagues. In the years after the film’s release, years of heavy smoking were catching up with Disney. With no close friends at the studio, he told almost no one about his health. After Mary Poppins’ release, Disney would request the Shermans to come into his office on Fridays to talk about the workweek, and ask the Shermans to play “Feed the Birds” at the meeting’s end. "Feed the Birds” became Walt Disney’s favorite song from any film he ever made. According to Richard M. Sherman, following one meeting, with the final notes of “Feed the Birds” fading to silence, he remarked, “That’s what it’s all about, everything we do at Disney.”
Mary Poppins debuted to an America and a world soon to plunge into turmoil – most of which Disney himself would never see. Traditional, big-budget musicals like Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965) became cinematic refuges. Those three films had dominated American filmmaking in a two-year span and the major studios – taking a page from Fidelity Fiduciary Bank – wanted to make head-spinning profits. Many of these post-Sound of Music musicals could not match the standards set by those three musicals, and the widely-covered failures of these musicals would make the genre anathema to Hollywood by the next decade. Maybe it is because of this timing that Mary Poppins is so often described as a children’s movie. However one describes Mary Poppins, it is one of the final statements by a Walt Disney Studios still helmed by its namesake. Its production was turbulent in an era where changing tastes should have worked against it, but Mary Poppins rivals the best Hollywood musical movies.
^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Mary Poppins was upgraded from an initial score of 9/10. Mary Poppins is the one hundred and forty-eighth feature-length or short film I have rated a ten on imdb (this write-up was expedited before the write-ups on the films that will be the 149th and 150th).
This is the thirteenth Movie Odyssey Retrospective. Movie Odyssey Retrospectives are write-ups on films I had seen in their entirety before this blog’s creation or films I failed to give a full-length write-up to following the blog’s creation. Previous Retrospectives include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Dumbo (1941), and Godzilla (1954, Japan)
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