The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) on Netflix
NR19471h 50mComedyFantasyRomance
Walter Mitty, a proofreader, escapes his overbearing mother and his boss by daydreaming of adventure. A woman resembling his dream heroine draws him into a hunt for a black notebook.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/107,622 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
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Plot summary
Walter Mitty proofreads pulp magazines at the Pierce Publishing Company in Manhattan and slips into daydreams to escape his overbearing mother, his boss Bruce Pierce who steals his ideas, and his fiancée Gertrude. On a train, a woman who resembles the heroine of those daydreams sits beside him, kisses him and calls him darling, saying a man is following her. She is Rosalind van Hoorn. Karl Maasdam, newly arrived from Holland, leaves a black notebook in Walter's briefcase. At the mansion of Rosalind's uncle Peter, Walter learns the book holds the locations of the Netherlands' national art treasures, hidden before the German invasion, and that a man called Wilhelm Krug is after it.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Samuel Goldwyn briefly retitled the film I Wake Up Dreaming after commissioning a Gallup poll, but changed it back to James Thurber's title after angry protests from Thurber fans, as reported in a May 1947 Collier's Weekly article.
- Ken Englund and Everett Freeman began adapting James Thurber's story in January 1945, but producer Samuel Goldwyn rejected their script that December and sent Englund to work with Thurber for ten days; Thurber's suggestions were then largely ignored.
- Goldwyn had his writers customize the film to showcase Danny Kaye's talents, altering Thurber's original story so much that Thurber called the film "The Public Life of Danny Kaye".
- Kaye's best-remembered dream character, the women's milliner Anatole of Paris, whose ridiculous hats come from his loathing of women, was based on Antoine de Paris, a hair-salon professional of the era known for creating preposterous hairstyles.
