Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Magical musical practically perfect in every way possible
”We decided to try something that would employ about every trick we had learned in the production of films... in an enormous fantasy, Mary Poppins” – Walt Disney.
There is only one word to describe Mary Poppins (1964); supercalifragilisticexpiali docious.
Mary Poppins is one of the most memorable movies in the history of Disney cinema, both visually and musically, and many regard it as Walt Disney’s crowning achievement.
Certainly, it is the biggest hit in the history of the studio, both critically and financially, and the kind of movie that will continue to play forever.
And, in most regards, it is a masterwork. The accumulation of 35 years of work, the film used every trick in the trade pioneered at the Disney studio.
Walt Disney first became aware of the Poppins books, published in 1934, early in the 40s when one of his daughters was reading them.
Quick to recognise their cinematic potential, Walt began to try and acquire the film rights from author P. L. Travers, who was a mass of contradictions and very frustrating to deal with.
It took 20 years to convince her and, in the early 60s, she finally capitulated on the condition that she should be a consultant on any film projects featuring Mary Poppins.
The fact that Walt made the unprecedented decision to agree to such an arrangement shows how eager he was to obtain the rights.
With the screen rights obtained Walt assigned the talented songwriting siblings Richard and Robert Sherman to weave 16 unforgettable tunes that included the Academy Award-winning Chim Chim Cheree into the story.
Feed The Birds would become Walt’s personal favourite. He found the song about the old bird woman who sells bread crumbs at St Paul’s Cathedral as deeply spiritual.
Can you imagine Bette Davis as Mary Poppins? The screen veteran was under consideration for the plum role in what could have been a disaster in miscasting.
Fortunately, in 1961, Walt saw Julie Andrews in her Broadway hit Camelot. He visited her backstage and launched into an all-out rendition of the Mary Poppins story. Later, Julie agreed to make her motion picture debut in her
Best Actress Academy Awardwinning performance as the magical, enigmatic enchantress.
Walt also engaged Dick Van Dyke, whose American TV show was at the height of its popularity, to play Bert, together with a cast of American and British veterans.
The magical combination of the creative writing team of Bill Walsh and Don da Gradi and
long-serving Disney special effects men Peter Ellenshaw Eustace Lycett and Robert A. Mattey enabled Mary Poppins to float over London on a cloud, slide up banisters, hold a tea party on the ceiling, dispense different coloured medicines from one bottle and walk up a staircase made of smoke.
The Technicolor in this family
classic is, needless to say, dazzling, especially during the holiday sequence.
There is so much in Mary Poppins that the result is almost overpowering, especially to this film buff who, at age 13, sat spellbound in Scotland’s most luxurious cinema, the Odeon in Glasgow’s Renfield Street, during the summer of 1964, followed
by subsequent screenings at the Pavilion Cinema in Airdrie, including free complimentary admission for four that I enthusiastically shared with my best pals, John Quinn, Violet Jarvie, and Ann Purchase.
The public response to Mary Poppins was unlike any reaction to previous Disney films. Bolstered by fantastic
reviews, as well as the most high-powered promotional campaign ever launched by the studio, the masterpiece earned an unbelievable $45 million from worldwide showings and won five Academy Awards.
Mary Poppins will always have a very special place in my movie memories; it is “practically perfect in every way”.