Disney+ Deep Cut is a new regular feature looking at some of the more obscure or interesting items in the Disney+ library.
Disney is known for its musicals. That's mostly of the animated variety, of course, but there have been more than a few live-action musicals from the Mouse House as well. The most famous of them has to be Mary Poppins; it’s been a hit with fans for generations and it won more than a few Academy Awards. Above all, it's known for its Oscar-winning music, but there was something of a spiritual follow-up: a live-action Disney musical with music and lyrics by the Sherman Brothers that a lot of people likely don’t remember.
Three years after Julie Andrews won an Oscar Mary Poppins, The Happiest Millionaire came along. Beyond being a live-action musical from Disney, the two movies don’t have a great deal in common with each other, which may ultimately be the problem. Still, if you have a Disney+ subscription, it's a movie perhaps worth giving a look that you've likely overlooked before.
The Happiest Millionaire Is A Beautiful Mess Of A Movie
The Happiest Millionaire is about… well, it’s about a lot of things. It’s about seeing an eccentric wealthy family through the eyes of a brand new butler (Tommy Steele). It’s about an eccentric wealthy man (Fred MacMurray) trying to find purpose in the later years of his life. It’s also about the daughter of an eccentric millionaire (Lesley Ann Warren in her big screen debut) finding young love (with an also-new John Davidson). And if you’re wondering how a movie can be about so much at once, it’s easier when your run time is nearly three hours.
There’s just a lot of movie going on here, and it’s clear that nobody was quite sure what its focus should be, so it’s hard to find one. Once you think you have a handle on what sort of movie this is, the main character essentially changes to somebody else, and along with it so does the genre.
Watching The Happiest Millionaire on Disney+ is an odd experience because you get the full “roadshow experience.” The first two and a half minutes of the movie are just the film’s overture over a title card. This isn’t part of the movie, this is when you’d be going to find your seat in the theater before the movie proper starts. The intermission is also in place in case you want to know when literally everybody needed a break.
It’s One Of The Last Movies For Walt Disney And The Sherman Brothers
The thing that marks The Happiest Millionaire as a Disney movie worthy of note may ultimately have less to do with the movie itself and more where it exists in Disney's history. Produced in 1966 and released in 1967, it was one of the final films overseen by Walt Disney himself, who died in December 1966. Walt saw an early cut of the film at the studio in late 1966 and told songwriters The Sherman brothers, “Keep up the good work, boys.” In the 2009 documentary The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story, Richard Sherman explained…
And it was kind of strange because he never said something like that. And then he walked down the hall again. That’s the last time I ever saw him.
The Happiest Millionaire was the end for Walt Disney, and it ended up marking an end for The Sherman Brothers as well. The songwriting duo apparently stopped getting calls to do much work following Walt’s death, and the pair eventually left Disney to move on to other things. They would only work on one other project before leaving, The One and Only Original Family Band, which also starred Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson. That movie is unfortunately not currently available on Disney+.
The Happiest Millionaire Is A Fine Movie, But A Poor Disney Movie
If there's a way to sum up why you've probably never seen, or even heard of, The Happiest Millionaire, it's that you might find yourself wondering why a studio like Disney chose to make this film. There's something today we'd call Disney magic that you just don't find here. Not only is there no literal magic on screen, as there was in Mary Poppins, but the feeling of magic that so many of us get from Disney is also missing.
One gets the impression that this was an attempt to make a more serious movie. Perhaps there was a feeling that the reason Mary Poppins didn't win Best Picture was that it was ultimately a fantasy movie designed for children as much as adults, and there's certainly little argument that the Oscars, even in an era where musicals were much more respected, tended to favor more "grown up" movies.
But in trying to make something a little less Disney, the studio just made something that was less interesting. There seems to be less heart in it. Perhaps this was also a side effect of Walt Disney's focus. Not only would he pass away shortly before the movie was finished, but at this same time, he was much more focused on Disney World and his plans for Epcot than he was on the studio.
Why The Happiest Millionaire Is Worth Your Time On Disney+
The Happiest Millionaire is about 15 pounds of movie in a five-pound bag, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing in that bag worth checking out. It has a remarkably impressive cast that, in addition to everybody mentioned previously, also includes Geraldine Page and seven-time Best Actress Oscar nominee Greer Garson in her final big-screen appearance.
And there is legitimate fun to be had here. Fred MacMurray's comic timing was always impeccable, and the physical comedy (much of which involves alligators that live in the conservatory) is simple fun. And while a young Lesley Ann Warren would be cast primarily because of her signing ability, her gifts at verbal comedy that would serve her so well later in films like Victor/Victoria and Clue are obvious here.
The music of the Sherman Brothers certainly isn’t up to the level of the iconic songs of Mary Poppins here, but then what is? The worst Sherman Brothers' songs are better than most of the movie music that’s ever been written. The songs are fine and all enjoyable, they’re just also mostly forgettable, with the opening number “Fortuosity” likely being the only one you’ll still be humming when the movie is over.
If there’s a benefit to watching The Happiest Millionaire on Disney+, it’s that you can always stop the movie and come back to it later if you don’t have three hours all at once.
The Happiest Millionaire isn't the best Disney movie, but if you watch DIsney+ not simply for Star Wars and Marvel, but because the streaming service is a repository of 100 years of history for one of the most iconic movie studios to ever be founded, then it's a movie that should not be forgotten. Give it a chance and see what you think.
