Fitzwilly
starring
Dick Van Dyke
co-starring
Barbara Feldon ■ John McGiver ■ Edith Evans
(1967)
Fitzwilly Strikes Again!
| When Miss Vicki's father dies she continues with her charitable donations. Unfortunately, the family wealth is depleted and she is flat broke. Her loyal butler, Claude Fitzwilliam, known as Fitzwilly, leads the household staff to steal from various businesses by misrepresenting themselves, charging goods to other wealthy people and misdirecting the goods shipments, all to maintain Miss Vicki's standard of living and her philanthropy. With Fitzwilly's encouragement, Miss Vicki is writing a "Dictionary for Dopes" which contains all possible phonetic spellings of a word, and gives the reader the correct one, and for that she needs a secretary. Juliet is hired and she is suspicious and she discovers what is going on while at the same time falling in love with Fitzwilly. Juliet agrees to allow Fitzwilly to carry out one more big caper before they get married that will keep Miss Vicki comfortable for the rest of her days. I found this movie a few weeks ago while looking through Amazon's Prime Movies out of of boredom. I had little to do, and, even though Dick Van Dyke is not on my list of go-to actors, I decided to give the movie a whirl. I am glad I did! It was so funny! Seriously, they can't make comedies like this anymore. I laughed out loud several times, especially when elderly 'Miss Vicky' takes a young policeman to task and tells him that she is a taxpayer so his time is her time! In this day and age it's hard to imagine anyone getting away that! (I do support the police, by the way, but the scene really was hilarious.) One of the things that I found interesting is that this is Barbara Feldon's first credited role in a movie. I, of course, know her best from the three times I've watched all of the episodes of Get Smart where she plays Agent 99. Which, was roughly in its third season when this movie was released. I got such a kick out of this funny crime-ridden movie that I had my family watch it as well. None of them are big Dick Van Dyke fans either but they laughed just as much as I did. And, I caught some more funny lines/scenes the second time around. Seriously, if you are looking for a moral movie where everyone learns that crime doesn't pay, look somewhere else. If you want to laugh as only a 1960s comedy can make you laugh, if you need a break from all of the bad news, if you just want to watch a bit of fluff with a cute romance, Fitzwilly is the perfect choice. It's fun and it's funny!  1 hour 42 minutes | Principal Cast Dick Van Dyke...Claude R. Fitzwilliam Barbara Feldon...Juliet Nowell John McGiver...Albert Edith Evans...Miss Victoria Woodworth Harry Townes...Mr. Nowell John Fiedler...Mr. Morton Dunne Anne Seymour...Grimsby Norman Fell...Oberblatz Cecil Kellaway...Buckmaster Stephen Strimpell...Byron Casey Helen Kleeb...Mrs. Mortimer Filming Location(s) Samuel Goldwyn Studios - 7200 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA (studio) High Street, Moorpark, California, USA Steinway Hall, 109-113 West 57th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (piano store exterior) 1275 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (Gimbel's department store) Isaac L. Rice House, 346 W 89th St, New York, USA (Woodworth Mansion) 424 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (exterior of Lord & Taylor - closed 2019) Quotes Claude R. Fitzwilliam: [Opening lines] Once upon a time, the very privileged lived the way we still do, in quiet luxury, elegance, grace. It's an almost vanished way of life. Not easy to hold on to. And, terribly expensive to maintain. Juliet Nowell: Oh, my! I mean, hi. Claude R. Fitzwilliam: Good evening. Juliet Nowell: I didn't mean to sound so startled. It's just that I've never seen a butler in full reg before. Are there many of you left? Claude R. Fitzwilliam: We're - getting scarce. Like so many things, such as good manners. Grimsby: I hope you don't talk to yourself, Miss. She does and I do and we both hate it! Juliet Nowell: Platypi? As in many platypuses? Kid: We are the platypus troop. A manly and virtuous group. Opposed to almost every sin. We hate reefers, girls and gin. That's from our troop song. Grimsby: Fitzwilly, when old Mr. Woodworth died, there wasn't a penny and you started all this. It was Miss Vicki and I understood. But, it's different now. You're robbing Altman's and Jensen's and lord knows who else; because, you enjoy it. Claude R. Fitzwilliam: It's just - I'm so *good* at it. Juliet Nowell: No wonder you're so fond of him. Miss Victoria Woodworth: I'm not fond of Fitzwilly, I love him. So will you, when you get to know him better. |
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