Doctor Dolittle
Tags: cult, fantasy, flashback

Plot synopsis:
During the opening credits, which feature animations of various animals, the orchestra plays an overture of three songs from the film, most notably "Talk to the Animals." The action begins in the quaint 19th century English seaside village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. Matthew Mugg, an Irish fishmonger, meets his young friend Tom Stubbins, as Matt wheels his fish barrow around the wharf collecting fresh seafood for his customers. Matthew rescues an injured duck from a fisherman who intends to eat it for his dinner. As soon as Matthew finishes his rounds, he tells Tom they will take the duck to John Dolittle, the greatest animal doctor in the world. Matthew explains that Dolittle talks to the animals to determine what ails them. To explain further, Matthew sings "My Friend the Doctor." During the song Tom accompanies Matthew as he makes his deliveries to his customers. By the time the song ends, they have arrived at Dolittle's house. When a chimpanzee and a parrot answer the door, Matthew introduces Chee-Chee and Polynesia to Tom. After the introductions, they go into the library where Dr. Dolittle is trying to converse with some goldfish. He explains to Matthew and Tom that he is attempting to gather information about the legendary Great Pink Sea Snail. He soon plans to embark on a voyage to find the creature. Tom takes the duck out of his coat where he has been keeping it safe and hands it to the doctor. After a few quacks back and forth, Dolittle is certain that the drake has had a row with his wife. The doctor invites Tom and Matthew to dinner and instructs Polynesia, the parrot, to prepare for two more guests. Tom and Matthew had encountered a thunderstorm on the way to Dolittle's, so the good doctor furnishes them with dry clothes. When they return from changing out of their wet togs, Chee-Chee is frying sausages and bacon while a pig is squealing his displeasure. The doctor doesn't join them for dinner. He explains that he doesn't eat meat; it upsets the animals and besides one shouldn't eat their friends. In "The Vegetarian," Dr. Dolittle explains further. Instead of meat, he eats such things as apple cores, plain brown bread and drinks parsnip juice. He admits, however, that the sausages look very good and begins to waver in his conviction. At that point, he calls such things as turnip pie and peanuts filth and rubbish and proclaims: "I'm a cheat! I love meat!" However, when he hears Gub-Gub, the pig, squeal, he returns to being a reluctant but sincere vegetarian. When Tommy asks how he became a veterinarian, Dolittle explains that his sister, Sarah, started it all. At that point, the film flashes back to an earlier time when Dolittle was a human doctor and his sister was his house keeper. Sarah complains when her brother brings animals into the house and gives them sleeping space all over the inside of their home. Presently, Lady Petherington arrives to see the doctor. Her nerves are frayed because during a dinner party the previous evening a mouse had scampered across her table. While she is explaining this to the doctor, little white mice are crawling on her chair and onto her enormous bonnet. Soon the village's Vicar arrives with a terrible sneeze. He explains to Sarah that the Bishop is coming to visit and the Vicar needs to be in good health when he arrives. Then the village Magistrate, General Bellowes, arrives with a bandaged foot. Suddenly, Lady Petherington screams and runs from the doctor's office. Her screams cause other accidents that cause more problems for the Vicar and Bellowes. By the time they all leave, Sarah presents an ultimatum to her brother: either the animals go or she goes. Dolittle chooses the latter option. Later that evening when Matthew stops by for a friendly visit, Dolittle is despondent. He admits to Matthew that he is not a good doctor because he really doesn't care about his patients. He doesnt have anything in common with the human race. From its perch, Polynesia says, "Be an animal doctor." Dolittle immediately likes the suggestion. After all, he says, there's not one good animal doctor in the west of England. When he learns that Polynesia, a 199-year-old parrot, speaks 2,000 animal languages, he asks if he could I learn to talk to animals? The parrot assures the kindly doctor that he could and that she will teach him. Dr. Dolittle is so keen on this idea that he expresses his feelings in "Talk to the Animals." Later, Matthew, Tommy and Polynesia join the doctor in the song. During the song, Dolittle goes to bed still thinking about all the animal languages he can learn so he can speak to each animal when he encounters them. In the morning, he is still awake and continuing to sing (in his mind). Once he dresses for the day and goes downstairs, Polynesia helps him say good morning to Gub-Gub, the pig, by combining sounds with foot and leg movements. The doctor is so excited with his success in communicating with the pig that he informs Polynesia that he wants to say good morning to every animal in Puddleby (and the song continues as they greet various animals). After the song, the film returns to 1845. Dr. Dolittle informs Tommy that he has learned 498 animal languages. The doctor is reminded that he'll need more than languages if he intends to search for the Great Pink Sea Snail. He'll also need lots of money. One of Dr. Dolittle's patients is a short sighted horse, which he furnishes with gigantic glasses. However, the horse's owner, General Bellowes, bursts into the doctor's office and accuses the doctor of being a horse thief. A mother fox and her babies get extremely nervous at the sight of Bellowes; he has been hunting foxes lately and has chased the mother. When the mother fox runs away, the horse bolts and runs out of the office too. Bellowes chases them , but is foiled by some skunks. Dolittle explains to Tom and Matthew that he imported the skunks from America to help protect the foxes. He assigns each skunk to a fox to disguise their smell from the foxhounds. Emma Fairfax, Bellowes' niece, had accompanied her uncle to Dolittle's office. She chides the doctor for his irresponsibility and rudeness to her Uncle. She would like to be a man so she could take revenge. For her feistiness, Matthew gives her the nickname "Fred." Her horse had been spooked by the skunks, so she is forced to walk home. During her walk across the countryside and through streams, Emma sings "At the Crossroads." In the lyrics, she admits that her life is not the one she intended to lead. Later, Dolittle and his friends find a huge package in his yard. When they open it they discover a two-headed llama-type creature from Tibet, the Pushmi-Pullyu. A picture message from Dolittle's friend, Long Arrow, accompanied the package; the message encouraged Dolittle to use the Pushmi-Pullyu to make the money necessary for the voyage to search for the Great Pink Sea Snail. Matthew, Tommy and Dolittle take the creature to a nearby circus owned by Albert Blossom. Once Blossom sees the creature, he is so excited he sings "I've Never Seen Anything Like It." He calls all the circus performers out to see this amazing animal. Dr. Dolittle sings about the Pushmi-Pullyu's dance ability and he and the creature demonstrate with a minuet-type dance. Once Blossom agrees to share the profits, he and Dolittle finally agree on a deal. The Pushmi-Pullyu becomes the star attraction of the Dolittle and Blossom Circus and crowds flock to see the creature dance. Emma is seen among those in the audience. Later, Emma comes to the circus to complain about Dolittle exploiting the animals, but Matthew defends his friend. Matthew, who is infatuated with "Fred," attempts to help her understand by singing "Beautiful Things." He sings that our lives are full of beautiful things. By the end of the song, Emma seems to have changed her mind about the doctor. When the circus seal can't catch the ball thrown by his handler, Dr. Dolittle befriends the seal named Sophie and discovers that she misses her husband who is at the North Pole. Dolittle decides to take her to the Bristol Channel so she can swim to her husband. That night he sneaks her out of the circus dressed as a baby in a pram (perambulator). Once it is daylight, he dresses the seal in a woman's hat and clock he took from a tavern, so they can catch the coach to Bristol. When the road is blocked by police a few miles from Bristol, Dolittle and the seal transfer to a hay wagon. Once the driver stops, Dolittle talks to the horses into delivering the seal and the doctor to the rocky Bristol Channel shoreline. Just before he helps the seal into the sea, Dolittle sings "When I Look Into Your Eyes." Dolittle kisses Sophie goodbye and tosses her into the ocean still in the lady's clothing. When he turns around, two men are standing there; they think he has thrown a woman into the water, so he is hauled off to court.
Unfortunately, the Magistrate for Dolittle's hearing is General Bellowes (Emma is seen in the court room). Of course, everyone thinks Dolittle is daft when he claims the seal asked him to help her get to her husband. The Doctor attempts to prove his ability to talk to animals by staging a conversation with Bellowes' Great Dane, Rufus. When Dolittle translates the dogs report of the gigantic dinner the General consumed the previous evening, Bellowes takes offense and dismisses the court until the following day. When Tommy and Matthew visit the doctor in his cell, Emma brings Tom and Matthew dinner and tells Dolittle that Rufus was correct about her Uncle's meal. The next day, the General announces that Dr. Dolittle has been acquitted, because the lady who owned the stolen clothes refused to prosecute (there seems to be some indication that the lady is Sarah, Dolittle's estranged sister), however, the General and a couple of other judges agree that Dr. Dolittle's talking to animals necessitates his being committed to an asylum. As his last speech before being taken away, Dolittle sings a clever song, "Like Animals." The doctor admits to not understanding the human race and accuses people of inhumane treatment of animals. He also abhors human phrases like "treat him like a dog," "working like a horse" and "eating like a hog" (when we mean "eating like a man"). He also complains that we call a hoodlum a weasel or a rat and a woman of ill-repute a vixen or a cat. He chides the women in the courtroom for wearing furs by asking them if they ever thought they were wearing someone's brother or mother. After his song, Dr. Dolittle is escorted to the jail awaiting transfer to the asylum. Matthew and Tommy plot to break their friend out, but Emma is skeptical that their plan will work. Matthew tells her that he, Tommy and several of the animals will sail away to search for the Great Pink Sea Snail as soon as they break the doctor out of jail. Emma begs Matthew to allow her to come along on the voyage as their cook. Matthew doesnt exactly approve, but he hints that if she were to stowaway he wouldn't know where to look for her. When she kisses him for the idea, he sings "After Today." He is confident that one little kiss will change his life.
On the day the doctor is being transferred to a police wagon to take him to the asylum, Polynesia talks the horses into running away before the policemen board. She also convinces the police horses to buck and rear allowing the wagon to get away. Chee-Chee steals the keys to the police wagon so it can be unlocked to free Dr. Dolittle.
In the next scene, their ship, the Flounder, is at sea. Dolittle quickly discovers that Emma is on board and has prepared a vegetarian meal, seaweed pie, for them. When Dolittle objects to having a woman on the voyage, Emma assures him that she expects to be treated as one of the crew... and, as a matter of fact, she often ends up with the hardest and dirtiest jobs. During dinner, Emma asks where they are going. Dolittle explains that he randomly sticks a pin into any page of the map and they simply end up there. Emma can't believe their destination is determined so haphazardly. She begs the doctor to take them to exotic locations in the song "Fabulous Places." Matthew, who is still infatuated with Fred, also joins her in the song. Their protests are in vain. At the end of the song, Emma drops the pin on the map; it lands on the tiny Sea-Star Island, a floating island. During a fierce storm, the Flounder is torn apart. Dolittle, Matthew and Tom are floating on separate parts of the wreckage, but they have no idea if Emma is safe. As if it were planned, the Sea-Star Island comes floating by, so Dolittle talks a porpoise into pulling him on shore, while Matthew and Tommy paddle their parts of the wreckage. Shortly after they reach shore, Tom and Matthew leave to search the island for Emma. While they are gone, she walks out of the woods onto the beach dressed in her under garments (all of her dresses were lost in the storm). Dolittle and Emma both seem to realize they are mutually attracted to each other and express their feelings in the song "I Think I Like You." Suddenly, Emma and John are taken captive by a group of savages. They are taken to the village and are tied up in a hut where Matthew and Tom are similarly captive. Dolittle talks some mice into chewing through the ropes that bind him and he unties the others. When he looks outside, Dolittle discovers frost; the island has been blown off course by the storm. When the chief of the tribe comes to the hut, the doctor says, "Hello. Me Doctor Dolittle. Here little boy, late for school, here very cold. They all go home Puddleby, yes?" And in perfect English, the chief replies, "What a funny accent." The chief's name is William Shakespeare, the Tenth. He explains that they name their children after their favorite authors. Lots of ships have wrecked on the island and they have collected numerous books and treasures and have become quite educated and civilized. However, they do have some strange laws, such as the person who brings winter must die - meaning Dolittle. The doctor quickly learns that the climate change has caused health problems for the other living things on Sea-Star Island, so he, of course, doctors them. The chief, who is known as Willie, is impressed by Dolittle's healing powers, so the death sentence is lifted. Dolittle then gets the idea to ask a blue whale to push the island back on course, but when the island begins to move, a revered balanced stone falls into a volcanic crater. Disturbing the balanced stone also carries a death sentence. Just before that sentence is carried out, the whale pushes the island back into the African mainland where it belongs. Once again, the death sentence is lifted. Dr. Dolittle resumes his task of treating the island's creatures. When several of the island's children gather, Matthew, Tommy and Polynesia sing "Doctor Dolittle" to welcome the children to the doctor's wonderful world where crocodiles talk and elephants sing. After the song, they hear an unusual noise. The sound is the Great Pink Sea Snail sneezing. Dr. Dolittle concocts a tonic for the snail and in gratitude it offers to transport them back to England. Since the snail's shell is watertight and has room for several passengers, Dolittle sends Matthew, Tommy, Emma and his animals back, but decides to stay behind on the island since he would be sent to the asylum if he returned. During his goodbye to Emma, Dolittle tells her he plans to explore the moon on the Giant Lunar Moth. Emma wants to remain with Dolittle, but finally kisses him goodbye and tells him she will miss him. Once she gets inside the shell and the snail sails away, she starts to cry. A little while later, Sophie, the seal, and her husband turn up at the Sea-Star Island. She tells Dolittle that the animals of England have gone on strike until he is allowed to return and the authorities are anxious for him to come back. The doctor quickly constructs a saddle and arranges for the Giant Lunar Moth to fly him back home that very evening. As the film ends with Dr. Dolittle astride the huge insect, a chorus sings a reprise of "My Friend the Doctor."

Review: For, in my opinion, this musical adaptation by Leslie Bricusse of Hugh Lofting's delightful "Doctor Dolittle" series succeeds in a great many respects.
I was enchanted as a child when I saw it in the cinema, and I still enjoy watching it on video with my own children.The admittedly meandering plot combines elements from various of the Dolittle books, but it essentially concerns the Victorian veterinarian's quest for the Great Pink Sea Snail, an animal whose language he hopes to add to the thousands he has already learned.
Thus the first part of the movie takes Dolittle and his friends through several adventures on their way to earning the money to make the journey, while the second finds the entourage actually setting sail (on the aptly-named "Flounder") for Sea Star Island and their goal.
And, even if the musical *is* so front-end-loaded with big numbers that the second half seems anticlimactic, and even if the resolution of the plot's final conflict *is* jarringly abrupt, and even if the film's direction *is* a tad slow, it is *also* the case that I find more than enough pleasures along the way to compensate for these shortcomings.One is Bricusse's marvelous score.
Besides the Academy Award-winning "Talk to the Animals," he includes two other showcase pieces for star Rex Harrison's trademark "powerful patter" delivery, the humorous "Vegetarian" and the impassioned "Like Animals." Other up-tempo winners are "I've Never Seen Anything Like It" (brilliantly put across by Richard Attenborough--the twinkle never leaves his eye!--in what amounts to an extended cameo as wily circus-master Albert Blossom) and "Faraway Places," while tender ballads "When I look in Your Eyes" and "Beautiful Things" are very affecting.
And if "After Today" seems to have been pulled from the trunk of another show by mistake, the other Anthony Newly numbers--including "My Friend the Doctor" and "This is the World of Doctor Dolittle" (as well as the lovely "Where are the Words," which is on my soundtrack album but not in the video)--are spot on.Another pleasure is the cast.
The charming Doctor--kind to animals, children, and people from all walks of life; educated and capable but somehow sweetly clueless at the same time; gentle but rousable to anger on behalf of his charges--is a different character, and Harrison gets him right.As for the other leads, Anthony Newly, for once, is perfect as the elfin Matthew Mugg, while child actor and "whatever-happened-to" candidate William Dix is a fine if underused Tommy Stubbins.
And strong support is provided by the aforementioned Attenborough, Peter Bull as the beefy English squire who is the closest thing to a villain in this piece, and Geoffrey Holder as Willie Shakespeare, head of a quirkily-PC group of island natives encountered during the voyage.Finally, there's the appearance of the film: it's beautiful.
If you find you can't enjoy a musical unless it's shot on a soundstage, the wide-open spaces won't work for you, but I loved all the wonderful locations.This is a big movie, long and theatrically-structured (Overture, Act I, Entr'acte, Act II, and even Exit Music!).
:-) I recommend "Doctor Dolittle" heartily, and I think the family will enjoy it even more if, before you watch it, you read a couple of the original Dolittle books together first![P.S.-- don't be put off this film if you didn't happen to like the similarly-titled 1998 Eddie Murphy vehicle which billed itself as a remake.
In 1967 I remember sitting in the theater in awe of this tall Englishman that could sing & talk to animals.As an adult I can sit and enjoy another brilliant performance by the Late Great Sir Rex Harrison (God bless him!), this time as the Good Doctor Dolittle.
This family film is a treasure and it certainly is more to what Hugh Lofting envisioned compared to the recent Eddie Murphy films.If you ever have a chance to see this in a Theater - GO!The DVD has a beautiful transfer - I do wish the DVD had more extras, such as the two songs they cut for the final release.
So attached am I to Rex Harrison's personage to the character of Doctor Dolittle, when I see copies of Hugh Lofting's books without the movie tie-in shots I actually feel cheated.
Harrison is on-target throughout but, story-wise, momentum doesn't build until the second hour, when Dolittle and his companions hit the South Seas in search of the Great Pink Sea Snail.
Having grown up loving the music, storyline and animal interactions in the origional Doctor Dolittle, it was a jarring shock to watch the scatological-joke loaded remake.Doctor Dolittle is a wonderful clean family film, with plenty of adult jokes to keep the parents chuckling and visual slapstick to tickle the young ones' funnybones.
The music is top rate with the Oscar winning "Walk With the Animals" leading the way as the good Doctor searches for the Great Pink Sea Snail, encountering a number of wacky adventures along the way.Doctor Dolittle would make a great companion to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for an evening of old fashioned family entertainment.
The songs like Talk with the Animals and the song about the Pushme-Pullyou are sure to have your children singing and dancing, while other songs like Beautiful People (not the song by Melanie) will draw in even the most adult audience.This movies comes from a time when people hoped to be able to look to a future without the problems that plagued our past.
Clocking in at over two and half hours long, it's not hard to see why critics of the time dubbed it Doctor Does Little.Rex Harrison plays Dolittle with a sense of grace and charm, and allowing for the fact that he hadn't wanted to do the project in the first place, it's with much credit that he carries the film on his shoulders and makes it certainly worth a viewing at least once.
Emma Fairfax (Samantha Eggar} is a pointless character that the film really didn't need, and Eggar's screech like timing with the tunes is almost unwatchable, yet even she isn't the worst thing in the film, that accolade falls to Anthony Newley who is unwatchable as Matthew Mugg.
If so, you'll find a few charms ("Talk to the Animals" and "When I Look Into Your Eyes" numbers, great production values and a very game Rex Harrison) and riches of embarrassments.It actually starts off fairly well with Anthony Newley introducing Dolittle and explaining how the doctor shifted from human patients to animals.
At the beginning of the film, there was even a hint of a possible Love Triangle between Harrison, Emma Fairfax (Eggar) and Newley which was also apparently cut.
After watching this movie yesterday, and, then reading all of the poor reviews and negative online information about it...I just cannot believe it!?!?This movie, to me, has a wonderful cast; storyline; music; animal choreography; scenery; props; settings; etc...everything there is to like about a movie, and nothing to dislike.
In 1967, teens wanted to hear The Rolling Stones and The Beatles sing, not, Rex Harrison and Anthony Newly; whereas, most parents (adults in general) can understand someone talking to a horse or a cat, but, talking to a snail or a flea!?!?If this movie was made twenty or more years earlier (somewhere in between "The Wizard Of Oz" and "Carousel"), it would have received much better reviews and been a money-maker.
On a rainy day, proud Irish cat-food salesman Anthony Newley (as Matthew Mugg) introduces blond pre-teen pal William Dix (as Thomas "Tommy" Stubbins) to the "greatest animal doctor in the world" – he's Rex Harrison (as John Dolittle).
"Doctor Dolittle" is a genius who can talk to all kinds of animals, in nearly 500 languages.
Harrison also butchers the strongest song in the musical; hopefully, he re-recorded Leslie Bricusse's "(If I Could) Talk to the Animals" at some point.
Perhaps the most memorable version was recorded by Anthony Newley...To add a love interest, the 20th Century Fox team slips a new character in "Dolittle" universe – pretty young Samantha Eggar (as Emma Fairfax).
Cut by half and presented in two parts as a TV Special, this work be fine entertainment for kids, but to make entire families sit through it in a movie theater veers close to child abuse.*** Doctor Dolittle (12/5/67) Richard Fleischer ~ Rex Harrison, Anthony Newley, Samantha Eggar, William Dix. Not so Absolutely Brilliant As Some Believe.
It's an enjoyable Comedy/Adventure/Musical/Fantasy movie about Dr. Doolitle, the animal doctor, and his journey to find the Great Pink Sea Snail in order to improve on his skills in animal languages.
Entertaining the whole way through, with catchy and witty songs, colorful performances, plenty of cute animals, and a script packed with imagination and a sense of fun.DOLITTLE was a favorite in my family, and I grew up watching it on a VHS we'd taped from an old television broadcast.
To me Rex Harrison was always "Doctor Dolittle", even though the film came late in his career.
So my views may be colored by nostalgia, although I recently saw the movie in its entirety for the first time in many, many years and found it to be great fun.The story has the feel of an episodic adventure, taking our heroes to different places and having them do different things.
Doctor John Dolittle (Rex Harrison) is a physician in 1840s England who is more interested in the various species of animals than in his human patients.
From there come legal complications, a jail break plot, adventure on the high seas, and still more fun on an exotic "floating" island.Harrison gives a signature performance as the good doctor.
His performance is pretty funny in an understated way.Singer-songwriter-actor Anthony Newley plays Irishman Matthew Mugg, one of Dolittle's few friends who, along with young Tommy Stubbins (William Dix), accompanies the doctor on his adventures.
Matthew introduces Stubbins (and the audience) to the wonderful world of Doctor Dolittle, and the two "ordinary" characters act as proxies for the audience amid the fantastical happenings that seem to follow Harrison's character wherever he goes.Lovely Samantha Eggar plays Emma Fairfax (affectionately known to Matthew as "Fred"), who first sides against Dolittle, but comes to be enchanted by the life he leads.
Miss Fairfax is meant to give the film a romantic subplot, but the intended romance is a bit confusing (surely Rex Harrison is much too old for Eggar).Richard Attenborough gives a tremendous, high-energy performance as Blossom, the owner of the circus.
Even if you don't enjoy roadshow-length family musicals, you must admit that the production is impressive from a technical standpoint (the sets, the cinematography, the special effects, the animal wrangling).I actually like DOCTOR DOLITTLE, directed by Richard Fleischer (20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA), better than its popular contemporary CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG.
It's pretty easy to see why audiences who flocked to see 2001 and Rosemary's Baby did not take to Dr. Dolittle, but it is is a delightful film - I actually prefer it to My Fair Lady, and I like the songs better too.
Rex Harrison is completely charming, the animals are all adorable, and Richard Attenborough's brief appearance is perhaps my favorite cameo of all time..
Based on Hugh Lofting's books about a veterinarian who can talk to animals, the film finds the eponymous doctor (Rex Harrison) searching for a mythic Giant Pink Sea-snail while on the run from a magistrate (Peter Bull) who plans to commit him.
Accompanying is Irish fishmonger Matthew Muggan (Anthony Newley), Emma Fairfax, a young lady of breeding (Samantha Eggar), Tommy, a likely lad (William Dix) and a number of animals including Polynesia, a talking polyglot-parrot.
Mixed in with the whimsical story are a number of uninspired songs ('Talk with the Animals' is the best of the lot) and dance numbers, some of which go on far too long (Richard Attenborough is good but his "I've Never Seen Anything Like It" production number seemed endless).
There are a lot of animals and birds in the film, and many that have small roles of "talking" with Dr. Dolittle.
This original film of the man who could talk to animals remains a fun movie for the family.
The story was good thought not what a meat eater and animal killer would like.I was a children's movie.
If you could understand and talk to animals like the new movies would you eat "your friends".
The talk to the animals number is great.It is one of many movies that were under valued at the time of their release.
Certainly computer graphics would have been easier than all the animals that director Richard Fleischer had to deal with and who ran the budget up so bad with their difficulties there was no way this film could have made money.Still Rex Harrison for all the difficulties encountered plays the fantasy doctor who's learned the animal languages and can speak with them plays it absolutely straight under some trying circumstances.
Just read some of the trivia on the film and you'll see what he, Anthony Newley, young William Dix, and Samantha Eggar had to deal with.Anthony Newley and his song writing partner Leslie Bricusse contributed the score which included the Academy Award winning Talk to the Animals which Sammy Davis, Jr. enjoyed a hit record from.
The film does look colourful, with beautiful costumes, scenery and photography, the music and songs are gorgeous and memorable and Rex Harrison's lead performance is superb.
But it takes more than special effects to make a movie really special, yes, this film has great songs from Anthony Newley..
I kept thinking there might be some romance between someone in the film - Samantha Eggar and Rex Harrison...
anything that would give this story a little life.Rex Harrison is a great actor and carried this exhausting effort as bravely and heartily as he possibly could, however, in the end, it was a pointless story that dragged on and on and on."Talk to the Animals" was a reasonably good song for a musical, however, the rest of the songs rated "banal" in my estimation.
He then discovers he has the ability to actually communicate with animals, an ability which ends up getting him arrested and on trial for his sanity.Rex Harrison, fresh off his Oscar win for My Fair Lady comes off a little stiff in the title role.
Anthony Newley plays his over eager sidekick Matthew, Samantha Eggar is lovely as the obligatory love interest, and Richard Attenborough nails a cameo as a circus owner named Mr. Blossom.The lackluster musical score by Newley and Leslie Bricusse (who also wrote the screenplay) includes "My Friend the Doctor", "Beautiful Things", "When I Look in Your Eyes", "At the Crossroads", "After Today" "Never Seen Anything Like it" (delightfully performed by Attenborough) and the Oscar winner for Best Song of 1967, "Talk to the Animals." The film is overlong and interest wanes long before the final fadeout, but small children might find some fun here.
Like Ronald Dahl's "Willy Wonka" and "Matilda", "Doctor Dolittle" is really not a musical for children, extremely dark in its themes, even though it would appeal to young audiences because of its usage of many different animals.
This leads to confrontations with the imperious General (Peter Bull) and his uppity niece (Samantha Eggar in an impressive musical performance) and the adventures which Dolittle and his various friends take as he explores his ability to "talk to the animals".There's so much to like here, starting with Harrison's performance.
Children might love the animals, real and imagined, but they will find the story a bit heavy, especially if they've seen the totally unrelated Eddie Murphy film.A stage production of this toured the United States to mixed reviews, but even though it performed at the Macy's Parade (with Tommy Tune in the title role), it never made it onto the Broadway stage.
Studios looked at "The Sound of Music," "Mary Poppins" and "My Fair Lady" and tried to duplicate their success, but they seemed to have paid attention to all the wrong things.The adaptation of a popular children's book (like "Mary Poppins") was a good idea, but rather than attempt to recreate the rather dumpy doctor described in the books ("Mary Popping"s David Tomlinson would have been great, but he lacked marquee value, likewise "Dolittle"s, circus-owner, Richard Attenborough would have made a great Dolittlecertainly a livelier one) they opted for the stiff and starchy Rex Harrison.
I think fans of Rex Harrison may like the movie, for it is what he does film after film, and it is a pretty good showcase for the phenomenon that was Anthony Newly (an oddly fascinating actor/singer whose unconventional looks and singing style could only have made it in the 60s), but "Doctor Dolittle" is dreary when it should be cheerful, lumbering when it should be light-hearted, and long-long-long.
If the academy were looking to nominate a musical, they should have nominated "Thoroughly Modern Millie," which was far better.You have to give credit though to song writer Leslie Bricusse for writing songs to fit Rex Harrison's limited voice range.The real delights of the film are Samantha Eggar (did she sing?) and Anthony Newley, both of whom were wonderful in their respective parts.The plot is quite ridiculous.
DOCTOR DOLITTLE is the famous film version of the Hugh Lofting novels, starring Rex Harrison as the fellow with a penchant for communicating with animals large and small.
Harrison may have been one of the less friendly stars of his age but he fits the role like a glove and Anthony Newley and Samantha Eggar give good support too.
I found the acting to be excellent, the stories were funny and exciting and I still remember the lyrics to songs like, "My Friend The Doctor" right out of the movie.
Basically Golden Globe nominated Sir Rex Harrison plays Dr. John Dolittle, a doctor veterinarian who has the ability to communicate with animals, difference with this to Murphy's version is the animals don't talk (apart from a parrot).