Mary Poppins ***** (1964, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns) – Classic Movie Review 305

The beloved 1964 five Oscar-winning Walt Disney family musical film Mary Poppins is still an adorable treat. Julie Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar, Dick Van Dyke does the worst ever cockney accent, and David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns also star.

Based on the Mary Poppins books by P L Travers, the beloved 1964 five Oscar-winning Walt Disney family musical film Mary Poppins is still an adorable treat for one and all.

Julie Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for her delightful, iconic turn as Mary Poppins, the prim and proper new English nanny who comes to work for the unhappy London family of a cold, troubled banker, Mr Banks (David Tomlinson) and his wife (Glynis Johns).

As super-nanny to their two children, Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber), Mary Poppins can work magic and fly in with her umbrella whenever she’s needed. So she takes the children on some magical adventures and generally puts everything that’s wrong right.

Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent is famously terrible, but otherwise he’s a huge asset to the show as Bert, giving a smooth and effortless performance. He has no trouble keeping up with Andrews’s show-stopping turn, particularly in the sublime musical numbers.

The evergreen songs are classics in their own right, with the Sherman Brothers, Richard M and Robert B, providing both the music and the lyrics. You just can’t get the Shermans’ songs out of your head for days after seeing the movie, especially Oscar-winning ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’, ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’, ‘Feed the Birds’, ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’, ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!’ and ‘Jolly Holiday’.

The movie, directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, is mostly live action, as Travers demanded, but there’s also a mix of animation blended in with the humans that Disney wanted. Conflict on this apparently caused great friction between the author and the studio boss. Disney was probably right though. It does work very nicely. ‘Jolly Holiday’ provides the standout cartoon/live action sequence.

The great cast of Hollywood veterans (Hermione Baddeley, Elsa Lanchester, Arthur Treacher¸Reginald Owen, Ed Wynn, Reta Shaw, Arthur Malet, James Logan, Don Barclay, Alma Lawton, Marjorie Bennett, Marjorie Eaton, Doris Lloyd, Lester Matthews, Sam Harris, Clive Halliday, Betty Lou Gerson, Cyril Delevanti) is a real asset. And Jane Darwell (1940 Oscar winner for The Grapes of Wrath) is especially touching in her final role as the old Bird Lady.

The Oscars went to Best Actress (Julie Andrews), Score, Song (‘Chim Chim Cheree’), Special Effects and Editing. There was a total of 13 Oscar nominations.

‘Feed the Birds’ was Walt Disney’s favourite song in the film. Any time he visited the Sherman brothers, he’d just say ‘Play it’ and they’d strike up ‘Feed the Birds’. Nevertheless, it was ‘Chim Chim Cheree’ that won the Oscar.

The 2013 movie Saving Mr Banks tells the story of Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), P L Travers (Emma Thompson) and Mary Poppins.

Anne Hathaway was favourite to take the lead role in the 2018 Mary Poppins remake or sequel, Mary Poppins Returns. The new film is set 20 years after the original and draws inspiration from all of P L Travers eight book series, with Into the Woods director Rob Marshall on board. In the event, however, it was Emily Blunt who took the star role.

Glynis Johns turned 100 on 5 October 2023 and died in Los Angeles on 4 January 2024. She was the oldest living Academy Award nominee in any acting category and the oldest living Disney Legend. She appeared in more than 60 films over eight decades.

Glynis Margaret Payne Johns was born in Pretoria, South Africa, on 5 October 1923, the daughter of Welsh actor Mervyn Johns.

Her first husband, the actor Anthony Forwood, died in 1988, and her son, Gareth Forwood, died in 2007.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 305

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