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53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Find out why this musical was good enough to go to Broadway, January 29, 2003
"Thoroughly Modern Millie" is a reminder that once upon a time in Hollywood singing stars made B-musicals. Here is a classic example from the career of Julie Andrews that reminds us her career was not all mega-hits like "Sound of Music" and super-flops like "Star." Unfortunately for lovers of musicals Hollywood stopped marking movies like this, leaving singing stars with Olivia Newton-John with a smash like "Grease" and a bomb like "Xanadu" with nothing in between. I also have fond memories of "Thorough Modern Millie" because it was a movie that was shown to us in class in high school; the reason why we were allowed this privilege is beyond me, unless we were supposed to get an appreciation of the Roaring Twenties from this film (so why did they show us the original version of "The Blob?").Our flapper heroine is Millie Dillmount (Andrews), who has decided to be a "mod" and turned in her long curls for a stylish bob. Her goal in life is to marry her boss and after interviewing several possibilities she hits the jackpot with Trevor Graydon (John Gavin), who hires her as his stenog and calls Millie "John" (as in "Johnny on the spot"). Millie likes young Jimmy (James Fox), who impresses her by inventing a new dance called the Tapioca and being a swell kisser, but he is poor and Millie has her ambitions. Millie's best gal-al is Miss Dorothy (Mary Tyler Moore), who is sweet, innocent, and has lots of curls. However, the life of Millie and her friends are caught between two imposing characters. At the hotel for young women where Millie lives there is Mrs. Meers (Beatrice Lillie), who is always looking out for young girls who are "all alone in the world," like Miss Dorothy, who could be of use to a Chinese White Slavery ring. But Millie also encounters an unstoppable force for life in the person of the irrepressible Muzzy (Carol Channing), who lives the good life at her Long Island "Cottage" estate and pops up at key moments throughout the narrative. The movie is not a great musical, mainly because it does not have any really great songs (as evidenced by the fact that the current Broadway musical has almost entirely new songs), but it is still great fun. Director George Roy Hill takes advantage of Andrews' comic flair and the film has great fun with her double takes and comic title cards as Millie periodically comments on the proceedings. The movie does employ stereotypes of the Chinese, but you have to admit these are balanced between the comic relief of Mrs. Meers' henchmen (Jack Soo and Pat Morita) and the wise old Tea (Philip Ahn). "Thoroughly Modern Millie" won an Oscar for music and Channing was nominated for supporting role (she won a Golden Globe for her efforts, were clearly tailored to her style). But Lillie is a delight as well and I personally enjoy Gavin's mock-heroic performance. Moore just has to look sweet, although she does get to say a bad word (!), and Fox is charming although clearly too young for Andrews. Unfortunately the debacle of "Star" pretty much derailed Andrews' musical career in Hollywood, which is a loss because the comic flair she shows here is the same that she showcased in films like "Victor, Victoria" a couple of decades later. The good news is that the Broadway show will bring this film back to the public's notice; I am sure that is the reason I have spent the morning watch the film on TV.
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly Entertaining Millie, June 24, 2003
Julie Andrews. Carol Channing. Mary Tyler Moore. Beatrice Lillie. What a cast!THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (TMM) is a hoot. Director George Roy Hill keeps the pace fast and the mood light. He has Julie Andrews look into the camera often for funny effect. Usually a silent movie card is flashed onscreen when she does this, telling the audience Millie's thoughts ("Her beads hang straight.") The characters are broadly drawn, which makes the movie fun. Beatrice Lillie is the arch-villainess, and her severe makeup and beehive hairdo are hilarious. Mary Tyler Moore strikes the right chord as the virginal Miss Dorothy. There are several highlights for me: The opening number when Millie changes from 'plain Jane' to 'thoroughly modern'; any time a character has to dance in the tempermental elevator to make it go up or down; "Jazz Baby" with Carol Channing. About the disc: The print of TMM doesn't look that good. The movie was released in 1967, so it's over 35 years old. Some of the special-effects shots (even the wipes and transition scenes) look grainy. The colors could be more vibrant. This is probably the best print in existence, still one wishes the quality were better. The sound tended to 'peak' in sections too. TMM fans will be happy to know that the overture and intermission music have been restored. TMM is a funny, entertaining, old-fashioned film with great performances. Julie Andrews seems to be having a great time vamping it up. Enjoy it!
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"On the FAT side!!!", October 24, 2003
Even aside from her once-perfect voice, Julie Andrews has an amazing dry comic gift that is maybe akin to genius, and it never got a better showcase than in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. If you don't get it, you don't get it, but there are indeed many, many people who cannot even think of her facial expressions when she turns to the camera in this Twenties spoof just before her thoughts are flashed onscreen in intertitles without becoming helpless with laughter, and I confess to be one of them. This is the fullest chance she ever got to strut her comic stuff (especially when she decides to become "positively FATAL!").There are many problems in this George Roy Hill spoof: its overlength, its bizarre plot excursions ( Julie at one point announces she has to sing "Trinkt Le Chaim" at a Jewish wedding which she does for no possible reason other than no one previous ever possibly IMAGINED what this song would sound like sung by her), and Carol Channing does overdo it as Muzzy (when she gets shot out of a cannon, you want to duck). But, it has one of the world's alltime best running sight gags (an elevator that works only if you dance in it), Mary Tyler Moore's peerless attempt to do the dance known as "the Tapioca," which practically stops the entire show, and finally Beatrice Lillie's famously hilarious performance as Mrs. Meers. Casting Lillie, the absolute unquestioned master of dry British comedy, against Julie Andrews was nothing short of inspired, and when Lillie attempts to figure out which of many cups of tea has a sleeping drug hidden in it the movie somes close to comic genius.
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