Doctor Dolittle (film)
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| Doctor Dolittle | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
| Produced by | Arthur P. Jacobs |
| Written by | Hugh Lofting (novels) Leslie Bricusse (screenplay) |
| Starring | Rex Harrison Samantha Eggar Anthony Newley Richard Attenborough |
| Music by | Leslie Bricusse |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) | 1967 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 152 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $18,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Doctor Dolittle is a 1967 musical film which tells the story of a doctor who learns from his pet parrot to talk to animals. The film stars Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley and Richard Attenborough. It also featured the last film appearance of chimpanzee actor Cheeta. It was photographed in 70 mm Todd-AO by Robert Surtees.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
In the mid 1800s, in the town of Puddleby-by-the-Marsh, England, Irishman Matthew Mugg (played by Anthony Newley) takes his adolescent friend Tommy Stubbins (William Dix) to visit eccentric veterinarian Dr. John Dolittle (Rex Harrison). Dolittle, a former doctor, lives with a house full of animals - pigs, monkeys, goats, and a talking parrot named Polynesia (voiced by Ginny Tyler) among them.
The night is stormy, so Tommy and Matthew stay with Dolittle, and he tells them the story of how he learned to speak animal languages, of which he can now speak almost 500. He is currently attempting to master goldfish, so he can go on a quest for the mythical Great Pink Sea Snail.
The following day, a short sighted horse seeks Dolittle's optometric assistance, but the horse's owner - General Bellowes (Peter Bull) - takes offence to Dolittle's notions of talking animals and the disagreement leads to an argument in which several animals get involved. Bellowes' niece Emma Fairfax (Samantha Eggar) chides Dolittle for his irresponsibility, but all it gets her is the nickname "Fred" given her by Dolittle and a slightly attracted Matthew.
Things take a turn, however, when a friend of Dolittle's from Africa sends him the rare two-headed llama-type creature, the Pushme-Pullyu. Matthew and Dolittle take the creature to a nearby circus, run by philanthropist Albert Blossom (Richard Attenborough), who immediately makes the Pushme-Pullyu the star attraction. Emma is less than enchanted by society's sudden interest in Dolittle. Meanwhile, the doctor befriends a seal named Sophie who longs to return to her family. He sneaks her from the circus, disguises her as a sickly old woman, and throws her into the ocean from some cliffs. However a witness - seeing the seal's clothing - thinks he threw a woman into the ocean, and Dolittle is arrested.
During Dolittle's trial, he is horrified to learn that General Bellowes is the judge; and his defense - that the seal asked him to do it - is mocked openly. Emma, Matthew and Tommy take pity on the doctor and attempt to get him out, but even when Dolittle seems to prove his abilities in court, Bellowes orders him to be locked up in an insane asylum. With the help of Polynesia and the chimp Chee-Chee (Cheeta), Dolittle's friends break him out of prison and he, Matthew, Tommy and several of the animals take a ship out onto the ocean to search for the snail.
To the men's surprise, Emma has snuck on board with them and she asks to be treated as one of the crew--which she is, often stuck doing the hardest and dirtiest shipboard jobs. At dinner, Dolittle tells them the method he uses to find out where they will go - randomly sticking a pin into any page of the map and going where it tells them. Despite Emma and Matthew's fantasies of Tahiti or Barcelona, the map directs them to Seastar Island, a floating island off the coast of Africa. It is a legendary island apparently broken off from the mainland, which wanders the sea.
During a fierce storm, the ship is torn apart and the group separately float, on wreckage, to a nearby island, which turns out to be Seastar Island itself. Emma and Dolittle, when reunited, both realize that they share an attraction with each other. Reunions are interrupted, however, by the native population who take the human members of the party captive. The group is surprised to discover that the natives, despite holding to certain superstitious traditions, are highly educated by the standards of the day, speaking excellent English and having skills in art and culture. However, they and other living things on Seastar Island are endangered by climate changes due to Seastar drifing further south than its usual course into colder waters. The island's leader, William Shakespeare the Tenth (Geoffrey Holder), becomes impressed by the doctor's knowledge, especially when Dolittle asks a blue whale to help push the island back on course. However the whale's help also pushes a revered rock into a volcano, which earns the foursome a death sentence. Before it can be carried out, the island is pushed back to the mainland where it belongs and - for their part in it - Dolittle's team are welcomed as members of the tribe.
The group further help by making cough medicine and other medical treatments when the entire animal population of the island fall ill from the temporary climate change, and one surprising patient turns up in need of help - the Great Pink Sea Snail itself, who apparently made its home on Seastar Island. Discovering that the snail's shell is watertight and has room for several passengers in comfort, Dolittle sends Matthew, Tommy, Emma and his animals back to England. He himself cannot go back, since he is after all a wanted man; furthermore, he wishes to investigate the natives' stories of the Giant Lunar Moth, which apparently migrates back and forth between Seastar Island on Earth and the Moon, attracted by the sunlight reflected from one body after it arrives on the other.
A while later, Dolittle is living amongst the tribe when Sophie the seal turns up with a message: the animals of England have gone on strike without him, and he is to be pardoned if he will return home. Dolittle and the tribesfolk construct a saddle for the Giant Lunar Moth, and Dolittle flies back to England astride the great insect.
[edit] Cast and crew
- Rex Harrison - Dr. John Dolittle
- Samantha Eggar - Emma Fairfax
- Anthony Newley - Matthew Mugg
- Richard Attenborough - Albert Blossom
- Peter Bull - General Bellowes
- Muriel Landers - Mrs. Blossom
- William Dix - Tommy Stubbins
- Geoffrey Holder - William Shakespeare X
- Portia Nelson - Sarah Dolittle
- Norma Varden - Lady Petherington
- Cheeta - Chee-Chee
- Ginny Tyler - voice of Polynesia
Adapted by Leslie Bricusse from the novels by Hugh Lofting, primarily Doctor Dolittle's Circus and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle.
Directed by Richard Fleischer.
[edit] Songs
- My Friend the Doctor - Matthew
- The Vegetarian - Dolittle
- Talk to the Animals - Dolittle, Polynesia
- Doctor Dolittle - Matthew, Tommy
- If I Were A Man - Emma
- I've Never Seen Anything Like It - Blossom, Dolittle, Matthew
- Beautiful Things - Matthew
- When I Look In Your Eyes - Dolittle
- Like Animals - Dolittle
- After Today - Matthew
- Fabulous Places - Dolittle, Emma, Matthew, Tommy
- I Think I Like You - Dolittle, Emma
- Doctor Dolittle (2) - Matthew, Tommy, Emma, the Islanders
- My Friend the Doctor (reprise) - Company
[edit] Trivia
- Alan Jay Lerner was originally chosen to write the script, but due to creative differences, he left and was replaced by Bricusse. This gave Rex Harrison the chance to sit out his contract, and he was to be replaced by Christopher Plummer, but when Harrison agreed to stay, the producers paid Plummer his total agreed-upon salary to leave the production. The film was originally budgeted at $6 million, but the budget eventually tripled. The film's eventual $9 million box office gross was woefully inadequate to cover the budget.
- The film's 1967 release was accompanied by an enormous media blitz and over a million copies of the soundtrack issued to stores. The box office loss meant that - although the film was nominated for several Academy Awards - the media blitz failed, and soundtracks from the original release could be found in "bargain bins" for decades after the movie's theatrical run.
- In 1998, the film was adapted into a stage musical, starring Phillip Schofield as Doctor Dolittle, a pre-recorded Julie Andrews as the voice of Dolittle's parrot, and the animatronic wizardry of Jim Henson's Creature Shop — not necessarily in that order.The show ran for 400 performances in London's West End and at the time was one of the most expensive musicals ever produced. The musical also starred Bryan Smyth a former milkman and part time actor who then went on to host his own TV game show for RTE which became such a big hit it ran for several seasons. Bryan was voted by a leading womans magazine as Ireland's sexiest man. His repertoire ranges from light opera to jazz.
- Cheeta (Chee-Chee) is still alive as of January 2007. He is, in fact, the longest lived chimpanzee in recorded history. Born on April 9, 1932, he is currently 74 years old.
[edit] Academy Awards
The film won Academy Awards for Best Effects, Special Effects and Best Music, Song (Leslie Bricusse for "Talk to the Animals").
It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Music Score, Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment and Best Sound.
