Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Purely Joyful Movie!

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

It's 1922 New York City. Millie Dillmount (Julie Andrews) decides to start following the thoroughly modern trends. She is staying at the Priscilla Hotel for Single Young Ladies run by Mrs. Meers. Naive new arrival Miss Dorothy Brown (Mary Tyler Moore) is an upper class orphan from California looking to be a stage actress. Meers and her Chinamen are actually white slavers. Her next target is Dorothy. Millie has a fling with paper clip salesman Jimmy Smith. The girls meet Jimmy's friend eccentric widower performer Muzzy Van Hossmere (Carol Channing). Millie gets a job working for Trevor Graydon of the Sincere Trust Insurance Company. Unwilling to pursue the carefree Jimmy, Millie pursues Trevor instead but she's too modern for him. He's looking to marry someone old fashion like Dorothy.There are issues to overcome. This is a light-hearted spoof musical screwball comedy. The white slavery and menacing Chinamen are meant as throwbacks to old Hollywood but they do come with difficult baggage. The flat chest jokes are more lighter and easier to fit the comedic tone. The music is a mix of new and old. The Harold Lloyd thrills don't really fit. Then there is the awkward takedown of the white slavery ring. The premise just clashes with a light happy screwball comedy and it's kinda racist.

Roaring '20s musical is a fun, eager-to-please live-action cartoon with satire and slapstick. Julie Andrews plays a small town lass who has moved to New York City to land a steno job with an unmarried boss for her to conquer; Mary Tyler Moore is her timid new friend at the all-girl boarding house; Beatrice Lillie is their shady housemother; and Carol Channing (in an outrageous performance that must be seen to be believed) is a wealthy, swinging do-gooder. Tongue-in-cheek production from Ross Hunter and director George Roy Hill, inspired by the Broadway show "The Boy Friend", offers Julie Andrews one of her best film roles; whether dancing like a trouper to keep her elevator in motion or addressing the camera à la the silent movie era, Andrews is so loose and charming she even gets laughs crossing the street. There are a few slip-ups: the Jewish wedding sequence sticks out as an artifice, Moore's listlessly girlish performance is all on one note, and the Harold Lloyd-inspired comic ballet (with Julie falling out of a high-rise window) is too broad and silly. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, "Millie" picked up one Oscar for Elmer Bernstein's score (the smashing costume designs by Jean Louis probably should have won also). Overlong, and with a drab Universal backlot appearance, the film is nevertheless "delish!" Engaging, high-spirited fluff. *** from ****

a spectacular film. for each performance. for seductive story. for the old fashion mix of comedy, romance and crime. for the young and charming James Fox, for adorable Carol Channing and Beatrice Lillie, for the work of John Gavin and, sure, for Jilie Andrews. a film who has the great virtue to be an oasis. because it preserves the flavors of periods and the joy to see a kind of cinema who seems be, for decades, lost. a sunny cinema, charming, seductive, using cultural references - the apple of Mrs M . as simple example -, with actors who use a form of aura in acting , remembering legends and transforming the viewer in part of story. a film out of political correctness rules. and fresh , yet. again and again.

Since the success of Tom Jones in 1963 it wasn't just arty gangster flicks and kitchen sink dramas that were being done in "new wave" style. Mainstream cinema was suddenly swept by a fad of snappy editing, split-screen effects, freeze frames, etc, etc, etc. It was only a matter of time before that uniquely Hollywood genre – the musical – got that trendy overhaul. And Thoroughly Modern Millie is not just any musical; it's a vehicle for Julie Andrews, perhaps the last of the old-style studio-bound Hollywood superstars. But funnily enough, it works rather well.You see, the trouble with so many of these new wave pictures is they treat cinematic form as a set of toys, playing around with camera tricks but forgetting things like bringing out acting performances and not giving the audience a headache. However this is a musical, and so it takes place in a world where everything is a bit unreal and over-the-top anyway. And Thoroughly Modern Millie is an incredibly wild and wacky comedy of a musical, full of cartoony characters, impossible stunts and off-the-wall in-jokes. A somewhat extravagant technical style is not so much a distraction – it is more a positive necessity to keep pace with the madcap world in which the story takes place.And thank goodness for the good taste of director George Roy Hill. He keeps most of the visual excesses to the musical numbers, or to unobtrusive (and very funny) stand-alone gags such as the three-way split screen when Miss Flannery is listening on a phone call. He doesn't bother with any camera acrobatics in the normal dialogue scenes, which are shot with his usual simplicity and clarity. His use of characters looking straight into the camera, or jokes where the humour is all in a well-timed cut remind me a lot of the silent pictures of Ernst Lubitsch and Rene Clair. As in Tom Jones we also get silent movie-style title cards, but at least here they fit in with the 1920s setting.Thoroughly Modern Millie sees Julie Andrews at the height of her popularity, and after her prim and chaste star-making turns in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, revealing yet more strings to her bow. She shows yet-unheard vocal skills in "Trinkt Le Chaim", as well as a real flair for silly comedy. I don't know how James Fox ended up being cast as Jimmy since he is by no means an obvious choice, especially to play an American, but he works, displaying a kind of cheeky charm that makes us warm to him. The smaller roles are all perfectly cast. Beatrice Lillie is fantastic, like some cartoon villain, and is it me, or does she in one of her cod-Chinese tirades call her sidekick a "foo king fool"? The usually straight-playing John Gavin is absolutely hilarious as a caricature of the suave James Bond type. And of course Carol Channing is superb, her unique way of moving perfectly styled for the rendition of "Jazz Baby". Really the picture belongs to these delightful supporting players, unable to carry a picture but fully capable of stealing a scene or two.And perhaps this is really the only serious problem with Thoroughly Modern Millie. What with all the varied delights of its wonderful cast and cunning sight gags, it ceases to really be a Julie Andrews picture. It doesn't really allow her to connect with audiences in the way she usually did – there is simply too much else going on. As such, Thoroughly Modern Millie is certainly entertaining from beginning to end, and even has occasional moments of genius, but it lacks the romantic enchantment that makes a truly classic musical.