Today is Dick Van Dyke's 100th birthday. And having grown up watching him, first in reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and later "Diagnosis Murder" in which he played a mystery solving doctor who worked alongside his detective son (played by his real-life son Barry), I've been a fan pretty much my whole life. I have a deep admiration for him and his work--if for no other reason that even at his age, he's still quite the hoofer (check out the Coldplay video he appeared in just last year if you don't believe me).
In honour of that, I felt compelled to submit this bonus film for the simple fact that I've loved this film most of my life. My mother took me to see it in a theater when I was four or five years old. She had always been a fan of both of the film's leading stars. As such, I grew up to be a fan of both of them myself.
I alluded to this movie in last week's film "sermon" when I talked about certain scenes within a movie. I mentioned specifically the tea party on the ceiling from this movie as being one of my favourite individual film scenes. In fact, being the compulsive list-maker that I am, if I had to rank them, I would put it at #3 on my list of all-time favourite scenes (behind the assassination of Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II and Wolfman Jack's scene in American Graffiti). Although now that I think of it, I would probably put the "Step in Time" number with the chimney sweeps on the rooftops at #4.
In spite of the fact that Van Dyke gave us what is arguably the worst Cockney accent in film history (perhaps eclipsed only by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the 2018 sequel), it's still a perennial favourite. It's one of the greatest family films ever made, arguably one of the greatest Disney films ever made, and one that I still like to revisit from time to time. Julie Andrews won an Oscar for what was only her first (released) film and became an overnight sensation as the titular magical nanny to two children. The songs that Richard and Robert Sherman wrote for the film are just as classic and still sung today including "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Feed the Birds," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," and the Oscar-winning "Chim-Chim-Cheree."
Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi wrote the screenplay based on P.L. Travers's series of children's books. Unfortunately, she was not a fan of the movie and was skeptical throughout the development process (for more on this, check out the 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks starring Emma Thompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney).
Released in 1964 and directed by Robert Stevenson, this week, in honour of Dick Van Dyke's centennial, please enjoy the one and only Mary Poppins. Like Julie Andrews in her Golden Globe acceptance speech, I too would like to thank Mr. Jack Warner for making it all possible. (You can look that one up, if you're not familiar with the story.)
This will be my last Film of the Week "sermon" for 2025. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, whatever holiday you celebrate (or even if you don't).
Until 2026, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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