This article is about the 1967 film. For the Broadway musical, see Thoroughly Modern Millie (musical).
Thoroughly Modern Millie
is a 1967 musical comedy film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Julie Andrews, James Fox, Mary Tyler Moore, John Gavin, Carol Channing, Beatrice Lillie (in her last film role), Pat Morita and Jack Soo.
The screenplay was by Richard Morris, who was inspired by a 1956 British musical called Chrysanthemum
. His effort won him a Writers Guild of America award for Best American Musical. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and five Golden Globes. It won the Academy Award for Original Music Score (composed by Elmer Bernstein) and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for Channing.
The songs used in the production were primarily songs from the 1910s and 1920s. The most recognizable song used, by title at least, was probably "Baby Face". Another song recognizable by melody but not necessarily by name was 1919's "Jazz Baby", for which the film's producers found they had to acquire the rights from General Mills, who had used the tune with various lyrics to promote Wheaties for over 40 years.
The film was successfully adapted for the stage under the same name in the early 2000s. The stage version contained original music as well as a subset of the old songs used in the film.
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THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE TICKETS
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Plot
Millie Dillmount (Julie Andrews) befriends Miss Dorothy Brown (Mary Tyler Moore) from California as she checks into the Priscilla Hotel. At the desk is Mrs. Meers (Beatrice Lillie), the house mother who tells Millie that the room Miss Dorothy is taking is directly opposite hers as the previous occupant, Ethel Peace, who had only just checked in, has just checked out and returned to
Wyoming, much to Millie's confusion as Ethel has no family there. When Mrs. Meers asks Miss Dorothy if she has a big family, she reveals that she's an orphan, and Mrs. Meers remarks "Sad to be all alone in the world". Unbeknownst to Millie is that Mrs. Meers is actually selling girls into
white slavery.
At a friendship dance in the hall, Millie meets Jimmy Smith (James Fox), a man who sells paper clips, and to whom Millie takes an instant liking. However, Millie is planning to find work as a
stenographer and marry her boss. She finds work at the Sincere Trust, and sets her sights on her boss, Trevor Graydon (John Gavin). Jimmy later takes her and Miss Dorothy on an outing to Long Island where they meet the
eccentric widow, Muzzy (Carol Channing), whose gardener was Jimmy's father.
Millie is falling in love with Jimmy, but she is determined to stick to her plan of marrying Trevor Graydon. One morning, she goes to work dressed as a
flapper, and attempts to seduce him, but her attempt fails. Eventually, Trevor sees Miss Dorothy and falls in love with her straight away, and vice-versa, leaving Millie heartbroken. After booking a table for them and ordering some roses for Miss Dorothy, Millie starts crying.
Meanwhile, Jimmy's attempts to talk to Millie are continually thwarted by the no nonsense Miss Flannery (Cavada Humphrey), the head stenographer. He eventually climbs up the building and when he finally gets to talk to Millie, she tells him she is quitting her job since Mr. Graydon is no longer available.
Mrs. Meers spends most of the film trying to capture Miss Dorothy to sell her into slavery, even injecting a knockout drug into an apple, but Millie always seems to show up at a crucial moment. At one point, she sprays sleeping gas all over Miss Dorothy's room, but does not wear a gas mask, and ends up getting picked up by her two bumbling Chinese henchmen (Jack Soo and
Pat Morita). The second time around, her plot succeeds, and Millie finds Trevor Graydon drowning his sorrows, and he tells her Miss Dorothy stood him up and checked out of the hotel. Millie and Jimmy soon suspect something is not right.
Jimmy climbs into Miss Dorothy's room and lets Millie in, and they find all of Miss Dorothy's
possessions still there. When Jimmy remarks that a girl just doesn't check out without a word to anyone, Millie remembers that Ethel Peace did, and so did two other girls that Millie knew, and Mrs. Meers was the only person who knew. Suddenly, they hear Mrs. Meers's laundry basket with the squeaky wheel coming, so they both hide under the bed and watch as Mrs. Meers and the two Chinese take all Miss Dorothy's things and dump the roses Millie ordered in the wastebasket. When they are gone, Jimmy sniffs the roses and tells Millie they are doped. Later, along with Trevor Graydon, they try to piece the puzzle together. When Jimmy asks what all the missing girls had in common, Millie says that they all had nothing, and that they were all alone in the world before she suddenly remembers that Mrs. Meers is always saying, "Sad to be all alone in the world," like she did to Miss Dorothy when she revealed she was an orphan.
Jimmy disguies himself as a woman named Mary Jane, and tells Millie in front of Mrs. Meers that he does not know a soul in New York except at the orphanage, and just as they expected, Mrs. Meers says, "Sad to be all alone in the world". Later, Jimmy is captured by Mrs. Meers and Bun Foo, played by Jack Soo, and Millie chases after them. She ends up being led to
Chinatown where she tries to blend in with everyone else by smoking a cigarette while continuing with her search. Meanwhile, the unconscious Jimmy is carried into a room in a fireworks factory where Miss Dorothy is sleeping. She wakes up and runs to find a phone where she is grabbed by Ching Ho, played by Pat Morita. Millie throws her cigarette in an open window after choking on it, not realising that she has just thrown it into the fireworks factory. As a series of explosions tear through the building, Millie dashes into the factory where she finds several white girls tied up and about to be sent off to a Tart House in
Peking. She unties a couple, who then free the other girls, and then bumps into Miss Dorothy. They carry Jimmy out of the building, and head for Long Island and Muzzy.
Mrs. Meers, Bun Foo, and Ching Ho follow Mille and the gang, but Muzzy, Millie, Miss Dorothy and Jimmy deal with the Chinese Americans with great ease, and Muzzy ropes Mrs. Meers, who falls off a bridge into a lake. Afterwards, Millie discovers that Jimmy and Miss Dorothy are brother and sister, and Muzzy is their stepmother. Muzzy explains to Millie that Miss Dorothy and Jimmy were being pursued by people who were only after their money, so she sent them out into the world to find partners who would love them for who they were, and not for their money. A triple wedding follows with Millie marrying Jimmy, Miss Dorothy marrying Trevor Graydon, and Muzzy marrying a man with his back to the camera.
Cast
- Julie Andrews: Millie Dillmount
- James Fox: Jimmy Smith
- Mary Tyler Moore: Miss Dorothy Brown
- John Gavin: Trevor Graydon
- Carol Channing: Muzzy
- Beatrice Lillie: Mrs. Meers
- Jack Soo: Bun Foo
- Pat Morita: Ching Ho
Soundtrack album
The film's soundtrack was released under the Decca label as DL 1500.
Side 1
#Prelude - "Thoroughly Modern Millie" - Julie Andrews (2:42)
#Overture - Orchestra (3:34)
#Jimmy - Julie Andrews (3:05)
#The Tapioca - Julie Andrews and James Fox (2:57)
#Jazz Baby - Carol Channing (2:41)
#Jewish Wedding Song "Trinkt Le Chaim" - Julie Andrews (3:43)
Side 2
#Intermission Medley - Julie Andrews (3:40)
#Poor Butterfly - Julie Andrews and John Gavin (3:32)
#Rose of Washington Square - "Blues Singer" (1:15)
#Baby Face - Julie Andrews (2:43)
#Do It Again - Carol Channing (2:01)
#Thoroughly Modern Millie Reprise - Julie Andrews (:58)
#Exit Music - Orchestra (2:36)
Differences in the Stage Show
The soundtrack differs greatly, with only 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' and 'Jimmy' featuring.
Millie is not British, but from Kansas.
Jimmy and Millie do not get along initially, and Jimmy is portrayed as a much more hedonistic playboy than the simply fun-loving Jimmy in the film. Furthermore, Millie does not desert her desire to be a Modern in the finale -- it is her independence which Jimmy finds attractive.
Mrs. Meers is actually Daisy Crumpler, a failed stage actress (though she doesn't admit it to herself) who is living a yellow-face performance as Mrs. Meers. The audience see her speaking to Bun Foo and Ching Ho in an American accent several times.
A sub-plot features Mrs. Meers coercing Bun Foo and Ching Ho into working for her, with promises that she will bring their mother over from Hong Kong, though she does not plan on honouring this deal.
Millie spills champagne on Dorothy Parker (and subsequently "cleans" it with Soy Sauce) instead of Catherine Tremayne. Furthermore, Muzzy chats with George Gershwin about his symphony, for which Gershwin has encountered writer's block. Muzzy then immediately sees Dorothy Parker and comments that Parker looks 'a rhapsody in blue' much to Gershwin's delight.
Bun Foo and Ching Ho's roles are greatly expanded (much more than merely being credited Oriental #1 and #2.) Bun Foo is more determined to work for Mrs. Meers, while Ching Ho falls in love with Dorothy.
It is Muzzy and not Jimmy who plays the bait for Mrs. Meers. Muzzy checks in under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Zazu Rosy Shmevmen
After being rescued by Ching Ho, Dorothy realises she is actually in love with Ching Ho, and that with Trevor it was just puppy love.
Awards and nominations
- Academy Award for Best Original Score (Elmer Bernstein, winner) [1]
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Carol Channing, nominee)
- Academy Award for Best Original Song ("Thoroughly Modern Millie," nominee)
- Academy Award for Best Art Direction & Set Decoration (Alexander Golitzen, George C. Webb, Howard Bristol) (nominee)
- Academy Award for Best Costume Design (nominee)
- Academy Award for Best Adapted Musical Scoring (nominee)
- Academy Award for Best Sound (nominee)
- Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical Picture (nominee)
- Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy Actress (Julie Andrews, nominee)
- Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress (Carol Channing, winner)
- Golden Globe for Best Original Score (nominee)
- Golden Globe for Best Original Song (nominee)
- Laurel Award for Best Female Comedy Performance (Julie Andrews, winner)
- Writers Guild of America Award for Best American Musical (Richard Morris, winner)
References
- NY Times: Thoroughly Modern Millie