Fitzwilly
| Fitzwilly | |
|---|---|
 film poster by Frank Frazetta |
|
| Directed by | Delbert Mann |
| Produced by | Walter Mirisch |
| Written by | Screenplay: Isobel Lennart Story: Poyntz Tyler |
| Starring | Dick Van Dyke Barbara Feldon Edith Evans John McGiver Harry Townes |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Joseph Biroc |
| Editing by | Ralph Winters |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | December 20, 1967 |
| Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Fitzwilly is a 1967 film by Delbert Mann, based on Poyntz Tyler's novel, A Garden of Cucumbers, adapted for the screen by Isobel Lennart. Its title refers to the nickname of Claude Fitzwilliam, an unusually intelligent and highly educated mastermind of a butler played by Dick Van Dyke.
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[edit] Story
Claude Fitzwilliam serves as butler to Miss Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans), an heiress whose tremendous wealth is a myth fostered by Fitzwilliam; her financier father actually left her less than $200. "Fitzwilly" has been leading the household staff on numerous raids and swindles — including the operation of a fictional church and thrift shop — to maintain "Miss Vicki" in the lifestyle to which she is accustomed.
The staff's secret operations threaten to unravel when Miss Woodworth hires an assistant, Juliet Nowell (Barbara Feldon), to assist with her creation of a dictionary that contains all possible phonetic misspellings of words. Juliet is surprised to learn from Miss Vicki that Fitzwilly graduated with honors from Williams College, and she opines that he should be doing something more "worthy" than being a butler, like joining the Peace Corps. After Juliet inadvertently foils several minor operations, Fitzwilly becomes determined to get rid of her. He conceives a plan to court her in order to induce her to quit. Unexpectedly, the two fall in love. Still unaware of Fitzwilly's secret life, Juliet does quit when Fitzwilly refuses to discuss ending his life in service.
Almost immediately, Juliet stumbles upon evidence of Fitzwilly's past crimes, and returns to the mansion to confront him. Fitzwilly proposes marriage and agrees to end their criminal operations and tell Miss Vicki everything, but there is a problem: due to Juliet's past interference, the household is $75,000 short, and they have to the raise the money by Christmas Day. This leads to a complex setpiece in which the Woodworth staff orchestrates the robbery of Gimbels department store on Christmas Eve. Although the operation is initially successful, one of the household, Albert (John McGiver), allows himself to be caught to "atone" for his sins. He steadfastly refuses to implicate anyone else. Miss Woodworth casually blackmails the assistant district attorney ("the son of my oldest friend") into engineering a suspended sentence on a lesser charge, and blithely offers to write a counter check to the store to cover the amount of the take.
Believing that the staff is destined for prison, Fitzwilly uncomfortably toasts his and Juliet's engagement with Juliet, Miss Vicki and Juliet's father (Harry Townes). His discomfort is alleviated when it is revealed that Miss Vicki's dictionary has been rewritten as a screenplay, and sold to a Hollywood studio for $500,000.
[edit] Soundtrack
The film features an early symphonic score by John Williams, credited both on the album and on screen as "Johnny Williams". Notably the score includes "Make Me Rainbows", the film's love theme and end credits song and Williams' first collaboration with co-writers Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
The score was released commercially at the time by United Artists (and re-issued in 1980 by MCA Records)[1], and was referred to as the film's "original motion picture score" and not as the "original motion picture soundtrack recording" because instead of performances that had actually been heard in the film Williams opted to release arrangements designed for separate listening. In 2004 a limited edition compact disc was released by Varèse Sarabande's CD Club which paired the scores of Fitzwilly and Robert Altman's 1973 film The Long Goodbye, another Williams credit.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Fitzwilly". The John Williams Web Pages. http://www.johnwilliams.org/compositions/fitzwilly.html. Retrieved 2009-05-10.
- ^ "Fitzwilly/ The Long Goodbye". http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=vcl-0804-1030-2. Retrieved 2009-05-10.[dead link]
[edit] External links
- Fitzwilly at the Internet Movie Database
- Fitzwilly at AllRovi
- Fitzwilly at the TCM Movie Database
