Tickets $10 – children 12 and under, seniors, teacher, active military $9
Richard Fleischer’s lavish Doctor Dolittle (1967) is one of the great big-screen family musicals of its era, bringing Hugh Lofting’s beloved stories to life on an enormous scale. Rex Harrison stars as the eccentric Victorian physician who discovers he can communicate with animals and eventually sets sail in search of the legendary Great Pink Sea Snail. Harrison is joined by Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley, Richard Attenborough, Peter Bull, William Dix, Geoffrey Holder, Muriel Landers, Portia Nelson and Norma Varden. Leslie Bricusse wrote the screenplay, music and lyrics, including the Oscar-winning song “Talk to the Animals.” The production was photographed by Robert Surtees in spectacular 65mm Todd-AO, giving its English villages, tropical locations, enormous sets and remarkable menagerie of live animals a visual grandeur rarely attempted today. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won two—for Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects.
Although enormously expensive and controversial upon its original release, Doctor Dolittle has become a fascinating example of Hollywood’s roadshow-musical era. Its large-format photography has benefited particularly from modern restoration: a later restoration/transfer was created from the film’s original 65mm Todd-AO negative, with a 4K-restored presentation revealing the extraordinary detail, color and scale of Surtees’ photography. Contemporary critics were divided. Variety called it an “imperfect gem” and praised Bricusse’s adaptation and music, while the Los Angeles Times found it “beautiful, often funny, often charming.” Later critics have continued to debate its excesses, but Time Out acknowledges the charm of Bricusse’s songs and the almost unimaginable pre-CGI spectacle of some 1,500 live animals. More than half a century later, the film can be appreciated as something Hollywood simply does not make anymore: a huge, colorful, eccentric, old-fashioned musical fantasy created almost entirely in front of the camera.
CAST: Rex Harrison (Dr. John Dolittle), Samantha Eggar (Emma Fairfax), Anthony Newley (Matthew Mugg), Richard Attenborough (Albert Blossom), Peter Bull (General Bellowes), William Dix (Tommy Stubbins), Geoffrey Holder (William Shakespeare X), Muriel Landers (Mrs. Blossom), Portia Nelson (Sarah Dolittle) and Norma Varden (Lady Petherington)
DIRECTOR: Richard Fleischer
SCREENPLAY & SONGS: Leslie Bricusse
RATING: G
RUNTIME: 152 minutes / 2 hours, 32 minutes
PRESS QUOTES — THEN & NOW
“An imperfect gem.” — Variety, 1967
“Beautiful, often funny, often charming.” — Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, 1967
“The delightful aspects” of Lofting’s stories are retained in Bricusse’s adaptation. — Variety
“The Bricusse songs…have their charms.” — Time Out
“The pre-CGI spectacle of some 1,500 live animals often works its magic.” — Time Out
Click play below for TCM intro about film.