Stubs - Fitzwilly

Fitzwilly (1967) Starring Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon, Edith Evans. Directed by Delbert Mann. Screenplay by Isobel Lennart. Based on the novel A Garden of Cucumbers by Poyntz Tyler (New York, 1960). Produced by Walter Mirisch. Run Time: 102 minutes. Color. USA. Comedy. Christmas.

The definition of a Christmas movie is pretty broad. While traditionally, a Christmas film would deal with at least the ideals of the season, being set during the season seems to be enough to land a film in the holiday bin or as part of a Christmas marathon of films.

Such is the case of Fitzwilly. Set at Christmastime, the film is really a heist comedy. Familiar settings like the now-defunct Gimbel’s department store remind you of the holidays and though there are Christmas and decorations around, these are really on backdrops.

Based on the novel A Garden of Cucumbers by Poyntz Tyler, Saint Subber, a New York theatrical producer, bought the rights to the book for the stage. 20^th Century Fox sought rights for a film but it was the Mirisch Corp. who ended up with film rights for $50,000. As with most films, the star was not the first choice, as Cary Grant and Alec Guinness both apparently passed on the film in 1961. The property remained unproduced until Dick Van Dyke took the role. At the time, Van Dyke was a major television star of his own series, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and had appeared in such films as Mary Poppins (1964).

Filming didn’t begin until October 1966, after the series had ended its five-year run, and took place at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Hollywood. The film wouldn’t be released until December 20, 1967.

Claude Fitzwilliam (Dick Van Dyke) is the butler and head of the staff at Miss Victoria Woodworth’s (Edith Evans) New York City mansion. Fitzwilly, as he’s called, keeps a tight grip on the staff, inspecting their work and giving subtle feedback on how things should be done. After all, they have standards to maintain.

Miss Woodworth doesn’t realize that her lavish lifestyle is being supported by Fitzwilly and the staff, who after-hours live lives more closely associated with Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Her father apparently left her nothing but debt when he died. As Fitzwilly will later state, he thinks of Miss Vickie as the mother he never had and tries to hide the realities from her.

Fitzwilly (Dick Van Dyke) is devoted to Miss Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans).

Food and liquor are ordered for one household, but end up at Woodworth’s on a fairly regular basis. The group even schemes strangers for donations by sending free bibles to the families of the recently departed. They also run a fake charity and thrift shop, St. Dismas in Philadelphia, run by Buckmaster (Cecil Kellaway), which serves as a place to fence some of their ill-gotten gains. They also run cons like the Samson-Delilah one we see in the film, a bar bet that relies on people’s misunderstanding of the bible. Turns out Delilah did not actually cut off Samson’s hair, but delegated the task to someone else.

Fitzwilly helps Oliver (Sam Waterston) (l) run the Samson-Delilah bar bet scam.

The household crew includes Albert (John McGiver), Pierre (Albert Carrier), Simmons (Nelson Olmsted), Charles (Noam Pitlik), Garland (Anthony Eustrel), and Oliver (Sam Waterston). None of them are out to get rich, but instead to maintain the lifestyle they get to secretly share with Miss Vickie.

Word has gotten around that the group can “fix” things for others. Interior designer Byron Casey (Stephen Strimpell) comes to Fitzwilly looking for help. Having been given $150,000 to redecorate someone’s Florida home over the holidays, Byron has already spent half and has nothing to show for the client. For the remaining $75,000, Fitzwilly promises to help, including silverware, china, and a grand piano, which he manages to take from a Steinway showroom managed by Mr. Morton Dunne (John Fielder) under, of course, false pretenses. He also uses the staff working in other jobs to funnel goods meant for one buyer to Miss Vickie’s address.

The arrival of Juliet Nowell (Barbara Feldon) could spell trouble for Fitzwilly.

Things are going according to plan when Miss Vickie decides to hire a new secretary, Juliet Nowell (Barbara Feldon), a grad student at Columbia, where her father, Mr. Nowell (Harry Townes), is also an assistant professor. Juliet’s appearance takes Fitzwilly by surprise. He had promised the job to the daughter of a friend, who would be in on the schemes. Despite an initial dislike of her, Fitzwilly allows her to be hired. Her job is to help Miss Vickie with a project Fitzwilly has had her working on, a dictionary for people who can’t spell, providing all the wrong ways to spell a word to help get the user to the correct one.

Juliet works with Miss Vickie on her dictionary for bad spellers.

Juliet will eventually get her father to have the college press editor to review it. Turns out it's as much about her father’s life as it is a dictionary, which interests the editor.

Juliet is close to her father (Harry Townes).

Fitzwilly has a plan to get rid of Juliet. He will make a pass at her and she will quit to get away. However, when he takes her out to dinner, it is clear the two of them have fallen in love.

Over dinner, Fitzwilly and Juliet fall in love.

While they try to keep their skullduggery from Juliet, she happens to see the uniforms they used to rob an Abercrombie and Fitch display of Sultan tents Miss Vickie wants for the cub scout troop she and Fitzwilly den mother. It is not until her father reads her the news story about the heist that she puts two and two together. When she catches Albert picking the pocket of charity agent Miss Vickie had just written a $20,000 check, he confesses everything to her.

Juliet snoops around and discovers what's been going on in the house.

Meanwhile, things get hot for Byron, as his clients have cut their overseas trip short and will be home and want to celebrate Christmas in their newly remodeled home, which only has a piano in it.

Juliet confronts Fitzwilly and lets him explain why they do what they do. He promises that he will give up a life of crime for her, but they both panic when they realize Juliet has let Miss Vickie send off another check she can’t cover to another charity.

Robbing Gimbel's takes clockwork.

This leads Fitzwilly to plan one last big haul, robbing Gimbel’s on Christmas Eve when they’ll have a lot of money on hand. The plan relies on timing and deception. Fitzwilly has the cub scouts singing at two of the entrances to the store and a salvation army-type Santa at another. This makes the crowd trapped inside the store swell. Security guards are sent to handle.

But Juliet happens to be in the store and at first blink seems to be ruining the plan by guiding the scouts out of the store.

Causing havoc by offering a free color TV with every purchase.

However, Fitzwilly isn’t done. He and his crew put up signs on the display windows with the offer that with any purchase, customers would be given a color TV. (At the time, this would be akin to offering a free PS5 today.) The crowd swells and more security guards are sent to the first floor.

The head of accounts receivable Oderblatz (Norman Fell) doesn’t like being left alone with the money from the day’s take and Fitzwilly comes to his rescue. Wearing a wig and a mustache, he pretends to be from the insurance company with orders to remove money for safekeeping. Oderblatz is convinced and gives him $190,000. Fitzwilly manages to put the box in the Gimbel’s mail and goes home.

Fitzwilly tells Byron, who has now checked himself into a hospital, that the $75,000 will be returned and with the other items the clients should be somewhat satisfied.

Fitzwilly manages to calm down Byron, but also finds out Albert has been arrested.

The crew’s celebration is cut short when they realize Albert has not returned. Putting back on Fitzwilly’s disguise, he has turned himself in, wanting to pay for his sins. He is being interrogated by Assistant D.A. Elliot Adams (Dennis Cooney), who just happens to be the son of one of Miss Vickie’s best friends.

She and Fitzwilly go to see Albert at Gimbel's. He has not implicated anyone else and Miss Vickie is able to blackmail the Assistant DA with details from his life that she knows that he wouldn’t want others to know. She manages to get reduced charges and writes Gimbel’s a check for $190,000, which Fitzwilly is sure she can’t cover.

Convinced that the household is destined for jail, Fitzwilly uncomfortably toasts his and Juliet's engagement with Juliet, her father and Miss Vickie. His comfort is alleviated when he finds out that Miss Vicki's dictionary has been rewritten as a screenplay, and sold to a Hollywood studio for $500,000.

It’s hard not to like Dick Van Dyke in whatever he does, there is something about him. His acting seems almost effortless. Having watched him in the role, it’s hard to see either Cary Grant or Alec Guinness doing better by the role. While not a great stretch from the work he’d done on television, the film does demonstrate that he can carry a film.

Barbara Feldon, in her first credited role, is also good. Best known as Agent 99 from the Get Smart TV series, which was itself a spoof, she’s able to take her TV persona as the smarter than the hero girlfriend and project it onto the big screen. Cute, smart and photogenic, she seems like the right actress for the role.

Dame Edith Evans doesn’t get the same amount of screen time as the other leads, but her presence helps to raise the film. It’s hard to play someone so clueless and likable at the same time, but she pulls it off. Miss Vickie is so clueless that she might actually be wise, as her dictionary idea actually sounds brilliant in its way.

One of the strengths of the film is the supporting cast, which is made up of character actors from both television and film. There are enough TV actors involved that it could be seen as a good TV movie with a theatrical release.

The script for the film is smart. As Roger Ebert put it in his 1967 review in the Chicago Sun-Times, “One of the delights of 'Fitzwilly' is the generally intelligent language in which the characters talk to each other, as if they were educated and witty. Most movie characters talk to each other as if they were refugees from 'Get Smart!' (which Miss Feldon is, by the way).” While comparing a movie to a TV show might not be high praise, it is in this case. The characters in the film don’t talk down to each other and thus do not to the audience, either.

The New York Times reviewer was less complimentary. “This is the season to be jolly, but the tepid, if seasonal, comedy of 'Fitzwilly,' which opened at the Astor and other theaters yesterday, is neither jolly nor inspired. Unfortunately, the potentially fey and charming idea of devoted servants who selflessly steal to maintain their beloved, old mistress in the rich style to which she is accustomed, is more complicated than cute, more labored than comical.” The review concludes “Unfortunately, 'Fitzwilly' and company are only fitfully energetic and their efforts only generate a few smiles.”

That statement is not entirely true. There are more than a few smiles, which says something about a film that is already 56 years old. The acting holds up and the writing is good. However, it’s not great. Amusing, it is worth seeing at least once, especially since it is surely going to be on TCM around the holidays. But repeated viewings might not be in the cards.