Walter Mitty Goes Dutch

Humorist James Thurber loved Danny Kaye as Walter Mitty of the daydreams, so spent several years encouraging the Studio include more and more dreams.

As is well documented in my book Danny Kaye: King of Jesters, James Thurber hated Danny’s filmed version of his short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” He hated the musical and specialty numbers, the broad comedy, the melodrama, the Goldwyn Girls, everything—except the dream sequences. He considered them to be closest in tone to that of his writing and, when screenwriter Ken Englund spent 10 days with Thurber crafting script version number four (of an eventual 13), the humorist concentrated most of his efforts on Thurber-izing the existing dreams and adding as many new ones as they could find a place for.

One Thurber suggestion, which made it into the January 18, 1946, script, was a Dutch Dream they inserted into the wedding scene. Walter is standing at the altar, as his arranged fiancee Gertrude (Ann Rutherford) is walking down the aisle. The electric fans in the background dissolve into windmills in Holland, rotating to the echoes of “ta-pocketa, ta-pocketa.”

Walter is transformed into a Dutch Boy in a field of tulips, with Rosalind (Virginia Mayo) as his Dutch bride. Merry villagers pelt the lovers with tulips, accompanied by a “very brief song and dance which is not a musical number, but only a four-line snatch of a corny folk tune to show that everybody’s happy.” (Thurber’s emphasis)

Narrator: “And there is no happier lad in all the country by the Zuider Zee than Walter Van Mitty as he embraces his betrothed Rosalind Van Horn, the fairest maiden in all tulip land. Little did he realize that at that very moment grim tragedy lurked and that this was to be his last kiss—”

Walter looks down and sees a trickle of water by his wooden shoes.

Walter: “The dyke! There’s a leak in the dyke!”

They run to the dyke and Walter shoves a finger in the hole.

Walter: “Rosalind, run! Save the town!”

Rosalind: “But you’ll drown!”

Walter: “No matter—”

He clutches her. She sobs. They kiss.

Walter: “No, you must.”

Rosalind: “Just give me something to place by my heart.”

He hands her his wooden shoes. She runs off as he blows her a kiss. The dyke breaks, and an avalanche of water consumes Walter.

We then return to the chapel, just as Walter goes to fish Gertrude’s wedding ring from his pocket and instead pulls out Rosalind’s little shoes, confirming to him that’s his dream girl is not just a dream.

After Englund returned to the Studio and submitted the revised script, it was handed over to one of Kaye’s comedy writers, Phil Rapp. The fatalistic Dutch Dream was the first to be cut.

Danny Kaye’s Two Sets of Screen Tests

Producer Sam Goldwyn wanted to make sure Danny (and one particular Goldwyn Girl) were ready for their close-ups before filming started on Up in Arms.

Soon after signing his five-picture deal with Sam Goldwyn to come to Hollywood, Danny Kaye agreed to report to the studio a year early—in August 1942, during the summer hiatus of his hit Broadway show, Let’s Face It—to make a series of screen tests. Those tests, which resulted in Goldwyn bleaching Danny’s hair blond and almost forcing him to undergo plastic surgery on his nose, are covered in my book, Danny Kaye: King of Jesters.

But what I did not mention is that Goldwyn later had Kaye undergo a second series of screen tests before he would allow the cameras to officially begin rolling on his first movie, Up in Arms.

After Let’s Face It closed in the spring of 1943, Kaye relocated to Hollywood to begin preparing for his first feature film role. He was originally supposed to star alongside a Broadway revue performer, Virginia Mayo, but Kaye’s wife, Sylvia, protested. Goldwyn agreed to consider casting another unknown, Constance Dowling, in her place and relegating Mayo, for this one picture, to featured “Goldwyn Girl.” Mayo then would be promoted to co-star for Danny’s four remaining films.

Goldwyn insisted, however, that Mayo be included in the stars’ color tests, which were filmed to sync the Technicolor and to make sure all the leads looked and sounded perfect.

Principal photography was set to begin June 21, 1943. On May 10, the studio produced Color Test A with Kaye, Mayo, Dowling, Dinah Shore, and Dana Andrews running through lines inside a hospital room.

On May 20, under the supervision of director Elliott Nugent, they filmed Test B on the dock and inside Dr. Hamiliton’s office. This time, only Kaye, Mayo and Andrews were needed. No Dowling.

And on June 14, Color Test C featured Kaye, Mayo, Dowling, Shore and Lenore Aubert.

The next several days included make-up tests, wardrobe tests, dialogue rehearsals, and posing for color stills. For all of them, Goldwyn made sure Kaye was joined by Mayo—providing her with perhaps one of the most exhaustive preparations for a bit part in movie history.