Rating: 
Summary: If we could only go back...
Review: I was a kid when this movie was made. It was magical, musical, fun, sparkling clean and entertaining. We all walked home from the theater singing, dancing or both. How I envy my parents that they didn't have to worry about screening a movie before we saw it. Fred MacMurray was always a sure winner, Tommy Steele was AMAZING, and Leslie Ann Warren was so beautiful! I taped this movie years ago before it was available for purchase. My own kids who are now in their 20's can still sing the words to "By-Um-Pum-Pum!" I shall buy them a copy so that they can share fun musical times of an era that is truly missed. Everyone should have a copy!
Rating:
Summary: Classic Disney...Good, Clean Fun!
Review: I, too, just saw a screening for this and thought it was brilliant! I love the music and the story is classic Disney...Good, clean fun! It was amazing how many new things I saw in this film.I love the roadshow edition! The Sherman Brothers score brought out the best moments of the movie, and I love the last song that Greer Garson and Fred MacMurray share. You don't want to miss "There are Those" either. It's hilarious! Lesley Ann Warren is charming and who wouldn't want George and his kin for household pets?
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Summary: Geraldine Page Leaves an Indelible Impression
Review: In her eighth film (there were also two TV movies mixed in there) Geraldine Page plays a slightly unusual character for her, for in this show she plays the mother of John Davidson and when she hears about his growing attraction for Cordelia (the effervescent Lesley Ann Warren from TV's CINDERELLA) Page gets on the warpath. You don't see her playing the "mother in law battle axe" role often, but she brings a different shading to it, perhaps from all her years in the famed Actors Studio in New York, which used to be a real school long before the wretched James Lipton got hold of it and turned it into a combination fund-raising resource and personality parade.
This was Geraldine Page's first film project following her appearance (also taped and still available) in Chekhov's THE THREE SISTERS, with Kim Stanley and Sandy Dennis, and some of the tried and true Chekhovian sadness and melancholy poke through her trimmings as Mrs Duke, an aristocrat of the same period as Chekhov was writing about. She stands out even in a cast of brilliant actors that includes Tommy Steele, Fred McMurray, Greer Garson, and Gladys Cooper, all of them putting their best foot forward, a little intimidated no doubt by a) co-starring in a Geraldine Page movie and b) laboring away under the personal supervision of Mr. Walt Disney, whose very last movie this is. A master of unconventional casting, Disney personally selected Geraldine Page for the role after rejecting fifty other actresses.
Rating: 
Summary: my youngest likes it
Review: It's a sweet movie, and it was entertaining enough the first time, but I'll probably never watch it all the way through again. My youngest daughter liked it quite a bit when she was 4-7, and it became part of the regular rotation of comfort films. The music is good, the values are very family oriented, and it's very wholesome. I got curious about the family on which this movie was based, and I couldn't learn much, but there was such a family, and they are apparently still around and still very rich and connected. One thing I learned is that the person on whom the John Davidson character is based died shortly after marrying the Biddle daughter, although he did leave at least one son. I can't remember much about what I discovered (it's been several years since I looked them up), but I got the distinct feeling that a factual movie about the family would have been quite interesting, and that this might be why they were picked as the subject of this one.
Rating:
Summary: Great Fun!
Review: It's wonderful to see the roadshow version out on DVD-it has been shown on the Disney Channel, but from poorer source material than this, and a short dialog sequence setting up the final number was still missing. But it is all here, and the transfer is stunning-Disney always demanded the best from Technicolor, and it shows. For those that only saw the 118-minute version, this is a must!
Rating:
Summary: We love OLD Disney.
Review: My only criticism of the DVD version of this is that they edited out some of it. I'm used to seeing it with all the movie and it aggravated me that some of it was cut. But it is a very long movie (aren't all musicals?) so that may be why. The story is based on fact (exactly how close it comes I don't know!)and concerns a millionaire who is, to say the least, quite eccentric. He runs off servants constantly, but manages to hire as his butler John Lawless from Ireland, who fits in perfectly. McMurray, who plays the millionaire who hates change, was perfect in this part, as he fights sending his daughter off to finishing school and then fights even harder when she gets engaged. John Davidson plays the fiance (I think this might have been his first big screen role)and is both good-looking and likeable. The songs are good & some scenes are memorable indeed, like the high-class duel-of-words between Aunt Mary and Mrs. Duke or the hangover scene when they go to get Angie (Davidson) out of jail. Perhaps most memorable of all is the scene where the alligators have thawed out and the maid finds them -- don't ask, just watch the movie. A very enjoyable musical.
Rating:
Summary: Fred McMurray and a good musical, what a combo!
Review: My only criticism of the DVD version of this is that they edited out some of it. I'm used to seeing it with all the movie and it aggravated me that some of it was cut. But it is a very long movie (aren't all musicals?) so that may be why. The story is based on fact (exactly how close it comes I don't know!)and concerns a millionaire who is, to say the least, quite eccentric. He runs off servants constantly, but manages to hire as his butler John Lawless from Ireland, who fits in perfectly. McMurray, who plays the millionaire who hates change, was perfect in this part, as he fights sending his daughter off to finishing school and then fights even harder when she gets engaged. John Davidson plays the fiance (I think this might have been his first big screen role)and is both good-looking and likeable. The songs are good & some scenes are memorable indeed, like the high-class duel-of-words between Aunt Mary and Mrs. Duke or the hangover scene when they go to get Angie (Davidson) out of jail. Perhaps most memorable of all is the scene where the alligators have thawed out and the maid finds them -- don't ask, just watch the movie. A very enjoyable musical.
Rating: 
Summary: Joyous Musical Classic
Review: The expression, "They don't make them like that anymore" applies to The Happiest Millionaire, a joyous musical comedy from the folks at Disney. The last film that Walt personally oversaw was made at a time when musicals were extravagantly produced, with opulant sets, lively orchestrations, spirited choreograhy and oscar nominated costume design. Unfortunatly, if you did not see this in its initial release in the late sixties, you probably missed it because Disney buried it in its vault for years. Basking in the glow of Mary Poppins a couple of years before, the studio was hoping for another smash hit and hired the Sherman Brothers to score another Road Show musical. However, it was not to be and after only a moderate success with critics and the public, at a time when musicals were dying, the film all but disappeared except for occasional airings on the Disney channel.I saw the film as a kid and loved it and I find it just as enjoyable today. The cast highlighted by Fred McMurray and Greer Garson are in top form and you'll be singing Fourtuosity long after the fade out.Thank you Anchor Bay for restoring this lost classic that doesn't deserve its obscurity.
Rating:
Summary: lavish disney production does not equal the sum of its parts
Review: THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE is the last live production that Walt Disney oversaw before his death. The movie is an attempt to emulaite the big blockbuster reserved seat movie musicals popular following the SOUND OF MUSIC's success during 1960s and also to duplicate MARY POPPINS success. The production is lavish in terms of settings and costumes; with a great cast led by Fred MacMurray and Greer Garson; The songs by the Sherman brothers are likeable and not as bad as critics would have you believe; there are some great dance sequences. Unfortunatly, the plot is such a simple trifle which goes on and on for 164 minutes(in the restored version)that the movie eventually becomes a bloated, overlong bore. Its too bad because all the right ingrediants are there except a good story and script. The new DVD finally restores the movie to its original roadshow lenght. MILLIONAIRE was cut by 20 minutes following its premiere engagements.In fact the print which opened at Radio City Music Hall in NYC was already cut. The colors are excellent, the stero sound is good and the source materials are generally in good shape (a few markings here and there are not worth complaing about). This movie is now more a curiousity of its era and the wanning days of Disney's regime. It is certainly worth a look and may appeal to non-discriminating fans of musical movies.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Family Film
Review: This film has been MY favorite since third grade (I'm 27). It is wonderfully fun and uplifting with Great singing and dancing. In a world where cartoons can scare kids, my three-year-old loves this film. It may be long, but with all the songs, it makes for a fast watch. Also the story is simple enough that children can turn it off one day and watch more the next.
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