To enjoy this 1967 film one must lay aside all expectations. It does not have a lot to do with Hugh Lofting's marvelous creation (Rex Harrison certainly doesn't resemble him physically) or plots, the music and songs are but so-so at best (Alexander Courage was a co-composer -- not long after doing the original TV Star Trek music!), beautiful Samantha Eggar doesn't really work as a love interest for the good doctor, and the story is fairly outlandish: Dr. Dolittle learns to talk to the animals and defend their rights, and goes on a South Sea voyage in search of the Great Pink Sea Snail. But there IS a pushmi-pullyu, lots of more familiar animals, Attenborough does a wonderful performance of "I've Never Seen Anything Like It In My Life," and Eggar is very fetching -- especially in soaked bloomers. This okay children's musical was a spectacular failure at the box office; a documentary about its making might have been more entertaining, what with ducks that drowned, squirrels that ate the scenery, sheep urinating on Harrison, a homemade bomb provided by a disgruntled resident of a town used for location shooting, etcetera....
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
