''Fitzwilly'' is a 1967 American

romantic comedy film Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

directed by

Delbert Mann Delbert Martin Mann Jr. (January 30, 1920 – November 11, 2007) was an American television and film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film '' Marty'' (1955), adapted from a 1953 teleplay of the same name which he ...

, based on Poyntz Tyler's 1960 novel ''A Garden of Cucumbers'' (the title refers t
Isaiah 1:8
and adapted for the screen by

Isobel Lennart Isobel Lennart (May 18, 1915 – January 25, 1971) was an award-winning American screenwriter and playwright. She is best known for writing the book for the Broadway musical '' Funny Girl'' which premiered in 1964, although she also wrote scripts ...

. Its title refers to the nickname of its protagonist, Claude Fitzwilliam, an unusually intelligent and highly educated mastermind of a butler played by Dick Van Dyke. The film co-stars

Barbara Feldon Barbara Feldon (born Barbara Anne Hall; March 12, 1933) is an American actress primarily known for her roles on television. Her most prominent role was that of Agent 99 in the 1965–1970 sitcom ''Get Smart''. Early life Feldon was born Barbara ...

in her first feature-film role.

Plot

Claude Fitzwilliam serves as butler to Miss Victoria Woodworth, an elderly heiress whose tremendous wealth is a myth fostered by Fitzwilliam; unbeknownst to her, her financier father actually left her $180. "Fitzwilly" has been leading the household staff on numerous thefts, raids and swindles — including the operation of the fictional charity and thrift shop, St. Dismas — to maintain "Miss Vicki" in the lifestyle to which she is accustomed. The staff's secret operations threaten to unravel when Miss Vicki hires an assistant, Juliet Nowell, to assist with her creation of a dictionary that contains all possible phonetic misspellings of words. Juliet is surprised to learn from Miss Vicki that Fitzwilly graduated with honors from

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

, and she opines that he should be doing something more "worthy" than being a butler, like joining the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

. After Juliet inadvertently foils several minor operations, Fitzwilly becomes determined to get rid of her. He conceives a plan to court her in order to induce her to quit; this becomes complicated when they fall in love. Still unaware of Fitzwilly's secret life, Juliet does quit when Fitzwilly refuses to discuss ending his life in service. Juliet stumbles upon evidence of Fitzwilly's past crimes, and returns to the mansion to confront him. Fitzwilly proposes marriage and agrees to end the criminal operations and tell Miss Vicki everything, but there is a problem: due to Juliet's past interference, the household is $75,000 short of funds, and they have to raise the money by Christmas Day. This leads to a complex

setpiece In film production, a set piece is a scene or sequence of scenes whose execution requires complex logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. The term is often also used more broadly to describe a sequence in which the film-maker's ...

in which the Woodworth staff orchestrates the robbery of Gimbels department store on Christmas Eve. Although the operation is initially successful, one of the household, Albert, a former minister, allows himself to be caught to "atone" for his sins. He steadfastly refuses to implicate anyone else. Miss Woodworth casually blackmails the assistant district attorney ("the son of my oldest friend") into engineering a suspended sentence on a lesser charge, and blithely offers to write a counter check to the store to cover the amount of the take, money that she doesn't know she doesn't have as part of that supposed inheritance. Believing that the entire household is destined for prison, Fitzwilly uncomfortably toasts his and Juliet's engagement with Juliet, her father and Miss Vicki. His discomfort is alleviated when it is revealed that Miss Vicki's dictionary has been rewritten as a screenplay, and sold to a Hollywood studio for $500,000.

Cast

* Dick Van Dyke – Claude Fitzwilliam *

– Juliet Nowell *

John McGiver John Irwin McGiver (November 5, 1913 – September 9, 1975) was an American character actor who made more than a hundred appearances in television and motion pictures over a two-decade span from 1955 to 1975. The owl-faced, portly character ac ...

– Albert * Edith Evans – Miss Victoria Woodworth *

Harry Townes Harry Rhett Townes (September 18, 1914 – May 23, 2001) was an American actor who later became an Episcopalian minister. Early life Harry Townes was born in Huntsville, Alabama. the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Townes. He had a brother and ...

– Mr. Nowell *

John Fiedler John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

– Mr. Morton Dunne * Anne Seymour – Grimsby *

Norman Fell Norman Fell (born Norman Noah Feld; March 24, 1924 – December 14, 1998) was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom ''Three's Company'' and its spin-off, ''The Ropers'', and his fi ...

– Oberblatz *

Cecil Kellaway Cecil Lauriston Kellaway (22 August 1890 – 28 February 1973) was a South African character actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, for '' The Luck of the Irish'' (1948) and '' Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ...

– Buckmaster * Stephen Strimpell – Byron Casey *

Helen Kleeb Helen Kleeb (January 6, 1907 – December 28, 2003) was an American film and television actress. In a career covering nearly 50 years, she may be best known for her role from 1972 to 1981 as Miss Mamie Baldwin on the family drama ''The Walton ...

– Mrs. Mortimer * Paul Reed – Prettikin *

Albert Carrier Alberto Carrieri (October 16, 1919 – May 23, 2002) was an Italian-American film and television actor. He was perhaps best known for playing "Pedro Quinn" in the 1983 film '' Scarface'', with also being known for playing the role of "Captain Ja ...

– Pierre * Nelson Olmsted – Simmons * Dennis Cooney – Assistant D.A. Elliot Adams *

Noam Pitlik Noam Pitlik (November 4, 1932February 18, 1999) was an American television director and actor. In 1979, Pitlik won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for his work on the ABC sitcom ''Barney Miller''. Early life The son of D ...

– Charles *

Anthony Eustrel Anthony Eustrel (12 October 1902 – 2 July 1979) was an English actor. Eustrel made guest appearances on television programs such as '' Perry Mason'', ''Maverick'', ''Peter Gunn'', '' 77 Sunset Strip'', ''My Favorite Martian'', ''Hogan's Heroes ...

– Garland *

Sam Waterston Samuel Atkinson Waterston (born November 15, 1940) is an American actor. Waterston is known for his work in theater, television and, film. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, and has receive ...

– Oliver *

Billy Halop William Halop (February 11, 1920 – November 9, 1976) was an American actor. Early life Halop was born to Benjamin Cohen Halop and Lucille Elizabeth Halop on February 11, 1920. Halop came from a theatrical family; his mother was a dancer, and ...

– Restaurant Owner (uncredited)

Soundtrack

The film features an early symphonic score by John Williams, credited both on the album and on screen as "Johnny Williams". Notably the score includes "Make Me Rainbows", the film's love theme and

end credits Closing credits or end credits are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to, or at the very end of ...

song and Williams' first collaboration with co-writers Alan and

Marilyn Bergman Alan Bergman (born September 11, 1925) and Marilyn Keith Bergman (November 10, 1928 – January 8, 2022) were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celebrated telev ...

. The score was released commercially at the time by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...

(and re-issued in 1980 by

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 w ...

), and was referred to as the film's "original motion picture score" and not as the "original motion picture soundtrack recording" because instead of performances that had actually been heard in the film Williams opted to release arrangements designed for separate listening. In 2004 a limited edition

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

was released by

Varèse Sarabande Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as well as newer r ...

's CD Club which paired the scores of ''Fitzwilly'' and Robert Altman's 1973 film '' The Long Goodbye'', another Williams credit. The soundtrack, including the re-recording album and the original complete soundtrack, composed by John Williams was released on the Music Box Records label.

References

External links

* * * *
Music Box Records entry for ''Fitzwilly''
{{Delbert Mann 1967 films 1960s Christmas comedy films 1960s Christmas films 1960s crime comedy films 1960s heist films 1967 romantic comedy films American Christmas comedy films American crime comedy films American heist films American romantic comedy films Fictional butlers Films about the upper class Films based on American novels Films directed by Delbert Mann Films produced by Walter Mirisch Films scored by John Williams Films set in department stores Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City United Artists films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films

Plot

Cast

Soundtrack

See also

References

External links