Doctor Dolittle (1967 film)

As early as 1922, Fox Film Corporation made Hugh Lofting an offer for the film rights to Doctor Dolittle. Decades later, Walt Disney sought to obtain the rights to make a film adaptation of the novels. The Disney studio offered Lofting a flat fee of $7,500 for the ancillary rights to the property, and the contract negotiations reached an impasse.[5] In 1960, Lofting's widow Josephine gave a short-term option of the film rights to Helen Winston, a Canadian actress who had produced the film Hand in Hand (1960). 20th Century Fox signed a multi-picture production deal with Winston's company, Luster Enterprises, in April 1962, with plans to commence production in the following months. Winston had actor George Gobel in mind to portray Doctor Dolittle in the project.[6] She had completed a script with writer Larry Watkin by June of 1962,[7][8] but Fox decided to cancel their option two months later.

Arthur P. Jacobs first heard that the film rights to Doctor Dolittle were available on December 5, 1963, which was before the release of his first film as a producer, What a Way to Go! (1964). Jacobs met with the Loftings' attorney, Bernard Silbert, and expressed his intentions to produce Doctor Dolittle as a musical with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and actor Rex Harrison attached. He acquired the rights on Christmas Day, with the condition that he find a distributor within six months.[9] In January 1964, The New York Times reported that Lerner had signed on to write the script and compose the songs.[10] That March, Jacobs pitched his project to studio executive Darryl Zanuck, and 20th Century Fox signed on as the distributor.[11] On March 22, Rex Harrison signed to star as Doctor Dolittle.[12] Because Lerner's collaborator Frederick Loewe had retired, Jacobs hired André Previn to compose the musical score.[11] The film was given a budget of $6 million.[13]

After not producing a complete draft of the screenplay in over a year, Lerner, who was more focused at the time on his work on the Broadway musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, was fired from the Doctor Dolittle project on May 7, 1965.[14] Jacobs considered replacing Lerner with the Sherman Brothers, who had just won for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for their work on Mary Poppins (1964), but they were still under contract to Disney, so he hired Leslie Bricusse, who was in high demand after his success with the stage musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off. Determined to make a good impression for his first screenplay commission, Bricusse proved agreeably productive from the start for Jacobs, suggesting numerous story ideas and adding a female leading character to the film during their first meeting on May 6. Zanuck decided to give Bricusse a trial run, at first only hiring him to complete two songs and the first twenty pages of a script. Two weeks after he was brought on to the project, Bricusse presented the song "Talk to the Animals", which he composed especially for Harrison.[15] By July, Bricusse produced a full script, including various song suggestions, that effectively blunted the book's racist content, and his adaptation was received the approval of Josephine Lofting.[16]

For the director, Vincente Minnelli was initially attached to the project, but left before Bricusse was hired.[17] William Wyler, George Roy Hill, and John Huston were considered, but Richard Zanuck settled on Richard Fleischer.[18]

Lerner's replacement by Bricusse gave Harrison the option of sitting out his contract, which gave him unusual leverage over the film. Sammy Davis Jr. was hired to play the character of Prince Bumpo, but Harrison demanded that Davis be fired from the project, as he wanted to work with "a real actor, not a song-and-dance man".[19] Instead, Harrison suggested Sidney Poitier, despite the fact that Poitier was not a musical performer. Jacobs and Fleischer flew to New York to meet with Poitier, who accepted the part on condition that he meet with and approve of Bricusse.[20] The producer and director then met with Davis to inform him that he would be released from his contract and, angered at the casting change, Davis threatened to go public and sue Harrison. Poitier considered leaving the project the next day, as he did not want to betray Davis, but he eventually decided to stay in the role.[21] Just before shooting was set to commence, Fleischer and Zanuck reduced Bumpo's role, which had been drastically increased after Poitier was cast, in order to save money, and they informed Poitier that he would be released from his contract before he started filming his scenes.[22] Geoffrey Holder was cast as his replacement in the renamed role of William Shakespeare X.

For the role of Matthew, Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye were among those on the shortlist, but Bricusse's sometime-songwriting partner Anthony Newley was ultimately cast, which angered Harrison, who had suggested David Wayne. Harrison later showed contempt for Bricusse's script and lyrics and demanded to sing live on set, rather than lip-syncing to pre-recorded tracks, and he left the project at one point. After considering Peter Ustinov, Alec Guinness, and Peter O'Toole to replace Harrison, Christopher Plummer was cast as Doctor Dolittle.[23][24] When Harrison agreed to stay, the producers paid Plummer his entire agreed-upon salary to leave the production.

Harrison suggested Maggie Smith, his co-star in The Honey Pot (1967), for the role of Emma Fairfax.[21] Barbra Streisand and Hayley Mills were approached, but salary negotiations broke down (Mills later claimed she pulled out because her sister Juliet wanted the role),[25] and Samantha Eggar was cast.[26] Eggar's singing voice was overdubbed by Diana Lee, the daughter of playback singer Bill Lee.

In June 1966, principal photography was underway, with the scenes that take place in the fictional village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh being shot in Castle Combe, Wiltshire. All signs of modern life in Castle Combe, such as cars, television antennas, and Coca-Cola promotional signs, were removed or hidden, which irritated the locals,[27][28] and, in an attempt raise publicity for how the village was being treated, British Army officer (and future explorer) Ranulph Fiennes even attempted to destroy an artificial dam built by the production to block a stream.[29] Additionally, the filmmakers did not realize that the animals trained for the production would be quarantined upon entering the United Kingdom, and, at considerable expense, they had to replace the animals to meet production deadlines. The producers ignored reports of the area's frequently rainy summers, and the weather continually interfered with shooting and caused health problems for the animals. As if that were not enough, Richard Attenborough was hired to replace Hugh Griffith in the role of Albert Blossom during the shoot.[27] Production costs soared to $15 million.

In October, the shoot moved to Marigot Bay in Saint Lucia. This location had its own issues, and problems related to insects and frequent tropical storms delayed filming and left eight crew members bedridden due to vomiting, diarrhea, and high fever.[30] The Great Pink Sea Snail proved to be problematic not only because of its poor design, but also due to the fact that the island's children had recently been struck by a gastrointestinal epidemic caused by freshwater snails; mobs of angry locals threw rocks at the large prop. Within a month, the film had fallen 39 days behind schedule, and the production crew had to decamp back to California.[31]

After reconstructing the sets on the Fox studio lot in California,[32] the production budget reached $17 million. Four months later, after principal photography was complete, Harrison insisted on re-recording his songs live on set. This infuriated conductor Lionel Newman, but he gave in to Harrison's demands, even though it meant more work for him, since the orchestral arrangements had to be added later. Filming was finished by April 1967.[33][34]

Personality conflicts added to the tension on the set. Anthony Newley was incensed by comments made by Harrison that he deemed antisemitic. Harrison was apparently jealous of his Jewish co-star's participation in the project, and he demanded Newley's role be reduced and would disrupt scenes featuring Newley.[35] Geoffrey Holder received racist abuse from Harrison's entourage.[31] The younger cast members grew to loathe Harrison for this abuse, and they retaliated by antagonizing him.[35]

Over 1,200 live animals were used in the film, all of which required understudies. There are anecdotes of a goat eating Fleischer's script, and a parrot that learned to yell "cut".[36] At one point, ducks were placed in a lake, but did not have their water-repellent feathers, as it was the wrong time of year, so they began to sink, and crew members had to jump in the water to save them. Animals also bit and defecated on the cast and crew, including Harrison.

Thirteen months before the release of the film, Fox began an extensive marketing campaign to promote it. On September 30, 1966, the cover of Life magazine featured a picture of Harrison, in character as Doctor Dolittle, riding a giraffe, and inside there was an article documenting the film's production.[51] The release was accompanied by 50 licensees ready to spend $12 million in advertising, and the 300 different promotional items related to the film were carried by 10,000 retail stores, totaling an estimated retail value of $200 million.[52][53]

Doctor Dolittle was not well received by critics. Reviewing the film for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther said: "The music is not exceptional, the rendering of the songs lacks variety, and the pace, under Richard Fleischer's direction, is slow and without surprise."[54] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times claimed that "Doctor Dolittle, though it is beautiful, often funny, often charming, tuneful and gay, is in an odd way never really sentimentally moving, even in the sense that it sets up in us elders a yearning for lost youth. It is a picture we can greatly enjoy seeing our children enjoy, but without feeling quite at one with them."[55] Time magazine wrote: "Somehow—with the frequent but by no means infallible exception of Walt Disney—Hollywood has never learned what so many children's book writers have known all along: size and a big budget are no substitutes for originality and charm."[56] Variety acknowledged the film as an "imperfect gem", but felt "there's sufficient values going for it to survive any barbs aimed at it by the critics".[57]

Retrospectively, in his annual Movie Guide, critic and film historian Leonard Maltin admired the film's photography, but called it a "colossal musical dud that almost ruined 20th Century-Fox studios." He concluded by admitting that "The movie has one merit: if you have unruly children, it may put them to sleep."[58] On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 4.3/10.[59] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[60]

The film faced strong competition at the box office from Disney's animated feature film The Jungle Book, which had opened to considerable critical and audience acclaim two months earlier and was still in wide release. Doctor Dolittle's appeal as family fare was undermined when the press drew attention to racist content in Lofting's books, prompting demands to have them removed from school libraries.[61]

According to studio records, the film needed to earn $31,275,000 in rentals to break even, and by December 1970 it had only made $16.3 million.[62] In September 1970, Fox estimated it had lost $11,141,000 on the film.[63]

20th Century Fox's decision to mount an Oscar campaign for the film was partially due to their lackluster slate of releases during the holiday season in 1967; for example, while a commercial success, Valley of the Dolls had received a less-than-stellar critical reception. As a result, in January and February 1968, Fox booked 16 consecutive nights of free screenings of Doctor Dolittle on the studio lot for members of the Academy, complete with dinner and champagne,[64] and the film received nominations in nine categories.

The film was recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "Talk to the Animals" – Nominated[70]