Mary Poppins (1964)

Directed by Robert Stevenson. Starring Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Matthew Garber, Karen Dotrice, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Ed Wynn, Arthur Malet, Elsa Lanchester, Reta Shaw. [G]

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious entertainment is more Walt Disney than P. L. Travers, and as saccharine as a spoonful of sugar, but it’s still a fine family film with an Oscar-winning debut film performance from Julie Andrews and a few catchy tunes fit for humming along. Andrews is, of course, the titular magical nanny (“practically perfect in every way”) who arrives by umbrella at the Banks’ household in Edwardian London to take care of the neglected Banks children and help heal the stern, misguided heart of the workaholic patriarch (Tomlinson). The fantasy episodes blending live-action and animation and the juxtapositions of post-Dickensian sternness and squalor with sing-songy silliness often come off best, but the pic runs astray around the two-thirds mark as momentum and good cheer each start to drain away (the weak vignette with “floating” Uncle Albert offers so few pleasures it should have been excised entirely) before getting its act together for a spirited, feel-good finale. Van Dyke brings a lot of infectious energy (and a hysterically bad accent) to his role as Cockney chimney-sweep-slash-pavement-artist-slash-one-man-band, Bert. Also won Academy Awards for its score, editing, visual effects, and the song “Chim Chim Cher-ee”.

79/100