The Happiest Millionaire (Disney) (1967)

Director of Euotcaranhy Costumes Designed by : up Hair Stylist Music Editor FRED Mac’ RRAY © tet STEELE _ GREER GARSON GERALDINE PAGE Ce GLADYS C OOPERwae oo PAUL PETERSEN = EDDIE HopaEs . Joyce Bulifant Sean McClory Jim McMullan William Wellman, Jr. Aron Kincaid + Larry Merrill Frances Robinson | Introducing LESLEY ANN WARREN JOHN DAVIDSON EDWARD COLMAN, AS TECH NIGOLOR®. Carroll Clark John B. Mansbridge Cotton werecen. A.C.E. Emile Kuri Frank R. McKelvy Bill Thomas Chuck Keehne Neva Rames Gordon Hubbard ,..Vivienne Zavitz ...Evelyn Kennedy Tom Leetch Eustace Lycett Peter Ellenshaw Alan Maley .Robert O. Cook Costumers Assistant to the Producer Special Effects Sound Supervisor . Sound Mixer ...Dean Thomas Assistant Director Paul Cameron ©Copyright MCMLXVII — Walt Disney Productions All Rights Reserved Approved MP/AA Certificate #21335 RCA Sound Recording Music and Lyrics by . Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman Music Supervised, Arranged and Conducted by and Dee Dee Wood Kyle Crichton Cordelia Drexel Biddle and Kyle Crichton Produced for the New York stage by ..Howard Erskine and Joconh Hayes Screenplay oy: A J Carothers Co-producer . Bill Anderson Directed by Norman Tokar ©1967 Wait Disney Productions Released by Buena Vista Distribution Co., inc. Running Time: 2 Hrs. 24 Min. 25 Sec. Based on the play by Suggested by a book iy Mat HAP 3-C (3 col.) and Mat HAP 2-T (2 col.) Available in standard column widths and coarse screen Ola by Wale. Cisiby iroducions: Young John Davidson chooses a Philadelphia jail as the starting point for his elopement with Lesley Ann Warren in Walt Disney’s Technicolor musical comedy, “The Happiest Millionaire.” The film stars Fred MacMurray, Greer Garson and Geraldine Page, co-stars Gladys Cooper and Hermione Baddeley, and introduces Miss Warren and Davidson. Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, whose work on “Mary Poppins” brought them two Academy Awards, have written eleven new songs for the picture based on the life of A. J. Drexel Biddle. Walt Disney’s ‘The Happiest Millionaire” SHORT SYNOPSIS (Not For Publication) One bright, spring morning in 1916, John Lawless (TOMMY STEELE), newly immigrated from Ireland, dances into his first American job, that of butler in the Philadelphia mansion of eccentric millionaire, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle (FRED MacMURRAY), explorer, alligator collector, pugilist, patriot and father of two boys, Tony and Liv (PAUL PETERSEN and EDDIE HODGES), and a daughter, Cordelia (LESLEY ANN WARREN). With the help of the household’s long-suffering cook, Mrs. Worth (HERMIONE BADDELEY), Lawless meets the entire family and soon discovers that the home is one of a kind. Daughter Cordy is starting to date, but, raised to the rigors of boxing and other sports, she doesn’t quite know how to go about it. Biddle himself fosters an intrepid group of punch-drunk prize fighters in a hymn-singing physical fitness school he calls the Biddle Bible Class. The alligators, which are kept as pets in the conservatory, get out of their tanks and raise havoc with the hired help. And the dowager aunt of the family (GLADYS COOPER) irks Biddle when she suggests that Cordy be sent to finishing school to learn the social graces she has Page 4 missed in the boxing ring. Persuaded by his wife (GREER GARSON), Mr. Biddle resigns himself to the fact that Cordy, alas, is growing up and lets her go to Mrs. Wingfield’s School for Girls. There, Cordy’s roommate, Rosemary (JOYCE BULIFANT), teaches her the tricks of the boy-catching trade ala the great vamps Nita Naldi and Theda Bara. Cordy bungles her first attempts at attracting the most popular boys at a big dance, but accidentally and comically meets the handsome heir to the fabulous Duke tobacco fortune, Angier Duke (JOHN DAVIDSON), who sweeps her off her feet during a lilting waltz. Angier reveals his dream to leave his fortune behind and spend his life in Detroit designing automobiles. His plans excite Cordy, and after a short courtship they become engaged. Meanwhile, Father Biddle, through persistent campaigning for military preparedness, gets the Marine Corps to train his Bible Class, which he now calls the Philadelphia Corps. But when the young Marine officers in charge of training declare that the activity would be too strenuous for “an older man,” Biddle invites them to his stables and promptly flattens their most qualified pugilist in a boxing match. That settles it. He will remain active in the Corps. Angier Duke’s first meeting with the dynamic Biddle goes very poorly. At a formal dinner in the Biddle mansion, Angie becomes tongue-tied, awkward, and doesn’t react properly to Father’s leading questions. Finally, Cordy gets him aside and tells him to assert himself — Father understands power, not weakness. Cordy tells Angie to contradict Father’s every statement. This Angie does and promptly finds himself in the middle of a boxing match in Mrs. Biddle’s parlor. Pressed to disadvantage, Angie responds with judo, and suddenly it’s Father who finds himself on the floor. This seals the bond between the men. Biddle accepts the boy and insists that he teach his judo to “every last man in the Philadelphia Corps.” When Cordy goes to New York to meet Angie’s mother, Mrs. Duke (GERALDINE PAGE), and the rest of the Duke family, she and Angie are thrown into a tiring whirl of prenuptial social events. Not to be outdone by New York society, Father Biddle holds a big garden party to which he invites all Philadelphia, including the punchy members of the Biddle Bible Class. Mrs. Duke is humiliated by her highly-publicized introduction to this colorful collection of characters and confronts the Biddle family regarding certain “irregularities” in wedding arrangements — most importantly the fact that none in the Duke family has received an invitation. In the ensuing misunderstandings, Cordy and Angier break their engagement, and Angier storms out of the house. John Lawless follows. Realizing Angier’s determination to leave town, the butler deftly creates an oldfashioned brawl in Clancy’s Bar and gets Angie arrested. After a night in jail, Angie is bailed out by Biddle, who encourages him to elope with his daughter. This Angie does, hoisting Cordy over his shoulde1 and leaving for Detroit directly from the jail. That same day, Biddle receives word that the Philadelphia Corps has been drafted for Marine service, and with it, orders commissioning him to train marines for hand-to-hand combat.