Musicals Week: Mary Poppins (1964)

Mary Poppins

Call No: PN1997 .M364 1964

When Julie Andrews presented David Tennant with his BAFTA award for playing the title character on Doctor Who, he opened his acceptance by saying “If nothing else ever happens to me in my life, I just met Julie Andrews!” Fans across the world could relate to his excitement. The multi-talented Julie Andrews has been a darling of film and theatre for years, and for good reason. The woman brings an open honesty and charm to her roles that has not often been duplicated, and never as successfully. Her role of the title character in Mary Poppins is an excellent example of this.

Almost everyone recognizes the umbrella-flying nanny (or even her counterpart from The Simpsons, Sherry Bobbins), but here’s a refresher for the story: Jane and Michael Banks, two loveable kids who have a knack for losing their nannies in the park and causing mischief typical of children, have recently driven their last nanny to leave. This upsets their strict and workaholic father, who insists on hiring the new nanny rather than his suffragette wife. Enter (with some hilarity) Mary Poppins, “practically perfect in every way” and able to effortlessly conjure magic wherever she goes. With a little help, magic and showtunes from Mary Poppins, the four Banks members might find a way to be a family again.

Julie Andrews is superb in her role as Mary Poppins. It’s hard to imagine anyone else with just the right blend of strict, sweet and star power to pull it off. She, quite literally, blows the competition away. But what males the film even more impressive is the fact that her co-star Dick Van Dyke, not only manages to keep up with her, but comes very close to outshining her. Van Dyke plays Bert, a loveable pauper who goes from musical performer to chalk drawer to chimney sweep to kite seller, always smiling and usually found near the park. Van Dyke not only has the charisma to make his character likeable, but makes Julie Andrew’s performance even more enjoyable. Van Dyke also manages to pull off not one but two roles in the film. Look for him as the owner of the bank where Jane and Michael’s father works.

Dick Van Dyke's Bert works well with Julie Andrew's Mary Poppins

 It was interesting revisiting this film. I’d seen it when I was very young, and due to age, sympathized and related more to the children than anyone else. I wished I’d had a nanny who would let me jump into drawings, dance on rooftops and talk to dogs. Having re-watched it, I was interested in the things I’d missed when I was a child. The children’s mother was especially entertaining to me. She gets the opening song (second, if you count Bert’s quick tune and short but haunting introduction), and it provided the majority of laughs for me in the first half of the film. The mother is a suffragette, and she’s giddy as she talks about how one of her friends was arrested, continuing to sing and chant as she was being carried off. It was interesting to watch Glynis Jones play the character as dimwitted, but obviously passionate. I’d completely missed that second layer of humor when I was seven.

I enjoyed rewatching this film. I remembered most of the songs (and the lyrics, which surprised me), and found myself more engaged in the film than before. Chim Chim Cher-ee, which won the Oscar for best song, had me singing along. Dick Van Dyke’s acting always left a smile on my face.  And Julie Andrew’s performance of Feed the Birds left a twinge in my heart. The movie that captured my imagination when I was seven managed to give me even more this time around. I can’t wait to see what will happen when I watch it again another dozen years or so down the road.