I watched the documentary before I went to bed last night. Was quite wonderful. What a pain P.L. Travers was, but that stubbornness may have made the movie what it is. Everyone involved seemed to come along at exactly the right time.
They conveyed that P.L. Travers decided to relent on selling the rights because the books had not been selling at that point and she needed the money. I'd read later on at some time that those books, bu scholars, aren't really thought of as being that good. I read the first one once and thought so, too.
A friend bought me the movie on Blu-Ray as a gift sometime last year. (It came with the Mary Poppins Returns movie, too.) I used to have it on VHS back in the day. No matter how many times I've seen it, it never fails to impress. It truly is superb; each and every scene.
The Blu-Ray has an extra of the premiere at the Chinese Theatre where many are interviewed going into the film and coming out. P.L. Travers is there and asked her opinion about the film. She hadn't seen it yet and she says, in the way you'd expect her too if you've seen this new documentary, in a very skeptical tone, "Well we'll see." I hadn't heard what she actually did think of it.
You kind of wish My Fair Lady hadn't been up for Oscars the same year as Mary Poppins surely would've won Best Picture. I do love My Fair Lady as well to be sure, but there's something about Mary Poppins that brings joy to anyone. (Three films had double digit nominations that year, that rarely happens.)
Mary Poppins (13 nominations | 5 wins)
My Fair Lady (12 nominations | 8 wins)
Becket (12 nominations | 1 win)
*=Won
BEST PICTURE -- Walt Disney and Bill Walsh, Producers
DIRECTING -- Robert Stevenson
*ACTRESS -- Julie Andrews {"Mary Poppins"}
WRITING (Screenplay--based on material from another medium) -- Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi
ART DIRECTION (Color) -- Art Direction: Carroll Clark, William H. Tuntke; Set Decoration: Emile Kuri, Hal Gausman
CINEMATOGRAPHY (Color) -- Edward Colman
COSTUME DESIGN (Color) -- Tony Walton
*FILM EDITING -- Cotton Warburton
*MUSIC (Music Score--substantially original) -- Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman
MUSIC (Scoring of Music--adaptation or treatment) -- Irwin Kostal
*MUSIC (Song) -- "Chim Chim Cher-ee," Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
SOUND -- Walt Disney Studio Sound Department, Robert O. Cook, Sound Director
*SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS -- Peter Ellenshaw, Eustace Lycett, Hamilton Luske
Dick Van Dyke's accent always comes up at times as being atrocious, horrible, etc. and I always ask people, "When you watch that film does that EVER enter your mind? It has never bothered me in the least. He should've had a nomination as well, if you ask me.
This may have me watching Mary Poppins again before the weekend is over!