Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Walt Disney
7 October 1971
Historical Comedy, Musical, Fantasy, Children's
DVD
B-

Unlike Mary Poppins, which this somewhat resembles (Robert Stevenson direction, Sherman Brothers score, some plot and character elements), I hadn't seen this movie in decades and honestly didn't know what to expect.  Having watched the whole two hours and twenty minutes (edited back to its original length after being shortened soon after its premiere in Britain, hence that release date above), I'm still not sure what I think.  I went back and looked at my review of Poppins (https://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2014/04/mary-poppins.html) and I realize that I gave them the same score, although for different reasons.  Except, I think David Tomlinson is the weak link in both movies, although, again, for different reasons.

I was very into the first part of the movie this time.  Lansbury is great and the kids are good, and I liked the village life, including Roddy McDowall (always fun) as the local minister.  Some of the matte paintings, with a seaside setting, are just lovely.  The idea of an "apprentice witch" reluctantly taking in three London orphans during World War II had a lot of potential.  And when the bedknob (singular in the Mary Norton book title, which I read ages ago as a kid and was surprised by how different it was) was twisted and the bed took off, I was ready for adventure.

And then Tomlinson showed up.  In Poppins, far too much time is spent "saving Mr. Banks," while here Tomlinson's character, "Professor" Emilius Browne," is a "lovable" con man who becomes Eglantine Price's (Lansbury's) love interest and potential "father" to the kids.  Besides the fact that Tomlinson has little chemistry with Lansbury (this is not the why-couldn't-it-be-canonical-ship of Mary P/Bert), Lansbury's character is so awesome (except for her being somewhat forgetful as a witch), that it would be hard for someone to match up to her.  Giving Emilius lines like "Women always lose things" and "Women don't know how to file" (because, you know, you never see female secretaries or file clerks) doesn't help matters, especially in a period when Women's Lib was breaking into mainstream media.

I also think that the musical numbers are a mixed bag, none of them bad exactly-- I was pleased to see that "Beautiful Briny Sea" is as lovely as I remember-- but some of the sequences going on too long, like the dances-of-all-nations shoehorned into "Portobello Road."  The whole movie is too long, especially in its restored version, and it's not like there aren't still hanging threads, like the payoff for McDowall's character simply being that his hat floats off his head and he gets chased by Miss Price's nightgown.  And I think there's a reason that I blocked out the specifics of Naboombu; as a kid or an adult, I don't want to watch a violent soccer game, played by talking animals or not.

Still, yes, I would put this movie on a level with Mary Poppins.  There's something about it after all this time, something as elusive as a magical spell that you can't quite remember all the words to.