Today is the birthday of beloved American humorist James Thurber (1894-1961), among many other things, author of the 1939 short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. This may strike some of you as heresy but I don’t hate the idea of Ben Stiller’s upcoming remake — I think re-envisioning this particular vehicle in the context of modern action movies is a stroke of genius actually. But we’ll have to wait until the official release date of December 25 to find out. In the meantime we can entertain ourselves with a scene from the original classic 1947 film version with Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, et al.
For more on comnedy film history don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
To find out more about show biz past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
(Travalanche) 