Doctor Dolittle (film) - Production

Production

Alan Jay Lerner was originally chosen to write the script, but was fired by producer Arthur P. Jacobs on May 7, 1965 for his endless procrastination stretching over a year. Jacobs then tried to get the Sherman Brothers, but they were tied to Walt Disney. Instead, Lerner was replaced by Leslie Bricusse, who was in high demand after his success with the musical Stop the World - I Want to Get Off. Bricusse proved agreeably productive from the start, suggesting numerous story ideas at his first meeting with Jacobs on May 6, 1965 and followed up just two months later with a full treatment that included various song suggestions while effectively blunting the book's racist content in an adaptation that met with Hugh Lofting's widow's approval. This gave Rex Harrison the chance to sit out his contract, while making unreasonable demands such as having the proposed actor for the role of Bumpo, Sammy Davis Jr., replaced by Sidney Poitier, despite the fact that the latter was not a musical performer Eventually, Harrison taxed the patience of the producers to the point where he was to be replaced by Christopher Plummer, but when Harrison agreed to stay, the producers paid Plummer his total agreed-upon salary to leave the production. The film was originally budgeted at $6 million, but the budget eventually tripled.

The village scenes were filmed in the village of Castle Combe in Wiltshire. Unfortunately, the producers did not anticipate that the necessary trained animals for the production would all have to quarantined upon entering the UK, forcing them all to be replaced with other animals at considerable and redundant expense to meet regulations. Furthermore, the producers chose to ignore climate reports of the area's frequently rainy summers and were frustrated with the resulting weather continually interfering with shooting, while also caused health problems with the animals. In addition, the producers' arbitrary set design decisions such as removing TV aerials from personal residences in town irritated the population. This antipathy went to as far as an artificial dam built by the production on the Castle Combe set being blown up by British Army officer (and future explorer) Ranulph Fiennes, using explosives he obtained from being in the service, because he believed it ruined the village. Eventually, the producers decided to rebuild relevant sets back in California for costly reshoots.

The film was also shot in Marigot Bay, Saint Lucia; this location was equally difficult, with considerable problems with insects and frequent tropical storms halting production. Furthermore, the finale scene of the characters sailing home on a giant snail was complicated not only by the poor design of the large prop, but because the locals, who had just suffered a children's gastrointestinal illness epidemic caused by freshwater snails, took it as a personal insult severe enough to have mobs throw rocks at it. The Marigot Bay Hotel, now located there, has the Pink Snail Champagne Bar in honor of Dr. Dolittle. The walls of the bar are adorned with original pictures from the film.

It was photographed in 70 mm Todd-AO by Robert Surtees.

Just prior to release, 20th Century Fox was sued for $4.5 million by Helen Winston, a previous would-be producer, when she discovered an original plot point from her own rejected screenplay written by Larry Watkin, of animals threatening to go on strike on Dolittle's behalf, was used in the film. It turns out Bricusse, who had read Winston's script, assumed it was from the books and included it in his own treatment by mistake. Since the producers only had rights to the content of the original books, they had no legal defense and were forced to settle out of court.