Synopsis
Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) is an "inconsequential guy from Perth Amboy, New Jersey", henpecked and harassed by everyone in his life: his bossy mother (Fay Bainter), his overbearing, idea-stealing boss Bruce Pierce (Thurston Hall), his childishly dimwitted fiancée Gertrude Griswold (Ann Rutherford), her obnoxious would-be suitor Tubby Wadsworth (Gordon Jones) and her loud mother Mrs. Griswold (Florence Bates).
His escape from their incessant needling is to imagine all sorts of exciting and impossible lives for himself, fueled perhaps by the pulp magazines he reads every day as an editor at the Pierce Publishing Company. But his dreams only seem to land him in more trouble.
In one scene, while stoking the heating boiler, he dreams what it would be like to be an RAF fighter pilot. He is awakened from this daydream by his mother, who orders him to come to dinner. Believing he is still a British fighter pilot, he salutes, and places a red-hot poker under his arm—only to burn a hole in his suit jacket.
The film includes many of Kaye's trademark patter-songs and one of his best remembered dream characters, "Anatole of Paris", a fey women's milliner whose inspiration for the ridiculous chapeaux he creates is in actuality his loathing of women. The Anatole character is based on "Antoine de Paris," a women's hair-salon professional of the era, known for creating preposterous hairstyles. The lyrics to the song Anatole of Paris were written by Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine.
Things become much more complicated when he runs into a mysterious woman, Rosalind van Hoorn (Virginia Mayo), who just so happens to perfectly resemble the girl of his dreams. Rosalind is working with her uncle, Peter van Hoorn (Konstantin Shayne), to help secure some Dutch crown jewels hidden from the Nazis during World War II.
Caught up in a real-life adventure that seems unbelievable even to him, Walter attempts to hide his double life from his mundane family and friends. Eventually, he acquires the courage to stand up to those who kick him around.
Read more about this topic: The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (film)