The Monday Movie in the Amphitheatre for July 25 will be “Mary Poppins” (1964,2 hrs 19 min), beginning at 8:15 pm. The movie series is free, hosted by the Camden Public Library. Bring blankets or chairs for comfortable seating. Mary Poppins is perhaps the most beloved of all Disney films. Julie Andrews is Mary Poppins, a magical and loving woman who descends from the clouds in response to the Banks children’s advertisement for a nanny. She is not only firm in her use of authority, but gentle and kind as well — a major departure from the original books, in which the character was strict and pompous. Dick Van Dyke is Bert, a cockney jack-of-all-trades and Mary Poppins’s closest friend, who is completely accustomed to her magic. Their playful interactions imply that they have known each other for a long time, and that this kind of story has repeated itself many times. Bert has at least four jobs throughout the film: a one-man band, a pavement chalk artist, a chimney sweep, and a kite seller.
The theme for the movie series this summer is “Books to Movies.” Mary Poppins is series of eight children’s books by P. L. Travers published between 1934 and 1988. (“Saving Mr. Banks,” is another popular movie, based on the story of Walt Disney and P.L. Travers.) Mary Shepard was the illustrator throughout the series. The books centre on magical English nanny Mary Poppins. She is blown by the East wind to Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane, London, and into the Banks’s household to care for their children. Encounters with chimney sweeps and shopkeepers and various adventures follow until Mary Poppins abruptly leaves—i.e., “pops-out”. Only the first three of the eight books feature Mary Poppins arriving and leaving. The later five books recount previously unrecorded adventures from her original three visits. As P. L. Travers explains in her introduction to Mary Poppins in the Park, “She cannot forever arrive and depart.”
Mary Poppins was made into a film, based on the first four books in the series, by Walt Disney Productions in 1964. Disney first attempted to purchase the film rights to Mary Poppins from P. L. Travers as early as 1938, but was rebuffed because Travers did not believe a film version of her books would do justice to her creation and did not want an animated cartoon based on it. Disney finally succeeded in 1961, although Travers demanded and got script approval rights. The film received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture with Julie Andrews winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Mary Poppins. The film won an additional four Oscars for Best Original Song (“Chim Chim Cher-ee”), Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score. The movie takes place in the year 1910.
Other movies in the Monday Movie series will include” The Big Sleep” (1946, 1 hr 54 min) on August 1; “Stardust” (2007, 2 hrs 7 min, PG-13) on August 8; and “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain” (1995, PG, 1 hr 39 min) on August 15.
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