Day Twenty-Four: Mary Poppins

MARY POPPINS

Starring:
-Julie Andrews
-Dick van Dyke

Directed by: Robert Stevenson

Screenplay Credits: Bill Walsh & Don DaGradi

MPAA Rating: G


There’s a strange wind blowing at Number 17, Cherry Tree Lane. Jane and Michael Banks have run off from their latest nanny, and she’s not putting up with that crap anymore. Mrs. Banks returns home from her suffragette meeting to find the nanny leaving and begs her to stay in song. The nanny leaves right as George Banks arrives home from a long, rewarding day at the creepy bank where he works.

George isn’t happy to learn that the new nanny has abandoned them again, so the children toddle in to see him –in their adorable bathrobes- with an advertisement they’ve written to help him find a suitable nanny for them. Rosy cheeks, no warts, play games (all sorts), that kind of thing. George thinks this is absolute drivel and sends the children to bed before ripping up their advertisement and tossing it into the fireplace. As George and his wife continue to discuss the situation, the torn pieces mysteriously float up into the chimney.

The next day there is a long line of severe looking British nannies lined up along the sidewalk outside the Banks home. All are here to interview for the position. Suddenly, a strong wind comes up and blows them all away. Mary Poppins arrives and rings the bell. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and George has no clue how to handle her. She ends up interviewing him, basically, before giving herself the job and every second Tuesday off. Then she slides up the banister to see the children.

Jane and Michael are in awe of Mary, who pulls extraordinary things out of her bottomless carpetbag and can make the nursery clean itself simply by snapping her fingers. Mary sticks them in their cute little coats and hats (Why can’t children still dress like that? Especially American kids; they wear tee shirts that say ‘Pull My Finger.’ Sheesh.) and takes them on a fabulous outing to the park where they bump into Bert, who’s sort of a jack of all trades and Mary’s boyfriend.

Okay, they aren’t officially an item, but you can tell by the way they grin sneakily at each other when the children aren’t looking that they’ve got a history together. I bet they text all the time. Anyway, Bert has been making sidewalk drawings, so Mary takes them all inside one of the paintings to ride a magical carousel and rescue a fox and win a horse race before carrying them home again.

Mary’s put a song in the hearts of everyone in the house – except grumpy George, of course- and they all march around singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” You may not believe this, but my spell check automatically recognized that as a word. Weird.

Mary takes Bert and the kids to see her Uncle Albert, who floats whenever he laughs and invites them all to join him for a tea party in mid-air. “I Love To Laugh” is actually one of my favorite songs in the entire movie, because you can’t listen to it without laughing along with it. Well, you probably can if you have no soul.

Speaking of the soulless, Mr. Banks is concerned that Mary is engaging the children in too much frivolity and unneeded tomfoolery. He starts complaining to her and tries to dismiss her, but she ignores him completely and manages to convince him he should take the kids on a tour of the bank. He does, and his boss Mr. Dawes (also played by Dick van Dyke) tries to force Michael into investing his tuppence before actually snatching it out of his hand. Michael pitches a fit, which leads the other customers to panic and start a run on the bank. Frightened, the children escape in the crowd. They run through the creepy streets where dogs bark at them and scary urchins lunge at them. At last they bump into Bert. They don’t recognize him at first, because he’s covered in soot.

“It just so happens that today I’m a chimneysweep.” – Bert

The children tell Bert about what happened at the bank. Bert sits them down and explains that their father doesn’t hate them.

“Look at it this way. You’ve got your mother to look after you. And Mary Poppins. And Constable Jones. And me. Who looks after your father? Tell me that. When something terrible happens, what does he do?” – Bert

You will notice that I skipped over the entire “Feed the Birds” sequence. I had too. It makes me cry.

Bert takes the children home and sings his chimneysweep song. Since it’s Mary Poppins’ day off, Mrs. Banks has Bert stay to clean the chimney and look after the kids. Naturally, the fireplace is situated before a pristine white area rug. Heeheehee.

Mary Poppins arrives just in time to see Jane and Michael get sucked up the chimney.

Mary: There goes the other one.
Bert: Shall I go after them?
Mary: Well we can’t have them gallivanting around up there like kangaroos, can we?

So they all go up and bump into Bert’s chimneysweep pals, who do one of the coolest dances I’ve ever seen across the rooftops and chimneys of London. I remember dancing from couch to couch pretending to be a chimney sweep, but I was always a little scared for the guys because I didn’t want to them to slip and fall.

One thing I really like about this is Mary’s ability to fit in with anyone she’s around, whether they be cartoon people, or covered in soot. She treats everybody equally, and she doesn’t take any guff.

Anyway, the crazy neighbor whose house is a ship thinks the Hottentots are attacking London and fires off a bunch of fireworks to scare them away. The sweeps scatter for a few minutes before diving down the chimneys for cover. Naturally, they all tumble their sooty selves into the Banks living room (all across that pretty white rug) and continue to dance and sing. Mr. Banks arrives home to see these dirty men dancing with his wife and servants. The sweeps dance away happily into the streets after thanking Mr. Banks for a lovely time.

“Oh father! Every one of those sweeps shook your hand! You’re going to be the luckiest person in the world.” – Jane

Mr. Banks demands an explanation from Mary Poppins.

“First of all, I would like to make one thing quite clear…I never explain anything.” – Mary

She takes the children upstairs and the telephone rings. It’s the boss, who wants Banks to return at nine, presumably to be fired. Mr. Banks wanders into the living room to bemoan his lot in song and blame Mary Poppins for all the chaos in his life. Bert gently counsels him in his terrible Cockney accent and dang, Dick van Dyke is a handsome fellow.

The children enter in their adorable pajamas to apologize. They give their father the tuppence.

“Will that make everything all right?” – Jane

Mr. Banks heads down to the creepy bank to face his superiors. After a brief discussion of the Boston Tea Party, the elderly banker’s son rips up Banks’ carnation, breaks his umbrella, and punches a hole in his hat. Banks takes this in stride, saying “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and telling the bankers a joke before dancing away.

The punch line of the joke finally hits the oldest banker, who starts to laugh before floating up into the air.

A change in the wind means that it’s time for Mary Poppins to go. The children tearfully beg her to stay. George, who has been gone all night, returns home singing with a homemade kite. Oh-oh-oh everybody goes to fly the kite.

The family holds hands and skips down the street together. Mary Poppins smiles at them from the nursery window. George runs into the bankers, who are also flying kites in the park. The son tells George that his father died laughing, so there’s room for a new partner.

Mary Poppins opens her umbrella and flies off into the sky. Bert spots her and says, “Goodbye, Mary Poppins. Don’t stay away too long.”

Stick around for the credits, where the role of “Mr. Dawes, Senior” is credited to “Navckid Keyd.” These letters magically rearrange themselves to spell “Dick van Dyke.” I love that.


This is one of the most imaginative movies I have ever seen. I do think it’s the kind of movie you have to grow up loving. It means a lot to me now because it meant a lot to me when I was little. I’m a sucker for the magic of soaring music and lyrical words.

This is generally my “I’m sick and I need to feel better” movie, but strangely I always cry when it watch it…most of the way through it, actually. I cry because the dad’s so mean, I cry when Bert’s sidewalk paintings get destroyed in the rain, I cry when it’s time to feed the birds, I cry when the elderly banker takes their tuppence and the dad lets him, I cry because the children get lost and the scary dogs and homeless women chase them, I cry when they all go fly kites, and I cry when Mary Poppins goes away, etc. I’m sure you catch my drift.

So, yes. I’m a college student who loves Mary Poppins, and I make no apologizes for that. After all, I never explain anything.

FINAL GRADE: A+

Off in search of a spoonful of sugar,

M.