Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Doctor Dolittle" (1967)

Scene from Doctor Dolittle (1968)

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Doctor Dolittle (1967)

Directed By: Richard Fleischer

Written By: Hugh Lofting (Novels), Leslie Bricusse (Screenplay)

Starring: Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar, Anthony Newley
Genre: Action, Drama, History

Running Time: 152 minutes

Summary: After the animal communicating veterinarian goes too far for his clientele, he and his friends escape their hometown to the sea in search of the Great Pink Sea Snail.

The Movie

For whatever reason, there is something about Hugh Lofting's novels about "Doctor Dolittle" that have fascinated different generations of actors. Of course, the premise makes for something whimsical and fun if done right: an adventure series where they can talk to animals. Who hasn't want to talk to animals? It's become abundantly clear that Eddie Murphy (who is the only actor to launch a franchise off of their adaptation) and the latest film from Robert Downey Jr. have both wanted to find a way to make it relevant and exciting for new generations. Downey, recently free from his Disney contract, even started his own film company to produce the film. While these versions are all wildly different in tone, they all have one thing in common: poor reviews.

Of course, none of them are as abundantly obvious as director Richard Fleischer's adaptation, which found Rex Harrison essentially in his autumn years of bankable star power. Unlike the other films, it was in a time where special effects weren't as common when it came to animals, meaning that they often had to rely on actual creatures roaming around the set, hoping that they would act and behave correctly. It's the one irony of the shoot then that none of the animals could listen to Harrison and ended up greatly abusing him. Then again, Harrison notoriously behaved rudely to everyone onset, including once going out on his yacht in the background of a scene he wasn't in just to be a petty jerk.

The music isn't necessarily the most memorable, nor is there really any legacy to it. If anything, it was a domino in the disaster of late-60's studio musicals that threatened to bankrupt companies. It may be the biggest blight of all for a variety of reasons, but the most apparent being that it remains universally accepted as one of the dullest, least interesting stories to come from a production that had nothing go right except the choice to put the four-year endeavor out of its misery. With test screenings going poorly and a marketing campaign that pushed the levels of excess, it's everything that a phenomenon should have if it even came close to being one. Doctor Dolittle is, by all accounts, one of the biggest bombs of the era that ushered out the Golden Age of Hollywood alongside Elizabeth Taylor's luscious epic Cleopatra (also with Harrison). New Hollywood was about to barge in, and these musicals would all seem antiquated.

There is one question then that must be asked: HOW did it get NINE Oscar nominations if it's universally reviled? How is it, the least acclaimed adaptation by far, the only version to even be accepted by The Academy? It isn't just a shift in public opinion. It's a variety of factors that feel like the manipulative, more innocent roots of shenanigans that Harvey Weinstein would pull 30 years later. It was a studio doing everything in its power to make it look like their worst financial decision of the year was actually their best bet. In some ways, it was a studio not willing to admit their faults, even if nobody around them believed it for a second. Doctor Dolittle is a film that ended a career, almost bankrupted a studio, and lead to the death of the movie musical. It was also a Best Picture nominee for reasons that evade logic.

The Campaign

The logic behind Doctor Dolittle is a rather sane one. After decades of trying to adapt Hugh Lofting's novels into a story (including at one point by Disney), 20th Century Fox producer Arthur P. Jacobs got the rights and decided to take on the project. It was rather simple. Given the recent success of Sound of Music, he was going to make his own lavish musical with spectacle and glorious song. This included hiring Alan Jay Lerner and Rex Harrison, both still riding high on the success of Best Picture-winner My Fair Lady. Lerner eventually dropped out to focus on composing On A Clear Day You Can See Forever on Broadway, sending in composer Leslie Bricusse, who was in high demand after Stop The World - I Want to Get Off. Lionel Newman would later join, setting the bar high for whatever was to come.

Without going too in detail about the production, it became one of the most notorious in film history. It started with Harrison, who had creative control over the project to the point of firing Sammy Davis Jr. because he didn't want to work with a "song and dance man." He also expressed Anti-Semitism towards Anthony Newley and the younger cast members would insult him because of how rude he was. He was so drunk at times that he was called Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Sound of Music's Christopher Plummer was on standby for if Harrison acted up too much. Given that the trained animals (there 2,200 total) were detained and couldn't enter the country, this started a series of problems that included sheep pissing on Harrison, a goat eating Fleischer's script, giving squirrel some alcohol so that he would stay still during a scene (he passed out shortly after), and at one point ducks forgot how to swim and had to have humans rescue them. Some actors had gastrointestinal issues as well. The weather was bad, as it rained constantly and Harrison had to be sprayed for flies during certain scenes. The townspeople also opposed to them altering a dam to fit the aesthetic of their film.

The amount of chaos that happened on the set of Doctor Dolittle could fill a book. Fleischer would later write a whole chapter about his experiences in a memoir. Still, there were some staggering details to take into account. The most noteworthy was that it took four years to film. Early test screenings in Minneapolis were notorious for how abysmal screenings were. Some blamed the lack of target audience present (families and children), but it was agreed that the film was too long. Whole passages were removed to better fit a tighter tone. Whole numbers were lifted in order to make it flow better. A later screening in San Francisco was no more successful, though that would result in the version screening in San Jose that made it to theaters, clocking in at 2.5 hours. 

The marketing campaign was one of the biggest for any film up to that point. The merchandise was expansive with over 300 different products, including republishing Lofting's books. There were other toys for the various animals as well as a doll version of Rex Harrison made up. In one of the stranger moves, there was a Ukulele Music Grinder. There was even a half a million copies of the soundtrack made in stereo. According to A Shroud of Thoughts, it sold very little and the remaining copies have been known to show up in ninety-nine cents bins. With that said, various cover albums performed better. Davis Jr., who had been fired from the film, released his own cover album of songs from the film, including "Talk to the Animals." As the studio's big release that December, it was shaping up to make itself known as a contender like no other. It would even go on to have a cover on Life Magazine to promote its release:

Even the lead-up to the film's release was marked with controversy. Despite the film toning down racist content, British audiences took offense at Lofting's original books dealing with problematic themes. This got the books pulled off of the shelves. Similarly, Helen Winston would sue Fox over the grounds that she believed they stole ideas from her script regarding animals going on strike. While it's only briefly referenced in the film, Bricusse would come forward later and admit that he had read Winston's script and accidentally put the strike plot into it, believing that he had read it in one of the three books that inspired the film ("The Story of Doctor Dolittle," "The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle," and "Doctor Dolittle's Circus"). 

The film had its Royal World Charity Premiere at the Odeon Marble Arch with Queen Elizabeth II in attendance. There were later screenings and roadshow engagements that followed. With all of the delays, the budget had inflated by triple to $17 million in 1967 money. In 2019, that would be the equivalent of $126 million. That doesn't include the massive amount of marketing that likely counted for an additional $200 million. The film was a costly affair, and its box office of $9 million wasn't exactly encouraging. When the reviews praised the photography but noted that the rest of the film was lifeless and lacked any charm, it became abundantly clear that the film had an uphill battle. It was also competing for screens against Disney's far more successful The Jungle Book. 

That was Fox's biggest issue. Doctor Dolittle as their big Fall movie and they had no faith in their other release Valley of the Dolls. Whereas My Fair Lady found Harrison's onset living singing and deconstructing linguistics fun, Doctor Dolittle was just a pain. With the recent failure of Camelot, Doctor Dolittle was the death knell for the family musical and the start of Fox's bigger, more embarrassing split with the big musical that was yet to happen. So, how does one recover from such a notorious flop that everyone clearly recognized? Fox was one of the biggest studios in Hollywood. They couldn't go out without a fight.

In a move that has since changed, Fox had their staff do a massive campaign to vote for Doctor Dolittle at the Oscars that year. It was acceptable at the time for them to vote for their biggest movies in order to sway the vote. However, there was an even more infamous routine that likely cinched the deal. Over 16 consecutive nights, Fox invited voters between January and February 1968 to a studio lot to screen the movie while having dinner and champagne. Unlike the test screenings and regular screenings for that manner, it was an overwhelming success. Nobody knows if anything was put in the drinks to sway intuition, but the simple ploy is held responsible for the film's success because the box office sure wasn't. The reviews were abysmal as well and soon even Harrison would come forward and admit hating working on the project.

The Payoff

In an act of what can only be described of desperation, Jacobs managed to make Doctor Dolittle happen. It got nine nominations, including Best Picture despite lacking nominations for the director or any acting or writing. It was mostly technical fields. Along with winning Best Visual Effects, it won Best Original Song for "Talk to the Animals." The irony was that everyone involved with the film hated it. Harrison would argue that he was confused by it because it was a silly song but it wasn't at all funny. All things considered, the road to the two Oscar wins was quite an achievement given that its legacy was only half over. Its road to the screen was unbearable, but its bigger cultural symbolism was possibly worse.

With the film being a box office bomb, it was a contributor to Fox's shift from the public's perspective. Along with representing the death of the family musical, it was a bomb that preceded two other bad calls on Jacobs' account. Star! in 1968 and Hello, Dolly! in 1969 was released with similar strategic releases of mass marketing. The issue was that the tides were changing and the appeal of films like My Fair Lady and Sound of Music was fading. The films almost bankrupted the studio, and they wouldn't recover for another few years when they rebounded with M*A*S*H*, Patton, and The French Connection. To add some irony, despite the failure that Doctor Dolittle symbolized, there would be one last hurrah of 1960's family musicals with Carol Reed's Oliver!, which became the last musical to win Best Picture (and the last G-Rated film) for over 30 years until a 21st-century revival. Even then, nothing compares to the lavishness of practical effects over sensible decisions. 

The film is also responsible for ending the roadshow format of a film opening in major cities before expanding. It was a popular technique up through the 1960s where people reserved seats as the film toured, but things were clearly changing. Similarly, Harrison's career was about to get a rude downgrade. While some could argue that it was inspired by his poor behavior on set, it was also just that he didn't have the box office draw that he used to. His ornery decision to record his vocals live instead of dubbing later kept causing problems (especially since the orchestral portions were recorded later). If there was any positive trend to come from Doctor Dolittle, it was that "Beautiful Things" briefly became a popular cover song for various car commercials.

Considering that Downey Jr.'s interpretation doesn't look to be doing much better, it feels like yet another opportunity to remind audiences that while it may be bad, it will never compare to the behind the scenes nightmare of the Fleischer film, which looked to crater an entire industry while animals bit Harrison midsong. So much of the film is a tragedy because all of the hard work was for naught. It was a miracle that it looked good at all, but given that Harrison was bossy in making creative decisions and the songbook wasn't Bricusse or Newman's finest hour, there is so much wrong in fascinating ways. Could there be a good musical version of Doctor Dolittle that didn't leave anyone perturbed? Not likely, though that doesn't stop people like Downey Jr. and Murphy from trying. At least they were smart enough to work with co-stars that cooperated in large part because they were computer generated and not a drunk squirrel.