“Family movie” was once a valid description of a film with an entertainment range that knew no age barrier. Now, it is most likely to mean an unimaginative pacifier for the kids and an insipid lullaby for their elders.
Fitzwilly, the hero of this bit of family fodder, is a larcenous butler with a heart of pablum and a summa cum laude college degree. He keeps his daffy dowager boss (Edith Evans) in the chips by masterminding a ring of domestics who specialize in plundering New York department stores. When the old lady hires a pert new secretary (Barbara Feldon) with a suspicious nature, the wily Fitzwilly (Dick Van Dyke) has to scramble to bring off the big one—Gimbels on Christmas Eve.
An uneasy amalgam of Miracle on 34th Street and the Marx Brothers’ The Big Store, Fitzwilly is not helped by the surprisingly flaccid performances of Van Dyke and Feldon, the professional pixie from TV’s Get Smart. All in all, the family night out might better be spent at the bowling alley.
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