Fitzwilly strikes again!

When an aging philanthropist falls on hard times, her butler starts to rob the rich so that she can keep on giving to the poor in this comedy. Claude Fitzwilliam (Dick Van Dyke), known to his friends as "Fitzwilly," works as a butler for Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans), who -- ever since the death of her husband -- has been using her inheritance to benefit her favorite charitable causes. However, no one has the heart to tell Mrs. Woodworth that she doesn't have much money left, and to compensate for the shortfall brought on by her philanthropy, Fitzwilly and his fellow domestics have been pulling a series of robberies at department stores. When Mrs. Woodworth gets the idea of compiling "A Dictionary for Dopes," which indexes phonetic spellings of commonly misspelled words, she hires Juliet Nowell (Barbara Feldon) to help on the project as a secretary. Juliet senses that there's something fishy about Fitzwilly, especially when she finds out that he has a college education but earns a meager salary as a butler, and she imagines the worst when she finds out about his criminal activities. Watch for Sam Waterston in a small role; this was his first film

Fitzwilly is a 1967 film directed by Delbert Mann, based on Poyntz Tyler's novel, A Garden of Cucumbers, adapted for the screen by Isobel Lennart. Its title refers to the nickname of Claude Fitzwilliam, an unusually intelligent and highly educated mastermind of a butler played by Dick Van Dyke. The film co-stars Barbara Feldon.

Claude Fitzwilliam serves as butler to Miss Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans), an elderly heiress whose tremendous wealth is a myth fostered by Fitzwilliam; her financier father actually left her $180. "Fitzwilly" has been leading the household staff on numerous thefts, raids and swindles — including the operation of a fictional charity and thrift shop (appropriately named St. Dismas) — to maintain "Miss Vicki" in the lifestyle to which she is accustomed.

The staff's secret operations threaten to unravel when Miss Woodworth hires an assistant, Juliet Nowell (Barbara Feldon), to assist with her creation of a dictionary that contains all possible phonetic misspellings of words. Juliet is surprised to learn from Miss Vicki that Fitzwilly graduated with honors from Williams College, and she opines that he should be doing something more "worthy" than being a butler, like joining the Peace Corps.

After Juliet inadvertently and unknowingly foils several minor operations, Fitzwilly becomes determined to get rid of her. He conceives a plan to court her in order to induce her to quit. Unexpectedly, the two fall in love. Still unaware of Fitzwilly's secret life, Juliet does quit when Fitzwilly refuses to discuss ending his life in service.

Then Juliet stumbles upon evidence of Fitzwilly's past crimes, and returns to the mansion to confront him. Fitzwilly proposes marriage and agrees to end the criminal operations and tell Miss Vicki everything, but there is a problem: due to Juliet's past interference, the household is $75,000 'short', and they have to raise the money by Christmas Day. This leads to a complex setpiece in which the Woodworth staff orchestrates the robbery of Gimbels department store on Christmas Eve.

Although the operation is initially successful, one of the household, Albert (John McGiver), allows himself to be caught to "atone" for his sins. He steadfastly refuses to implicate anyone else. Miss Woodworth casually blackmails the assistant district attorney ("the son of my oldest friend") into engineering a suspended sentence on a lesser charge, and blithely offers to write a counter check to the store to cover the amount of the take.

Believing that the entire household is destined for prison, Fitzwilly uncomfortably toasts his and Juliet's engagement with Juliet, her father (Harry Townes) and Miss Vicki. His discomfort is alleviated when it is revealed that Miss Vicki's dictionary has been rewritten as a screenplay, and sold to a Hollywood studio for $500,000.

Release Date: December 20, 1967


Distrib: United Artists