Doctor Dolittle - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[lena]

Producer Arthur P. Jacobs had a heart attack during production.

[tom]

Peter O'Toole expressed an interest in the lead role, but was turned down.

[russell]

Sir Rex Harrison deliberately ruined filming of a beach scene in which he was not involved by sailing his yacht into the shot and refusing to move.

[frances]

Nine separate versions of the soundtrack were commissioned in several languages, with over one million copies pressed total. Almost none of them sold. To this day, the soundtrack turns up in many thrift stores and ninety-nine-cent bins.

[darrell]

Along with Camelot (1967), released two months earlier, this movie is often credited with killing the family musical.

[melinda]

Anthony Newley was incensed by comments made by Sir Rex Harrison that he deemed anti-Semitic. Harrison was apparently jealous of his Jewish co-star's participation, demanded Newley's role be reduced, and disrupted scenes featuring him.

[francisco]

Angered by the filmmakers' attempts to enlarge a pond in Castle Combe, Wiltshire, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, a member of 22nd Regiment, the S.A.S., tried to blow up the dam, using the Army's explosives. He was arrested, dismissed from the regiment, and served out the rest of his military career in the Royal Scots Greys.

[marc]

Producer Arthur P. Jacobs tried to get The Sherman Brothers to write songs for the movie, but they were tied to Walt Disney.

[phyllis]

The producers felt 58-year-old Rex Harrison was too old to play Dr. Dolittle, but hoped his name would help re-create the success of My Fair Lady (1964).

[jamie]

Emma Fairfax and General Bellowes were created for this movie. They didn't appear in any of the books.

[beth]

Helen Winston, a producer involved early in the movie's development, sued Twentieth Century Fox for four and a half million dollars just prior to release. She claimed that the plot point about animals threatening to go on strike on Dolittle's behalf was lifted from her rejected screenplay. Leslie Bricusse, who had read Winston's script, assumed it was from the books. Because the producers only had rights to the content of the original books, they had no legal defense, and were forced to settle out of court. The animal strike is mentioned in the movie, but was never filmed.

[marc]

This movie had its official Royal World Charity Premiere on December 12, 1967, at the Odeon Marble Arch in London, England, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II. The U.S. premiere was one week later.

[albert]

Hugh Griffith was seriously considered for the role of Albert Blossom. The production team didn't hire him because of his drinking problem.