George W. Banks’ (David Tomlinson) children Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber) are a bit of a handful. Their last nanny quit, just like all the others. George decides to select the next nanny himself. He is looking for a nanny that that is firm, respectable and no nonsense. The children, however, have a different idea so they write their own advertisement. Theirs is for a kind and cheery nanny who likes to play games, sing songs and give treats. George decides a firm hand is required. He tears up the children’s ad and tosses it in the fireplace. The note is whisked up the chimney. George places his ad in the paper.
The next day there is a line of nannies waiting at the appointed hour. A strong wind comes up and blows them all away. A woman holding a carpetbag and an open umbrella floats down to the front door. Her name is Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) and she carries the children’s ad all taped up. Turning the tables on George she ends up interviewing him and gives him a week’s trial to see if he is suitable.
On their first outing Mary Poppins and the children meet Mary Poppin’s friend Bert (Dick Van Dyke). For their first adventure the four of them are transported into a chalk drawing of a countryside with a fair and a carousel. The day culminates in a fox hunt and a horse race on carousel horses. Mary, of course, wins the race. A rainstorm brings them back to reality when it washes away the chalk drawing.
The next day they have a list of errands to do but are interrupted when the dog tells Mary Poppins that Bert’s Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn) is having a problem. He’s suffering from a fit of the giggles. It takes a while to get Bert down from the ceiling where he ended up. In the meantime his giggles ended up being contagious and everyone ended up laughing and having tea on the ceiling.
That night George is once again annoyed at all the cheerfulness around the house. He confronts Mary Poppins on her amusing the children and once again she turns the tables on him and manipulates him into taking his children to the bank to see what he does for work and how the bank operates. Michael has tuppence that he wants to use to feed the birds on the steps of the cathedral near the bank. His father insists that he open an account at the bank and invest his money.
The children meet the head of the bank, Mr. Dawes Senior (Dick Van Dyke). Dawes tries to get Michael to give him his tuppence. When the child balks Dawes grabs them from him. When Michael loudly demands his money back, other customers hear that the bank won’t give someone their money and they all start demanding theirs. Soon there is a run on the bank. Michael grabs his tuppence from the old man and he and Jane run off through the streets of London alone and no one knows where they are.
“Mary Poppins” was released in 1964 and was directed by Robert Stevenson. It is a musical fantasy produced by Walt Disney and based on the book series “Mary Poppins” by P. L. Travers. The film is a combination of live action and animation. The movie was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards. It won five of them. It was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards wining one of them and two Grammy Awards winning both. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
Many of the nannies standing outside the Banks home waiting to apply for a job were actually men in drag.
The film was shot entirely indoors at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. All the London background scenes were painted. Over one hundred glass and matte paintings were used to re-create the London skyline of 1910. The cherry tree blossoms in Cherry Tree Lane were made of plastic. They were imported from France and Portugal. Each leaf and bloom was hand-mounted. The Disney Studios used all four soundstages of its Burbank California Studio. Cherry Tree Lane, the park, and the exterior of St. Paul's Cathedral filled the entire Stage Four of the Studio.
Although P.L. Travers, the writer of the Mary Poppins series, approved of Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins she hated the film and considered it a vulgar and disrespectful adaptation of her books. She especially hated the animation in the film and told Walt Disney to remove it. This was after the film had been released. Walt refused. Even though she hated the film it made her rich. Travers never married but had a long time “roommate”, Madge Burnand.