1975 - ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING, a not unfunny Disney comedy

I actually laughed at a lot of the comedic scenes in this late period Disney comedy.  The Disney company kept chugging along with live action comedies after the death of Walt Disney.  For every Treasure Island or Pollyanna audiences had to endure films like The Boatnicks, Snowball Express or The Cat from Outer Space.

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing kind of falls in the middle.  It's silly and stupid at times but it does have some undeniably humorous stuff.  The so called plot of this film has a group of Chinese spies chasing a British spy who has a microfilm of a secret formula called "Lotus X" which the Chinese agents want back.  Little do these martial arts wielding Asians realize is that they have to deal with some English nannies out to stop them.

Well the cast is shall we say interesting and not exactly P.C.  Peter Ustinov is the leader of the Chinese and sports an absurd accent and dresses like a poor man's Fu Manchu.  Helen Hayes usually referred to as "The First Lady of the American Theater," plays the leader of the British nannies out to stop him. Hayes, wrapped up her long career performing in mediocre Disney comedies and crappy TV shows probably to pad her retirement account.  In fact a lot of British character actors show up in this film.

 

Bill Walsh was the producer and the writer of this film, Walsh was a mainstay at the Disney Studios for many years and was responsible for the better Disney family films like The Love Bug, Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks to name a few.  The director was Robert Stevenson who had been working since the 1930's and moved over to the Disney organization in 1957 and really seemed to jell with their kind of film.  Stevenson made a lot of popular and commercially successful films for Disney.

 

I have to mention a couple of amusing scenes in this film.  The chase through London with the dinosaur skeleton is darn funny and the final battle between the nannies and the Chinese martial artists is funny slapstick.  Overall One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing is a good comedy in an ocean of really bad Disney comedies.

The running time is 100 minutes. 

1967 - THE GNOME-MOBILE, one of Disney's better live action films

Probably one of the few good live action Disney films shot in the 1960's,  although the bar isn't really very high for the amount of live action junk they cranked out.  The film benefits from Disney's best in-house director Robert Stevenson, the actor Walter Brennan and (for the time),  Disney's top notch special effects crew which interestingly enough credits Robert Mattey who went on to build the shark for Spielberg's Jaws.

The film has Walter Brennan as a lumber tycoon on vacation with his grandchildren played by Matthew Garber and Karen Dotrice the Mary Poppins kids.  While stopping off at a forest they run into a couple of gnomes who need to be reunited with their gnome friends.  Brennan plays two roles in the film The lumber tycoon D.J. Mulroney and Knobby the old gnomish elf.  As was the practice with Disney films there are a lot of old-timers in the cast.  Jerome Cowan, Richard Deacon, Ed Wynn and Sean McClory who was usually associated with John Ford.

 

Robert Stevenson the director, seemed to have a knack for these kinds of films.  He directed The Absent Minded Professor, Mary Poppins, The Love Bug and Son of Flubber.  All big moneymakers for the Disney studios.  Stevenson had directed Darby O'Gill and the Little People about a bunch of leprechauns which featured Sean Connery in one of his first important roles.  That film used lots of clever trick photography in it and despite being a good fantasy film was a commercial disappointment.  Stevenson and his crew clearly used a lot of what they learned about trick photography from that film for the  The Gnome-Mobile which was a more audience friendly film.

 

The film was written by Ellis Kadison based on a book by Upton Sinclair of all people.  The running time is 84 minutes.

1960 - KIDNAPPED, Disney adventure film is a muddled mess

Filmed in England where the Disney organization had fairly decent luck with their English films, Kidnapped from a book by Robert Lewis Stevenson would seem to fill the bill as at very least as a good action/adventure film.  The problem was as usual that old bugaboo, the script. Kidnapped is about a young man David Balfour who is heir to a British estate.  Balhour is shanghaied by his greedy uncle and ends up as a cabin boy on a ship serving a crooked sea captain played by "M" Bernard Lee no less.  Balfour and a survivor of another shipwreck, Alan Stewart who is played by Peter Finch at the beginning of his career as a leading man I believe, team up to take over the ship and prevent the captain from killing them for their money.

Here's where things get very complicated.  David Balfour is a supporter of the King of England.  Alan Stewart is a Jacobite a member of a highland Scottish clan and a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie .  The low land clans of Scotland the Campbells, were supporters of the King and dominated Scotland for some time to come. If you went into this movie thinking you were going to enjoy some sword fights, a ship crashing into some rocks and exciting chases across Scotland, well you get that stuff.  But following this plot is a real challenge.  I've actually explained this story better than the movie does.  There is so much time devoted to politics and infighting among Scottish clans after a while you haven't a clue what's going on.

The production is a handsome one, the photography, sets and location settings are good.  The cast beginning with American James MacArthur at least attempting an English accent and Australian Peter Finch as a Scotsman certain are sincere.  Peter O'Toole in his first film role plays a Scottish bagpipe player who has a contest with Finch on the bagpipes instead of fighting him with swords or something.

 

This could have been a good adventure film but I would challenge anyone outside of Scotland or England to explain what is going on.  Certainly the popcorn munching crowds in Cleveland would be scratching their heads at this story.

The screenplay was by the director Robert Stevenson, the running time is 97 confusing minutes.

1963 - SON OF FLUBBER, sequel to The Absent Minded Professor

As the Walt Disney organization moved into the 1950's and 1960's the cost of production and the box office return on their animated pictures became more problematic.  Animated films like Sleeping Beauty while artistically stunning were so expensive the box office was a lot less than than was expected.  Disney moved more into the area of less expensive live action "family films"  usually with some type of fantasy element or lots of slapstick.

Disney had a lot of success with The Absent Minded Professor, with Fred MacMurry as a chemistry professor who makes a substance in his garage no less that's called "flubber" a bunch of goo that defies gravity.  This sets the film up for lots of slapstick a lot of it admittedly funny and it all climaxed in a zany basketball game with players bouncing all over the gym like Superman.

 

Naturally a sequel was called for and Professor Fred was back this time inventing a gas that makes it rain. In the words of some critic. "If you're going to make a sequel make a sequel, make the exact same movie." And that's what they did here, almost every gag from The Absent Minded Professor is repeated, right up to the wacky football game instead of a wacky basket ball game.  

 

Truth be told a lot of this movie plays kind of slow.  Audiences are now used to a faster pace in their movie viewing and Son of Flubber kind of meanders along for the most part,  There is some funny stuff and Disney did know how to play to their family friendly audience for the most part.  Fred MacMurry was always a decent comic who could occasionally rise to the occasion as an actor working for Billy Wilder.  The film for the most part is just OK.

The screenplay was by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi a couple of Disney veterans, the running time is 100 minutes.

1968 - THE LOVE BUG, typical live action Disney

Amazingly this was the 2nd highest box office money maker of 1969.  I can remember going to the film and thinking it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  I wasn't alone the audience surrounding me had a good time as well.

However, time has not been particularly kind to this film.  Viewed recently the film now seems rather slow moving and most of the slapstick humor doesn't show up until the last 30 minutes of the film.

 

The film has what I would call the typical Disney cast.  What's a live action Disney film without Dean Jones?  The rest of the cast is what I would almost call the Disney stock company, Buddy Hackett, Michelle Lee, Joe Flynn, and Mr Banks himself David Tomlinson. The Disney Company kept a lot of these people receiving paychecks for their mortgages.

The film was directed by Disney's best in house director Robert Stevenson.  Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi a couple of Disney veterans wrote the screenplay.  The bouncy music score was by yet another Disney regular George Burns.

The film runs kind of slow at 108 minutes.  A real period piece.

1974, ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD, an old fashioned adventure film.

An attempt by the Disney studio to make the same kind of old fashioned adventure film they had success with in the past.  The film kind of suffers from a rather low energy cast.  However the film does have some fine special effects.  The story involves a father's search for his missing son in the Arctic.  The search involves using a rather cool looking airship called the Hyperion.  The searchers stumble on to a lost Viking civilization and the last part of the film turns into an extended chase.

The selling point here are the now old fashioned special effects using matte paintings, models and optical printing.  All of this is very well executed by the Disney special effects department.  

 

The film is actually kind of enjoyable, the pace of the film is lively and some thought has been put into staging some good action scenes without spilling a lot of blood.

 

 

This is definitely from the "they don't make them like this anymore" school of film making.  Lots of Disney veterans in the production crew.

Written by John Whedon.  Robert Stevenson one of Disney's better directors was behind the camera.

93 minutes.

1937 - KING SOLOMON'S MINES, version one with bonus musical numbers

The old H. Rider Haggard novel about adventurers in Africa searching for the lost diamond mines of King Solomon was filmed for the first time.  The cast is a rather interesting one.  Cedric Hardwicke is Alan Quartermain.   Anna Lee is the female lead.  Roland Young is Commander Good and Paul Robeson is the mysterious African native they pick up in darkest Africa.

The film is a little creaky but actually pretty entertaining.  You have lost diamond mines, native uprisings, 2nd unit African scenery and a volcano ready to blow.  A lot of stuff crammed into an 80 minute film.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the film is the actor Paul Robeson.  An African/American actor and singer, his left leaning political views in a very conservative and racist American during the 40's, 50's and 60's caused him to be persecuted by the United States Government.  Robeson was a noted singer with a strong bass voice.  He sings very improbably several times throughout the film.  At times it's like watching a strange hybrid of adventure film and musical film.

The film was directed by future Walt Disney studio director Robert Stevenson (Mary Poppins, That Darn Cat etc.).

The film was written by Michael Hogan, Roland Pertwee, Charles Bennett, Ralph Spence and A.R. Rawlinson.  The running time is  80 minutes.

1955 - THE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET, the stripped down version.

The stripped down version of the holiday film from the 1947 film to put it mildly.  This version has a decent director and cast and is not too offensive.  Apparently this version was part of something called the 20th Century Fox which was some sort of anthology series that at times hacked down and remade their old movies for TV.

The direction is by Walt Disney's go to guy Robert Stevenson and has a good cast with Thomas Mitchell, Theresa Wright and MacDonald Carey carrying the load.

60 minutes.