The Absent-Minded Professor

(1961, U.S.) Black and White 97 minutes
Walt Disney Pictures / Buena Vista Pictures
Story: Samuel W. Taylor
Screenplay: Bill Walsh
Music by George Bruns
Songs by Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman
Cinematography by Edward Colman
Produced by Bill Walsh, Walt Disney
Directed by Robert Stevenson

With: Fred MacMurray (Prof. Ned Brainard), Nancy Olson (Betsy Carlisle), Keenan Wynn (Alonzo P. Hawk), Tommy Kirk (Biff Hawk), Leon Ames (President Rufus Daggett), Elliott Reid (Prof. Shelby Ashton), Edward Andrews (Defense Secretary), David Lewis (Gen. Singer), Jack Mullaney (Air Force Captain), Belle Montrose (Mrs. Chatsworth), Wally Brown (Coach Elkins), Wally Boag (TV Newsman), Don Ross (Lenny), Forrest Lewis (Officer Kelley), James Westerfield (Officer Hanson), Alan Carney (First Referee), Charlie Briggs (Sig), Gage Clarke (Rev. Bosworth), Alan Hewitt (Gen. Hotchkiss), Raymond Bailey (Adm. Olmstead), Wendell Holmes (General Poynter), Leon Tyler (Basketball Player), Ed Wynn (Fire Chief)

***

In 1961, Fred MacMurray appeared in his first film comedy for Walt Disney, as THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR. Based on a story by Samuel W. Taylor, the film opens on one of Professor Ned Brainard's physics classes at Medfield Collage, where he explains the power of sound vibrations to his enthusiastic students. Using a trumpet to help shatter a wine glass, the friendly teacher's experiment succeeds and he is a hit with the kids. As he opens his textbook to give his students their next assignments, Brainard sees a reminder to prepare himself for his wedding with Betsy Carlisle (Nancy Olsen)! Cheerfully, Brainard excuses his class.

Brainard quickly heads for home, but not to prepare for his wedding. Brainard has been secretly working on a new type of energy that will help mankind. Despite reminders from his housekeeper, Chatsworth (Belle Montrose, former vaudeville comic actress and mother of Steve Allen) and repeated phone calls from his fiancé', the forgetful scientist keeps on working on his experiment, until Chatsworth leaves for home, unaware that her employer created an explosion that wrecks the garage laboratory and knocks him out.

Hurt and angered by Brainard's tardiness, Betsy calls off the wedding and is taken home by Professor. Shelby Ashton (Elliot Reid), a conceited English instructor at Rutland. The next morning, Brainard finds his lab ruined, but his discovery has survived the blast. Carefully opening the metal container, he tests the substance inside of the can and he realizes that he has created a flying rubber, which he dubs “Flubber“! Returning the substance to it's container and placing isotonic stabilizers to it's sides, Brainard puts the Flubber into the workings of his old Model-T automobile and adds a fake motor to prevent anyone from stealing his invention.

Unfortunately, Brainard’s housekeeper tells him that it is morning, and he has missed his wedding. Brainard heads to see Dean Daggert (Leon Ames, who played Lon Smith in MGM's Meet Me In St. Louis, and a few years from his appearances on The Mr. Ed Show as Colonel Gordon Kirkwood) at the school, to try and apologize to Betsy, who is the dean’s secretary, for missing their nuptials. Brainard apologies are lost on the hurt young woman, and she asks him to leave. Just as the dean is about to eject his employee from his office, an unwelcome intruder arrives. Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn in his first appearance as Disney's “resident villain“), a former alumnus of the school and it's top mortgage holder, comes to request the payments for the loan to the school or he'll tear it down and replace Medfield with a tract of poorly-built housing projects.

Dean Daggert tries to get Hawk to give him more time to repay the debt.. The crooked loan shark refuses to listen. Hawk is also annoyed at seeing Brainard, since the daffy instructor flunked his son in science classes, which has prevented Biff Hawk (child protégé Tommy Kirk) from playing in the basketball playoffs against Rutland Collage tonight. Dean Daggert assures the villain that he will get the monies to pay off the school with the boxoffice receipts from the game. Hawk is not be trusted; he knows that Medfield can’t beat the bigger, stronger students of the rival collage, and he has his hench-men make big bets with their local bookies on Rutland.

Trying to find another way to show off his new invention, which he hopes will save the school, Brainard goes to the basketball game that night and sees the team being bested by the Amazon-like students of Rutland. While watching the game with Betsy and Shelby Ashton, Brainard's romantic rival remarks how the Medfield team lacks spring in their step. Sensing an idea, Ned sneaks into the locker room. After gathering up the team's sneakers, Brainard quickly heads for home, where he irons Flubber onto the player's shoes. Before you can say, “Jumping Jack!” the Medfield basketball team is hopping over their opponent, confounding the coaches of both teams. (The coaches are played by Wally Brown and Gordon Jones; Jones is best remembered as ‘Mike The Cop’ on “The Abbott & Costello Show”) and the Medfield referee (Alan Carney, Wally Brown's former partner in the movie comedy team of Brown And Carney).

Medfield wins the play-offs, much to Alonzo Hawk's displeasure and to the joy of the students, Dean Daggert and Betsy. Brainard tries to explain to Betsy that his invention helped the team to win. Betsy, however, interprets Brainard's exclamations as mere bragging, and leaves with Shelby. Angered, Ned decides to get even with his rival by flying his car over Shelby's station wagon and banging onto the car's roof. The vengeful teacher also honks his horn which only adds to the man's panic as he crashes into a police car. Shelby tries to explain his actions to two cops, but Officer Hanson (James Westerfield) sees the teacher as nothing more than another drunk driver and arrests him.

As Brainard flies home, his car is sighted by Hawk and his son outside of their living room window. Seeing a means of making money from this new invention and an opportunity to get even with Brainard and the school, the two villains visit Brainard the next morning. threatening him and the school with blackmail if he doesn't turn his invention over to Hawk's company. Brainard refuses to give into Hawk's extortion and he throws the pair out of his lab, just as he tries to close a deal with the US Government to sell the substance to them. After several phone calls, Brainard‘s discovery comes to the attention of three top Pentagon officials (one of which is Raymond Bailey, who played Milburn Drysdale on “The Beverly Hillbillies”) head for Medfield to find out more about this new device. His meeting with the government brass are of little comfort to the heart-broken scientist, as Betsy refuses to believe him. Seeing that her employer needs a means to regain his love, Chatsworth encourages Brainard to attend the college dance. Putting Flubber onto his shoes, he attends the dance and becomes the hit of the evening.

Elsewhere, Hawk and his henchmen have stolen Brainard’s car and replaced it with a duplicate Model-T. When the military finally sees a test, the car does little more than stand still and the hood pops open to reveal a squirrel running around in a cage. Disgusted, everyone leaves everyone except Betsy, who takes pity on Brainard. When he tries to explain his secret to the girl, he realizes that this car is a fake. Now believing that Hawk has switched the cars, Betsy works with her boyfriend to stop the fiend from stealing the Flubberized Car. The pair meet with Hawk the next day on the pretense that they are going to give into the villain's demands. After ironing some Flubber onto his shoes, Hawk is soon bouncing non-stop outside of his bedroom window.

Realizing that they have him at an advantage, the pair forces Hawk to tell them where the real Model-T is. Finding out that the car is being guarded at Hawk's warehouse on the other side of town. Brainard and Betsy head for the Auld Lange Sine Company warehouse, where Brainard routs the stooges and he and Betsy and the Model-T escape out the door and into the skies.

Hawk is still trying to stop bouncing, even after several attempts by the fire chief (played by Keenan Wynn's father, Ed Wynn) and some fishermen. Biff calls in the Medfield football team, who grab Hawk in a multiple tackle. Quickly the villains head for the warehouse, only to see Brainard and Betsy fly over them. Hawk and his men trail their prey. Brainard foils their pursuit by pouncing on top of their car and honking his horn. Hawk's car turns the corner and runs right into Officer Hanson's patrol car. After the villains are apprehended, Brainard asks the cops how to get to Washington, D.C.

The pair fly towards the nation's capitol, but their approach is misinterpreted by the Air Force as an enemy attack, and they are soon being pursued by fighter pilots. Seeing that he has to bring down the UFO, the General (Alan Hewett, who played Detective Brennan on “My Favorite Martian”) makes a broadcast on all commercial and government wavelengths to have the UFO identify itself or they will commence firing! Unable to identify themselves, Brainard and Betsy hide behind the dome of the Capitol building.

While waiting for the UFO to appear, news of the situation comes to the attention of the Pentagon when the three top military officials find out that the “UFO” is actually Brainard's car. They rush to the Air Force base to get the Professor to meet with them about his discovery. Unable to wait any longer, Brainard lands his Model-T on that Big Green Lawn, unaware that that lawn in question is the front lawn of The White House. After being taken to the President's office, Ned's discovery is accepted by the Government, and he and Betsy are finally married.

***

I first saw this movie with my grandmother at The Laconia Movie Theater in 1961. The special effects are top notch, the script is charming and funny and the casting is perfect. MacMurray is well cast as the loveably ditzy college teacher. Olson is endearing as the befuddled girlfriend. Reid and Wynn have the right amount of conceit and craftiness as the two villains, and Allen is a joy as the meddlesome housekeeper. There are also the wonderful cameos by Ames, Westerfield, Messrs. Brown and Carney, Jones, Kirk, Bailey, Lewis, Edward Andrews as the Defense Dept. Secretary and Hewett and Jack Mullaney as the Air Force officials. And Ed Wynn's appearance as the fire chief is also memorable. This original version of THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR is still a delight, miles ahead of the forgettable remakes with Harry Anderson and Robin Williams.

THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR was a big hit for Disney, and spawned some interesting merchandise. Along with the Gold Key comic book, and the soundtrack LP, a toymaker marketed a clay-like compound called, of course, "Flubber!". Developed in the same manner as the popular Playdoh, Flubber was sold in a plastic cannister, and was a popular item with the kids. * The product was promoted on TV by entertainer Ray Heatherton, who was then making a brief comeback with New York City audiences on "The Merry Mailman's Funhouse!" on Channel 11, WPIX.

- Kevin S. Butler