THE TWO LITTLE BEARS (1961, U.S.)

The Two Little Bears

(1961) 81 minutes
20th Century Fox
Story: Judy George, George W. George
Screenplay: George W. George
Music: Henry Vars
Cinematography: Floyd Crosby
Produced by George W. George
Directed by Randall Hood

With: Eddie Albert (Harry Davis), Jane Wyatt (Anne Davis), Soupy Sales (Officer Max), Butch Patrick (Billy Davis), Donnie Carter (Timmy Davis), Nancy Kulp (Emily Wilkins), Brenda Lee (Tina Davis)

Plot Outline (IMDb): Harry Davis, principal of the Burberry Elementary School, is concerned because his two little boys wish they were bears. One day, the two boys meet an old gypsy who tells them to use a magic cream and teaches them a spell to turn themselves into bears. When they find their sister's strange freckle cream, they do become bears. Unfortunately, when they turn back into boys, no one will believe their story.

***

It is almost Halloween. Two little boys want to become bears. Not just kids in bear suits, but real bear cubs! This unrealistic wish creates alot of havoc for the boy's schoolteacher and for their family, especially their father, who is their Grade School Principal!

Dad is trying to earn a promotion to become High school principal, and his son's nonsense fantasy is not shared by the school board officals and his wife and daughter.

Eventually, the kids meet up with a gypsy fortune teller (played by character actor and dialectician Theo Marcuse) and his mother, who give the two lads a magic cream. When they put the cream on their faces before bedtime, they will turn into bears!

Before you can say "Abracadabra!", the kids do become bears, and wander off into the woods, where they create havoc as two mischievous cubs.

Soupy Sales appears as Officer Mac, the cop on the beat, who tries to cope with this bizzare situation. June Foray (best remembered as the voices of Rocket J. Squirel and Nastasha Fatale), also lends her voice talents as the voice of Emily, the mother bear, and as the cackling voice of an evil, enchanted witch's mask.

The cast is a veritable "Who's Who" of familiar TV faces. Eddie Albert, of course, will always be thought of as "Oliver Wendell Douglass" from the wonderful sitcom GREEN ACRES. Butch Patrick was "Eddie Munster" in THE MUNSTERS. Nancy Kulp was "Ms. Jane Hathaway" in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. Jane Wyatt played the wife in "Father Knows Best". Soupy Sales and Brenda Lee had luminous careers in several fields.

Brenda Lee also performs the title tune ("Honey bear... Honey bear... Sunny little honey bear... I want to hold you in my arms!") in this wonderful forgotten fantasy film.

- Kevin S. Butler

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