The Absent-Minded Professor

Professor Brainard (Fred MacMurray) (pronounced BRAY-nard) is an absent-minded professor of physical chemistry at Medfield College who invents a substance that gains energy when it strikes a hard surface. This discovery follows some blackboard scribbling in which he reverses a sign in the equation for enthalpy to energy plus pressure times volume. Brainard names his discovery Flubber, which is a portmanteau of "flying rubber." In the excitement of his discovery, he misses his own wedding to Betsy Carlisle (Nancy Olson), not for the first time, but his third. Subplots include another professor wooing the disappointed Miss Carlisle, Biff Hawk's (Tommy Kirk) ineligibility for basketball due to failing Brainard's class, Alonzo Hawk's (Keenan Wynn) schemes to gain wealth by means of Flubber, the school's financial difficulties and debt to Mr. Hawk, and Brainard's attempts to interest the government and military in uses for Flubber. Shelby Ashton (Elliott Reid), who was interested in Betsy, is given his revenge by the Professor, who keeps on jumping on the top of Shelby's car, until it crashes into a police car, where he is given a field sobriety test.

Looking for backers, he bounces his Flubber ball for an audience, but his investment pitch proves so long-winded that most of the crowd has left before they notice that the ball bounced higher on its second bounce than on its first. For a more successful demonstration, he makes his Model T fly by bombarding Flubber with radioactive particles. Other adventures and misadventures result as Flubber is used on the bottoms of basketball players' shoes (in a crucial game) giving them tremendous jumping ability; Brainard (at a school dance) making him an accomplished dancer, and the scheming businessman Alonzo Hawk. Hawk becomes aware of the Professor's car and proposes a way to thwart it, to which Biff makes an actually intelligent proposal, "switch cars". Brianard's debut turns into a mockery when it fails, finding himself with a fake Model T powered by squirrels and pigeons. Realizing it was Hawk's doing, Brainard plays on Hawk's greed by saying (at the time) only 8% of the world's population uses cars, but nearly everyone wears shoes, and gives him a pair of Flubber shoes. However, Hawk cannot stop bouncing, and is blackmailed into revealing where he hid the Professor's car. A bouncing Hawk soon attracts everyone's attention, even a news crew, who interviews a physicist who sees Hawk keeps bouncing higher with each jump and remarks "by 7 tonight, he's going to be in serious trouble!". The police escort the Medfield football team to tackle Hawk on his way down, stopping his bounces. Hawk and Biff then chase after the Professor, who by now has recaptured his car and jumps atop their car like he did to Shelby. Hawk crashes into the same squad car Shelby did, and gets arrested for illegal firearms possession. Brainard convinces Betsy to accompany him to Washington D.C.. Never seeing a flying car before, the military considers it an attack and is ready to open fire until one junior officer recommends against it, as Brainard is atop the United States Capitol building! Now able to convince the government of the merits of Flubber, the Professor finally marries Betsy.

The aforementioned Prof. Alyea (1903–1996), professor of chemistry at Princeton University, earned the nickname "Dr. Boom" from Russian observers of his demonstrations at the International Science Pavilion of the Brussels World's Fair in the 1950s, which had Walt Disney in attendance. Disney told Alyea that he had given him an idea for a movie, and invited Alyea to California to give a demonstration for actor Fred MacMurray, who later mimicked Alyea's mannerisms for the film. MacMurray would later state that he had never understood chemistry until his meeting with Alyea.[2]

The special effects were created by Robert A. Mattey and Eustace Lycett, who were nominated for an Academy Award, and included the sodium screen matte process, as well as miniatures and wire-supported mockups. The film's "Medfield Fight Song" was written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, their first song for a Disney feature.

Keenan Wynn and his father Ed Wynn appear together in this film. Keenan also played Alonzo Hawk in Son of Flubber (1963) and again in Herbie Rides Again (1974). Keenan's son Ned also appears uncredited in a bit part. Ed Wynn also appeared in Son of Flubber. At this stage of his life, Ed Wynn's memory was fading and he couldn't remember his lines; but he retained his innate wit and invention, so he improvised much of his dialogue, while director Stephenson instructed his crew to "just let him go on and on. You see, he had the most wonderful imagination."[3]

Medfield College of Technology was used again as the setting for the sequel, Son of Flubber, as well as a later trilogy of Disney "Dexter Riley" films: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975), each starring Kurt Russell and Cesar Romero. Budget: $2,000,000 (estimated)

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards:[4]

• Best Art Direction (Carroll Clark, Emile Kuri, Hal Gausman).
• Best Cinematography (Edward Colman)
• Best Effects, Special Effects

The film was reissued to theaters in 1967 and 1975, and released to video in 1981, 1986, and 1993. It was released as a pan and scan print on VHS in black and white in 1981 and 1993, and in a colorized version in 1986, after successful airings on the Disney Channel in March of that year. In 2003, the film finally got a widescreen treatment: The Walt Disney laserdisc #028AS is letterboxed to produce a 1.85:1 aspect ratio format. In 2008 the film was released in the United States as part of a two-disc set with its sequel, Son of Flubber.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "remarkably bouncy entertainment ... the grown-ups should find it entertaining for the silly shenanigans it contains and for the simple satisfaction of noting the pleasure it gives the kids."[5] Variety described it as "a comedy-fantasy of infectious absurdity" with MacMurray "ideally cast."[6] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film, "for all that it happens to be a one-joke picture, is good AND funny ... while its satire should be at least as sharp as its slapstick but isn't, the novelty of the gimmick will carry the picture to popularity."[7] Edith Oliver of The New Yorker called it "a funny and unpretentious piece of slapstick that cannot fail to please children and all the rest of us who are fans of the Keystone Cops."[8] The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "agreeable and entertaining," but "the comedy doesn't bounce enough. It is really a one-joke story, and could have done with more invention, more unpredictability; the humorous possibilities of the admirable flubber are not explored sufficiently."[9]

Despite the number of positive reviews, some critics disparaged the film on its release, causing considerable pain to Walt Disney, who couldn't understand why anyone would dislike such a light-hearted picture, leading composer Richard Sherman to comment: "Don't let anybody ever tell you Walt was immune to a bad review. It bothered him! The good reviews never went to his head, but the bad reviews went to his heart."[3]

The film holds a rating of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3 out of 10.[10]

• Dell Four Color #1199 (April 1961)[11][12]

• List of American films of 1961

• Wingrove, David. Science Fiction Film Source Book (Longman Group Limited, 1985)
• UltimateDisney.com DVD Review
• TVGuide.com Movies page

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Absent-Minded Professor

• Official website
• The Absent-Minded Professor on IMDb
• The Absent-Minded Professor at the TCM Movie Database
• The Absent-Minded Professor at AllMovie
• The Absent-Minded Professor at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Review at Variety