Search - The Absent-Minded Professor (Widescreen Edition) on DVD

The "flying-rubber-professor" film in its original form.

William Sommerwerck | Renton, WA USA | 05/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If ever there were a film that took a silly idea and milked every possible gag out of it, this is it. Four stars as a film, but five stars for being a classic.The "science-fiction comedy" is a movie genre with few entries. (I'm thinking of films in which an SF premise and its development is the film's focal point. "Back to the Future," for example, doesn't count.) I can think of only two significant others -- "It Happens Every Spring," in which Ray Milland synthesizes a chemical that repels wood (don't ask), and "The Man in the White Suit," the classic-but-not-really-very-good Alec Guinness vehicle in which his invention of an indestructible, never-needs-cleaning fabric threatens to ruin the clothing industry.Disney continued the genre with "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," but none of them is remotely as good as "The Absent Minded Professor." It's a classic of visual humor. Not only is there the famous flying Model T, but the professor's attempts to woo his ex-fiance by dancing in flubber-heeled shoes, and a flubber-enhanced basketball game that's an encylopaedia of "What can you do with flying basketball players?" gags. Style-wise, this classic sequence looks as if it were lifted directly from MAD.Bill Walsh's smart script has some good satirical jabs ("I hear Medfield's athletes make as much as their teachers") and they hold up. One of the best anticipates Congress's destruction in "Mars Attacks!" And the professor's attempt to prove he's a loyal, patriotic American cuts even more sharply today than it did 40+ years ago.One of the few good things about Disney comedies is that almost all the secondary roles are populated with talented character actors -- Keenan Wynn (who'd repeat his Alonzo Hawk villain in other Disney flicks), Ed Wynn (his father), Elliott Reid (at his greasy, pompous best). Special kudos go to Belle Montrose (Steve Allen's mother! -- note the resemblance) as the professor's housekeeper.Nancy Olson -- an Oscar-winner for "Sunset Blvd." -- delivers a smart, heads-up performance that falls apart only when she stops being mad at Fred MacMurry and becomes a bit of a bubble-head.Robert Stevenson (grandson of Robert Louis Stevenson) had a directorial career ("Jane Eyre") before he became a Disney house director, but I've never thought much of his talent ("Mary Poppins" is slack and sluggish). "The Absent Minded Professor" shows him at his best -- brisk and light, almost as weightless as flubber renders the Model T. "The Absent Minded Professor" was shot in B&W, because the special effects were too difficult (and too expensive) to do well in color. Had Disney known what a major hit TAMP would be (it played first-run for months), he might have sprung for color. The previous attempt to colorize it was a disaster.We finally have this little gem in its original form -- an exquisite B&W enhanced-widescreen transfer. (Amazon editor -- please have the negative reviews for the awful colorized version moved or removed. These are fundamentally different releases.) The rich blacks and sharp detail are outstanding -- far superior to even the old LV release. This is close-to-demo-quality B&W."