El profesor distraido

I must have been eight when I saw this, since it's listed as coming out in 1961. I was an unsophisticated kid, who didn't see too many movies in my youth, and those I did see tended towards the non-controversial. I'm glad they did, there was plenty of time for me to learn about "sex, drugs, and rock and roll later in my movie-going career. MacMurray, Kirk, and Wynn (and the others) played their roles to perfection, leaving me in open-mouthed admiration. An added bonus, my Dad was a professor and for quite a while, my brother and I called him the Absent Minded Professor...

When I was younger, Fred MacMurray was my Colin Farrell. He was everywhere, and never seemed to make a bad movie. Sure, they might be campy and silly, but that's what works for a younger age group. And this one holds up. The flubber is quite possibly one of the neatest inventions in movie history. And though the Robin Williams remake gave it the new age CGI, the black and white gives the movie such a good feel. I still get a kick out of Fred torturing the man trying to muscle in on his girl.

The Absentminded Professor was the second film that Fred MacMurray in his second career rebirth with Walt Disney as the midwife. He scored an enormous success in The Shaggy Dog and Disney films together with his My Three Sons TV series established MacMurray as the quintessential family father figure which would endure for the rest of his life.

I do remember seeing this in the theater back as a youngster and back then the younger ones in the crowd were looking at Tommy Kirk who was at the height of his Disney popularity.

Nevertheless MacMurray gives a delightful performance as science professor Ned Brainerd who's accidentally invented a variation on rubber which has a great deal more bounce to it.

He's so wrapped up in his experiment that he's even forgetting his wedding day to Nancy Olson, AGAIN. She's about had it with him and ready to fall for the wolfish English professor Elliott Reid.

MacMurray has his own troubles. Other than helping his college win a basketball game with a team that they are way overmatched against, he's not quite decided what use this stuff he calls flubber is good for. But wealthy Keenan Wynn sure wants to get his hands on it.

Funniest sequence in the film is Keenan Wynn after MacMurray and Olson trick him into wearing flubberized shoes is seeing bounce slowly into the stratosphere before a quick thinking Tommy Kirk devises a way to counteract his flubberized dad.

The AbsentMinded Professor was so popular with audiences that Disney did another version with almost the entire same cast in Son of Flubber.

That one was almost as funny, but this still has a lot of laughs even after almost fifty years.

This is probably one of the best live action films Disney has ever released. Fred MacMurray once again proved how great a comedic actor he was and this film is just a confirmation of it. Also, Nancy Olson was great as his frustrated fiancee, Betsy. However, the real scene stealer in this film is Keenan Wynne as old man Hawk. Mr. Hawk was probably one of the biggest weasels in cinematic history and Tommy Kirk is also great as his son Biff.

Also, the best scene in the whole film is the basketball game. That scene alone is what makes this film a classic comedy.

My wife and I saw this with our four young sons when it was first released, and we thought it was great. We have seen it several times since, and it is always entertaining. Unlike some critics, I thought Fred MacMurray was perfect in the title role, and the supporting cast was great. The humor may seem a bit unsophisticated and hokey by present day standards, but in my eyes it makes the movie even more enjoyable. Show this film to your unprejudiced younger children and grandchildren and watch them delight in it.