El profesor y el león

1965 studios clearly didn't have a clue, evidenced by this Universal release. Do we call the key stone cops farcical? This might be charming for nostalgia seekers but not me. On release I was in Jr high and knew this was witless and just stupily loud. 50 years later...I like animals, there is some charm...but all these characters are too stupid. Keep the FF nearby.

...which is because it is a complete farce from start to finish. In spite of the fact that the script includes a lion roaming about free in a hotel, a bit of a mad - okay more like eccentric - scientist, the alleged devouring of an older gentleman, a jailbreak, and a combined vigilante/ police man and lion hunt, there is zero stress in the entire film.

Parts of it are pure 60's "hey the production code is gone, let's go wild!" (wild for 1965, that is) stuff that really is pretty tame today as far as sexual content is concerned, including a honeymooning couple that winds up with everyone in the hotel sleeping in their room. This is the last straw for the bride who, as she leaves her new husband says "If mom and dad had started out this way I wouldn't even have been born!" There is a host of talented character actors in the background, such as Edward Andrews as the hotel proprietor, Howard Morris as a guest who thinks that the lion's roar he hears is from neglecting his cat - he even is the first to see the lion, but everyone just assumes it is drunken delusions. Then there is Jim Backus as a rather incompetent police sergeant.

The basic storyline is that Dr. Daniel Potter (Tony Randall) as a researcher at the Braden institute is running from the police who want to impound "Fluffy", a lion who Potter has trained to be as tame as a housecat. In fact, most of the trouble is caused by Potter referring to Fluffy as "his cat". He checks into a residence hotel that is completely booked, but the jet setting Janice Claridge (Shirley Jones) is going to be gone for the night and gives Potter and "his cat" her room. From there the misunderstandings and mayhem begin.

Recommended if you just want to laugh and need zero stress and conflict in your cinema entertainment for once.

Tony Randall plays a professor of comparative psychology who is chased out of his animal lab by the cops, who are responding to complaints by the neighbors that he's harboring a wild beast. It's only Fluffy, a tame and very sleepy lion, who checks in with Randall at an apartment-hotel under the nose of manager Edward Andrews (Randall orders 35 hamburgers and a vat of Pablum from room service, sending the Asian staff into a tizzy). A brunette Shirley Jones plays the begrudging love-interest, who initially believes police reports that Randall is psychotic (he's so incredibly guileless about how other people feel about an uncaged lion walking around that the cops may have a point). Gitchy-goo comedy for family audiences; utterly underwhelming and unrewarding. Jim Backus is wasted as a desk sergeant; Adam Roarke (later of the juvenile delinquent wheelers of the late-'60s) has a clean-cut role here as a newlywed. *1/2 from ****

I love Tony Randall movies and so after I finished watching another one of his delightful films (THE BRASS BOTTLE), I decided to give FLUFFY a try. After all, I liked him in so many films and this one looked pretty cute...so I was bound to like it, right. No...no...no! In fact, I disliked it so much I couldn't even finish it.

The story is about a very eccentric man, Professor Potter (Randall)...too eccentric to be believable in any way. The story begins with security guards at the university breaking into Potter's lab and trying to confiscate his lion, named 'Fluffy'. They don't realize that Fluffy is very tame and sweet and they don't give Potter any time to explain. So, Potter is forced to use their dart guns on them and make his escape with Fluffy. He then checks in with his pet to a rooming house--all the while they don't realize the pet is a lion. And again and again, folks ALMOST see Fluffy when it escapes and walks about doing nothing in particular. And, Potter seems a bit oblivious to the fact that a lion running about town might cause a few problems.

The problem with the film is that they didn't make Potter so much eccentric as a complete idiot. Again and again, he could explain things simply but doesn't and every problem that arises seems completely contrived. Rises, at its best, to the level of a sub-par 1960s Disney film but never better. Tons of broad humor, overreactions and stupid special effects (such as phone in champagne basket and short- circuiting switchboard). Just dumb.

This is one of my all time favourite movies. I wish it was out on DVD. Years ago it was on TV and I taped it so every now and then I get it out and watch it. It may not be as clear as a DVD would be but I still love to watch it. Tony Randall and Shirley Jones are great in this movie. I would love to see it out on DVD and wouldn't hesitate to buy it regardless of cost. It's a great family movie and comedy. A lot of the movies made today are just plain garbage but not this one. I love the movies of this era as they are just good clean fun without the violence and gore that is so common today. Please, whoever made the movie Fluffy, please release it on DVD ASAP for all us fans out here who would love to own it for ourselves.