Le fauve est déchaîné

To many fans, Tony Randall will only and always be Felix Unger, but in this movie he plays Professor Daniel Potter who much to the concern of everyone around him does experiments with his pet lion, Fluffy. Filled with many of those recognizable faces from the Seventies, such as Edward Andrews, Howard Morris, Jim Backus and Dick Sargent, the movie's most enduring star is the lion who upon sight of him sends many a person irrationally running for their lives. Randall is a hoot as he stands by the lion indifferent to the events and saying, "He's harmless I tell you. Harmless." Shirley Jones is on hand as Randall's lady love unsure of his feelings as she races by his side as Fluffy runs loose and unattended in a hotel freaking out everyone who sees him. "He's harmless. Wouldn't harm a fly !" insists Randall. There is a nonsensical and silly aspect to this movie, but it's charming aspect comes from Fluffy's innocent to the hysteria he unknowingly causes and the confusion that Randall knows he's creating. You have to see it for the man who rides the lion's back.

...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.

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.

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 ****

One of my most fondest memories growing up. My dad and I would watch it every time it came on the television and it is one of my favorites and always has been. It is clean, funny, and just a great cast and the lion is priceless. It would be wonderful if it would be released on DVD. I have been looking for this movie on the internet for years now and have come to realize I am not going to find it. If anyone has not seen it well, it is a must see movie. It is fun and heart filled and something you can watch with the whole family. They just don't make movies like they used to. I am hoping one day to have the experience of watching it with my daughter as well. Never has a movie held so much meaning to me and even more so since I lost my day and I would love to be able to watch it once again with my mom and daughter. It is a great movie, must see, two thumbs way up.