The Monkey's Uncle

The Monkey's Uncle
August 18, 1965
Disney
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+

The title and some early scenes suggest that this is going to be sort of a teen version of Bedtime for Bonzo, but Merlin's quasi-adoption of Stanley the chimp is less of the focus than various threats to football at Midvale College.  At least that title allows for one of the better title songs of the '60s, sung by Annette and the Beach Boys, with Sherman Brothers lyrics like this:

Annette: I'd live in a jungle gym in order to be with him.  I love the monkey's uncle, and I wish I were the monkey's aunt!
Beach Boys: Monkey's aunt!....

Annette: On the day he marries me
All: What a nutty family tree!
Mike: A bride!
Brian: A groom!
Beach Boys:  A chimpanzee!

That right there raises the movie from a C to a C+.  (This will be far from the last time that the Beach Boys will do a title song that's much better than the movie it's attached to.)

This time, Merlin's misadventures are slightly more realistic, although "man-powered flight" fueled by an adrenaline smoothie pushes this back into sci-fi.  The first half of the movie is about sleep-learning through LPs.  Questionable ethics again pop up, with the judge urging Merlin to find "an honest way to cheat" on exams, for football player Norm and another idiot jock.  Merlin gets some sexist dialogue about Jennifer being stupid and illogical, you know, feminine.  There's a sort of rival for Jennifer, but because this is Disney, we're cheated of a moment when the girl is supposed to come out of the shower, presumably in a towel.  (By the time of Enchanted, it would be a whole other world of course.)

You'll notice that Annette not only looks non-pregnant, but her hair still has red highlights.  This was actually filmed in '64 (I think shortly before or after Uncle Walt found out that Tommy Kirk was gay), but not released for awhile.

Arthur O'Connell, Darius Green III here, was a reporter in Citizen Kane, and more recently played Gidget's first film father.  Similarly, Frank Faylen, who's the anti-football Mr. Dearborne, was Ernie the cabdriver in It's a Wonderful Life, but he's probably better known as Dobie Gillis's TV dad.  Leon Ames is back as Judge Holmsby, with a much larger role than before.  Connie Gilchrist again plays Holmsby's housekeeper.

The Misadventures of Merlin Jones

The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
March 25, 1964
Disney
Comedy, Sci-Fi
VHS
C+

By this point in their careers, the two young leads were such Disney veterans that she's known in the credits as simply "Annette," and both are recognizably caricatured in the opening cartoon, which is set to Annette singing the title tune.  They'd done some earlier movies together and have a nice, easy-going chemistry.  Unfortunately, they're not given much to work with.  To begin with, Merlin (played by Kirk) is supposed to be a science nerd, but the two main things he experiments with-- mind-reading and hypnosis-- are more in the nature of pseudoscience.  Yes, misadventures ensue, including some questionable ethics.  Not only does a judge nag Merlin into hypnotizing him to commit a misdemeanor (chimp-napping), but the Science professor not only tricks Merlin into harmless activities like eating a raw potato (telling him it's an apple) and drinking water (telling him it's whiskey), but he has Merlin kiss "the first pretty girl he sees."  Jennifer (Annette) is jealous it's not her, but no one in the class seems to have a problem with the girl being kissed against her will!

Still, there are some mildly amusing moments, like when Kirk eavesdrops on the thoughts of other students in the library, including a beatnik poet.  It's never explained how he doesn't hear everyone in the vicinity, or for that matter how when the Science teacher says Merlin will hear only his voice, Merlin misses all the professor's asides to the class.  My favorite bit, as someone who much prefers cats to dogs, is when Merlin hypnotizes his cat to stand up to the bully neighbor dog.

This was originally made to possibly air as two hour-long (including commercials) Disney TV programs, but reedited for theatrical release it proved popular enough to merit a sequel, The Monkey's Uncle (although as Merlin insists, Stanley is a chimp, not a monkey).  Uncle would have some of the cast besides Tommy and Annette reprising their roles:  Norman Grabowski as the jock Norman, Leon Ames as Judge Holmsby, and Connie Gilchrist as the judge's housekeeper.  (He was the father in Meet Me in St. Louis, while she was Norah Muldoon in Auntie Mame.)  The Augusts would also co-write Uncle's screenplay, while Bill Walsh would co-write Mary Poppins, which would feature the voice of Dal McKennon, who's Detective Hutchins here.  Robert Stevenson would direct both Poppins and Uncle.  Burt Mustin, the elderly bailiff, then 80, would do a lot of television and appear in Mame a decade after this.