Son of Flubber (1963)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Robert Stevenson

Writers:

Bill Walsh (screenplay) &
Don DaGradi (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

16 January 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi | Family

Tagline:

The Professor's "Off" and Flying... and FUN SCORES A NEW HIGH!

Plot:

When Professor Brainard experiments further on Flubber derivatives, he gets in trouble and only his students can help.

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Medfield College | Absent Minded | Nutty Professor | Flying Car

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Fred MacMurray	...	Prof. Ned Brainard
Nancy Olson	...	Elizabeth 'Betsy' Brainard
Keenan Wynn	...	Alonzo P. Hawk
Tommy Kirk	...	Biff Hawk
Ed Wynn	...	A.J. Allen
Charles Ruggles	...	Judge Murdock (as Charlie Ruggles)
Leon Ames	...	President Rufus Daggett
Ken Murray	...	Mr. Hurley
William Demarest	...	Mr. Hummel
Paul Lynde	...	Sportscaster
Elliott Reid	...	Prof. Shelby Ashton
Bob Sweeney	...	Mr. Harker
Joanna Moore	...	Desiree de la Roche
Edward Andrews	...	Defense Secretary
James Westerfield	...	Police Officer Hanson

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | Finland:S | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Pomona College - 333 N. College Way, Claremont, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

At the end of the movie, the football filled with flubber gas is seen floating among a series of man-made satellites. They are the same satellites used in Eyes in Outer Space (1959).

Quotes:

Defense Secretary: Don't let those double-breasted suits up there fool you. Those boys are tough.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Herbie Rides Again (1974)

Flubber Byproduct

By the time Son of Flubber was released by Walt Disney in 1963, Fred MacMurray was firmly established in the third phase of his career as star of G-rated Disney films and television situation comedies. MacMurray was able to do this because of a unique clause he had written into his contract with CBS which produced the My Three Sons show that he starred in for a dozen or so years. All of MacMurray's scenes in all episodes were filmed at the beginning of the cycle so as to allow him to do those Disney films as well. It worked out great for him.

Disney took virtually the entire cast of The Absent Minded Professor and added several new faces as well. In the previous film, MacMurray revolutionizes rubber by making a substance that bounces higher with each bounce than lower. That film ends with MacMurray flying to Washington in his Model T (you read it right) to give flubber for the defense of the free world.

But Washington, DC red tape being what it is MacMurray and his new bride Nancy Olson aren't seeing any money any time soon. But not to worry, Fred's found a byproduct of flubber that he calls flubber gas. A lighter than air substance that really makes anything fly.

In the first film, MacMurray used his college's basketball team as a test for flubber. In Son of Flubber, flubber gas is tested during a football game with the same hilarious results. In fact more so because in this film Paul Lynde is the stressed and harried play by play announcer of the college football game. For me he's the highlight of the film.

In Son of Flubber, Disney gives us an entertaining and worthy successor to the Absent Minded Professor that after almost fifty years will still appeal to anyone not made of stone.