The flying timpanist

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Movie
German title The flying timpanist
Original title The Absent-Minded Professor
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1961
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Robert Stevenson
script Bill Walsh
production Walt Disney
music George Bruns
camera Edward Colman
cut Cotton Warburton
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
The timpanist can't help it

The Absent-Minded Professor is an American comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson from the year 1961 , after the short story situation of Gravity W. Samuel Taylor. Fred MacMurray played the title role in this Walt Disney production . The German premiere was on September 8, 1961.

action

Professor Ned Brainard is an absent-minded scientist who teaches physics and chemistry in a college and experiments in his garage. Completely absorbed in his work, he even forgets his own wedding twice, much to the annoyance of his fiancée Betsy. Ironically, on the evening of the third attempt, Ned made a decisive breakthrough. His experiments lead to an explosion and stun Ned, but the next morning he discovers that he has created a substance that gains energy as soon as it hits a hard surface. Brainard calls this substance " Flummi ", a made-up word composed of the words flying and rubber (in the English original "Flubber", composed of the words flying and rubber , which also means something like "flying rubber").

His fiancée Betsy is now so angry with Ned, who also missed the third wedding date, that she no longer wants to hear from him. In order to win back their attention, Ned prepares all the sports shoes of the basketball team at his college with rubber balls, so that the otherwise notoriously weak team with the improved jumping ability can barely win a game that has already been lost. Even so, Ned has not yet succeeded at Betsy. Next, Ned uses a rubber ball to make his car, an old Ford Model T , fly, but Betsy still doesn't listen.

Ned gets further problems from businessman Alonzo Hawk, whose son Biff has excluded Ned from the basketball team because of poor performance. Hawk, angry about this embarrassment, had also put a lot of money on the opposing team and is already planning to tear down the college, which is in great financial difficulties, and to cultivate the country profitably. By chance, Hawk sees Ned's flying car and smells big business. Ned, however, refuses to work with Hawk and tries to arouse the government and military's interest in bouncy balls.

Hawk wants to prevent that, and on the advice of Biff, he has the car replaced. When finally some military men want to take a look at the car and Ned presents the wrong car without an engine and a rubber ball, he is embarrassed. Betsy feels sorry for him and wants to talk to him. Ned can finally show her the rubber ball and suspects that Hawk has stolen his car.

Together they visit Hawk, and under the pretext of selling him bouncy rubber, they make him jump up and down in front of his house in rubber-coated shoes. Hawk, enthusiastic at first, realizes that Ned has set a trap for him because he cannot stop jumping. Hoping to be freed, he reveals where Ned's car is, which he and Betsy want to fetch immediately. With a lot of attention from passers-by and the media, Hawk kept jumping until Biff picks up the college football team, who on command simultaneously pounces on Hawk and stops jumping.

Ned and Betsy have now fetched the car, but are followed by Hawk and Biff until Ned crashes them into a police car. Then he and Betsy fly to Washington to finally present the invention. At first they are mistaken for an enemy flying object and should be shot down, but then Ned lands and everything is cleared up. Finally, Brainard can show his discovery to the government and Ned and Betsy get married.

background

  • One of the few black and white films produced by Walt Disney after the Second World War .
  • The film was next to Die Kanonen von Navarone ( The Guns of Navarone ) the most successful film of 1961 on the North American market.
  • The term rubber ball was then commonly used in German-speaking countries for decades as a term for small, high-jumping rubber balls.
  • The film was colored for video release in 1986. In Germany, the film received the video distribution title The absent -minded professor .
  • Keenan Wynn's father, Ed Wynn , appears as chief of the fire department ; his son Ned plays a boy, but is not featured in the credits.
  • Keenan Wynn played the role of Alonzo Hawk three times in Disney productions: Except in this film in 1963 in The Pauker Can't Keep It Up ( Son of Flubber ) and in 1974 in Herbie Big in Drive ( Herbie Rides Again )
  • Producer Walt Disney won 22 Academy Awards during his career.
  • Set decorator Emile Kuri came to the set with an Oscar. It won two Academy Awards (1950, 1955).
  • Film editor Cotton Warburton won an Oscar in 1965, as did special effects technician Peter Ellenshaw . His colleague Eustace Lycett won another Oscar in 1972 in addition to the 1965 Oscar.

German version

The German dubbing was created in 1961 at Simoton Film, and Theodor Mühlen was responsible for dialogue and direction, as with the sequel.

role actor Voice actor
Professor Ned Brainard Fred MacMurray Paul Edwin Roth
Betsy Carlisle Nancy Olson Edith Schneider
Biff Hawk Tommy Kirk Ernst Jacobi
Professor Shelby Ashton Elliott Reid Eckart Dux
Defense Minister Edward Andrews Siegfried Schürenberg
General Singer David Lewis Herbert Wilk
Air Force Captain Jack Mullaney Heinz Petruo
Mrs. Chatsworth Belle Montrose Anneliese Würtz
Lenny Don Ross Rainer Brandt
Officer Hanson James Westerfield Eduard Wandrey
President Rufus Daggett Leon Ames Klaus W. Krause
Admiral Olmstead Raymond Bailey Knut Hartwig
reporter Bill Baldwin Achim Strietzel
referee Alan Carney Hans W. Hamacher
General Hotchkiss Alan Hewitt Erich Fiedler
General Poynter Wendell Holmes Gerd Duwner
Rutland Coach Gordon Jones
Bill Tommy Kirk Ernst Jacobi
Ned Brainard Fred MacMurray Paul Edwin Roth
Fire chief Ed Wynn Erich Poremski
Alonzo P. Hawk Keenan Wynn Hans Walter Clasen

Awards

Reviews

"Nice conversation."

- Lexicon of international film

"This typical Walt Disney production was celebrated in America as a comical SF blend, but it is probably more of a piece of clothing with SF elements without SF ambitions [...] The critics agreed: fun for the whole family."

- Ronald M. Hahn and Volker Jansen in Lexicon of Science Fiction Films

“The film from the Walt Disney workshop tries in the style of the“ Herbie ”films to put the evil world on the cross with heart humor, sometimes with success. (Rating: 2 out of 4 possible stars - average ) "

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in the dictionary "Films on TV"

“The conditions were good: Walt Disney produced this children's chaos comedy and Robert Stevenson, who also directed classics such as“ Mary Poppins ”,“ A great Beetle ”or“ Herbie in great motion ”, staged the“ absent-minded professor ” , which became the most successful film of the year in 1961. And because every good old film is recycled in Hollywood, director Les Mayfield convinced […] comedian Robin Williams to take on the lead role in the remake “ Flubber ”. More lovable, however, is the ancient, somewhat dusty TV version from the 60s. "

- Prisma online film database

Remakes and sequels

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The flying timpani in Arne Kaul's synchronous database ( Memento from December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ The flying timpanist. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-11860-X .
  4. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV". (Extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 233.
  5. ^ The absent-minded professor at prisma.de; Retrieved November 1, 2008.