r 9
Bit of a disappointment by the end. It starts off very good, but sharply declines from the midway point.
'The Misadventures of Merlin Jones' is practically split into two stories, one about the ability to read minds and one about hypnosis. The former is entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but the latter is extremely stagnant and slow paced. The film loses all of the promising momentum that it previously builds.
Onto the cast, this is arguably Tommy Kirk's best performance to date with Disney. He is excellent as the titular character, adding a strong and fitting demeanour to the role. Annette Funicello (Jennifer) and Leon Ames (Holmsby) are noteworthy too.
Overall, it's a shame the production didn't finish how it started - I'd be rating this higher if it had. Still, this is one that is worth a watch.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Coming from children's drama classes and community acting performances, then spotted by a Disney agent, Tommy Kirk was made into a Disney actor at an age when no one knows who they are. Kirk, though, was ebullient and bright. He was a delight to watch in whatever role he was featured in. His "sin" caught up with him in 1963 and had nothing to do with acting. He was gay in 1963. Disney hit the roof and he was let go from his contracts. Jane Wyman and Fred MacMurray went out of their way to persecute and belittle the teenager. He lost a role in a John Wayne movie, and his career slipped to B movies and then to worse. Yet, he was one of the best child actors in the world. He was homosexual in a time when no one would accept -- in fact, when people felt perfectly within their rights to hate him and publicly despise him. This is much to their discredit as human beings ("kick him when he's down"), and gives a glimpse of the very right-wing Republican world of Hollywood in 1963. Many of the major stars were members of the John Birch Society and hated the way blacks were being accepted into films as well. But with a gay person they could still force him out, make him lose his contracts and all dignity, and consign him to nothingness. This was more than a shame because anyone watching Tommy Kirk remembers his raw talent and boyish sense of adventure -- even as a Hardy Boy in the 1950s. The world lost a great talent when Tommy Kirk was forced from his leading roles because he was gay.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
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s r
More like a tv show, but it has its priceless moments that I loved watching as a kid.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Really sweet and wholesome movie, if a little episodic. I loved both Tommy Kirk and Annette; they really made the movie. The madcap antics are typical of Disney comedies of the 1960s, and this film is by far the funniest one I've seen...so far. Director Robert Stevenson doesn't disappoint with his flair for family friendly wit and comedic timing.
One can plainly see that this film was originally conceived as a two-part miniseries for the Disney Anthology TV show; it is essentially two separate stories in one movie. But they are both enjoyable, no nothing lost there.
The film's greatest strength is its moral question it poses. Merlin discovers that the power to read people's minds can do some good, but it is also overwhelming for our human brain. In our sinful nature, we often jump to conclusions about people's actions and behavior. Imagine if we could interpret thoughts, too! There is a reason God did not give us the ability to read minds...and it's another reason to respect and admire a God who can.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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Audience Member
I thought this one was really cute, I love Tommy Kirk and Anette Funicello!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Made to Be Re-Aired on [i]Wonderful World of Color[/i]
Actually, I have no evidence of that. According to Tommy Kirk himself, the movies made plenty of money for Disney; they did, after all, star Annette--who had a last name, but you wouldn't know it by the credits here. This, is turns out, is why they let him come back and make one even after it was discovered that he was gay. Which I hadn't known or cared about. But hey, 1964. Anyway, the movie really feels more like two episodes of a TV show strung back-to-back. This would not be without precedent; this wouldn't even be without precedent from Disney. On the other hand, Disney also did a lot of things which weren't just adapted TV shows but which could be broken down into episodes. I mean, let's be honest with ourselves. How many times did "Night on Bald Mountain" appear in Halloween specials over the years Disney was making Halloween clip shows?
Kirk is the eponymous Merlin Jones. He's a sort of generic, all-around geek. When we first meet him, he is established as still having the hottest girlfriend on campus, Jennifer (Annette). He is supposed to pick her up and take her into town, but he gets caught up in his experiment studying brainwaves. Various things happen, and what with one thing and another, Merlin gets zapped so that he can read minds. He overhears the thoughts of Judge Holmsby (Leon Ames), who has just suspended Merlin's driver's license. Merlin thinks he hears the judge plotting out a crime, and he tries to get the police involved in it. Which, of course, involves getting them to believe he can read minds. In a later, vaguely related story, Merlin studies hypnosis. An experiment with Stanley the Chimp goes awry when Stanley goes after his keeper, Norman (Norman Grabowski). Hilarity then ensues over an attempt to find out if an honest man can be hypnotized into committing a crime--with Merlin getting fingered as the culprit.
This is on the list of movies I saw long, long ago, when the Disney Channel played things out of the Disney Vault. It was on fairly regular play at the time, in fact. By the age of twelve, I think I had seen more Tommy Kirk, Dean Jones, and Young Kurt Russell movies than I had seen movies made in my own lifetime. I'd seen both [i]Dumbo[/i] and [i]Alice in Wonderland[/i] more times than I could count. And I have to tell you, I'm not sure that was a bad thing. For one, I can trace my knowledge of an important zoological fact to my exposure to Merlin Jones. Merlin is adamant--and correct--in his declarations that Stanley is not a monkey. Stanley is a chimpanzee, and chimpanzees are not monkeys. For starters, they don't have tails. It's interesting to note that only the villain of the second act ever calls him a monkey after getting that correction. Not subtle, perhaps, but the kind of detail which might be said to train a young film-watcher. You can always tell.
I'm not sure I'd say there's chemistry between Tommy and Annette, though apparently, they did go out a few times so that he could pretend he wasn't gay. (This, for the record, makes [i]Catalina Caper[/i] even creepier.) However, they do manage to project genuine affection for one another. I'm not sure I ever imagined Merlin and Jennifer as getting married after college, but then, I'm pretty sure I never imagined them leaving good ol' Medfield College. (Which is one of the IMDB keywords for this movie.) They would stay there forever, along with all the other Disney characters attending the school--even the other one played by Tommy Kirk. I mean, for starters, I could never quite work out what kind of job Merlin was suited for. I think he's intended to be working toward something in psychology, but he's enough of a tinkerer to put together the ludicrous hat which appears on the DVD cover. I think we're supposed to think of him as a hard scientist, but psychology is not exactly a hard science.
I'm not going to lie to you. Tommy Kirk is not a good actor, and this is not a good movie. On the other hand, he isn't a bad actor, and this isn't a bad movie. Unlike every other movie of his I've seen made after this one. In that I've seen two, and both had puppets in the corner. I've always been enchanted by the title [i]Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine[/i], but never actually enchanted enough to seek the movie out and watch it. It does not sound like it would be a quality film. He says he was considered for [i]The Searchers[/i], which by all accounts is not merely good but great, but he was at a party that got busted for pot, and there went that chance. Certainly I would say that Tommy Kirk was not a worse actor than many others of his generation who did much better. It really isn't fair. It also makes the days he was in Hollywood seem so innocent, that being at a party that got raided over marijuana could ruin your career. Or, indeed, that a party was raided over marijuana.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
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