“Well I don’t care what the whole world thinks,
She loves the Monkey’s Uncle!
Call us a couple of missing links,
She loves the Monkey’s Uncle!”
40 years ago today, on 3/2/80, Walt Disney’s “The Monkey’s Uncle” returned to television for its third network showing, for the first time the whole film being presented in one evening, a special two-hour presentation.
Merlin Jones (Tommy Kirk) returns from “The Misadventures Of Merlin Jones” (1964), with Jennifer (Annette) his girlfriend, and Stanley the chimp, Merlin becoming legally the monkey’s uncle in the opening scene. Merlin gets into trouble by doing sleep learning for some of the let’s say less gifted football players of the college (Leon Tyler and Norman Grabowski), trying to get them to pass their exams to be eligible for their football team. In the second half Judge Holmsby (Leon Ames) has a competition with Mr. Dearborne (Frank Faylen), the Judge wanting to save the football program of Midvale College, while Dearborne wants it terminated, trying to figure out a way to financially help the college. The Judge is approached by a “millionaire” (Arthur O’Connell) who wants man propelled flight to be achieved by man’s own strength, and Merlin makes a flying contraption to hopefully save the football team.
“The Monkey’s Uncle” is a pleasant, goofy film, like its predecessor, and since it was a theatrical film from the start, its production values are a little higher than the first film. They still approached it as two separate stories, but there’s more physical hijinks than in the first film. The cast is wonderful, with familiar faces like Connie Gilchrist returning as the Judge’s housemaid, Alan Hewitt as the professor, and Frank Faylen in his only Disney film. Mark Goddard plays the head of the sorority, though he goes unbilled (just before he’d appear in “Lost In Space”), and Cheryl Miller is Stanley’s gorgeous babysitter, creating friction between Merlin and Jennifer. Gage Clarke appears as the president of the college, and it’s sadly obvious that he had health problems at the time, this being his last film, passing away in 1964, the film being released posthumously.
The 1965 film was co-produced by Ron Miller and directed by Robert Stevenson. It would be the last Disney film for Tommy Kirk, and Annette’s last until the Disney Channel film “Lots Of Luck” 20 years later, at the tail end of the original studio’s history.
“I love the Monkey’s Uncle,
and I wish I were the monkey’s aunt.”
Still the most famous part of the film is the opening title song, presenting Annette singing with The Beach Boys the classic Sherman Brothers delight “The Monkey’s Uncle” at a school dance, one of their most joyous and infectious concoctions. The wonderful lyrics and intoxicating melody are something that the brothers could do seemingly so effortlessly, and leave a permanent imprint on the viewer for life. Watching Annette sing with The Beach Boys at the peak of their most wholesome early days just adds to an extremely memorable introduction to the film’s shenanigans. Just like the title song and sequence of “The Misadventures Of Merlin Jones”, it is utter perfection, and both are all-time classics.
The film first aired in two-parts on 11/27/67 and 12/3/67, and then returned on 1/28/73 and 2/4/73. On 5/3/77 the film appeared as the second serial presented on “The New Mickey Mouse Club”, being given twice in 8 parts, cutting down the film drastically. It is because of this that it is all the more surprising that it would be shown again on network television, and in two-hours. It may be the first example of a film airing on network television, going into syndication (though technically as part of another program), and then returning to network television, something that would happen with some regularity in the 1990s. Even odder is that the first film “The Misadventures Of Merlin Jones”, originally made for the anthology show, never aired on network television, and was given as a serial on “The New Mickey Mouse Club” in five parts, only using the first part of the film.
For five straight weeks the anthology show aired in a two-hour format, giving five films in a single night presentation, for the last time in the original anthology show’s history. There were only two more 2-hour showings the next season with one 3-hour (a first for the anthology show), and only two 2-hour presentations in the first season on CBS. It was a heavenly time for any true Disney fan having the show present so many wonderful films in such a short time, never realizing that it was essentially the final special hurrah for the anthology show.
“The Monkey’s Uncle” is not top-drawer Disney, just like its predecessor, but its charms are there, and most of all they both have two of the most fantastic songs ever presented in a Disney movie.
“I love the Monkey’s Uncle,
and I’m mad about his chimpanzee!”