The Strongest Man in the World

Now You See The Strongest Computer in Tennis Shoes in the World

What is it about?

Tonight's nostalgic pic is "The Strongest Man in the World" (Disney, 1975). Medfield College is in dire financial straits yet again. We join Dean Higgins (Joe Flynn) as he is being informed by Regent Dietz (Harold Gould) that he is to be replaced with someone who can bring the school back in the black.

Pictured, Harry Gould, classy as ever.

The slimy Higgins convinces Dietz that he has a plan and needs thirty days to bring it to fruition.

Our hero. Seriously.

Meanwhile, the science class of Professor Quigley (William Schallert) is busy trying to create a dietary supplement for cows to increase their strength, appetite, and milk production.

Can confirm: Cows are very pet-able animals, but not very lap friendly.

A formula being developed by Richard Schuyler (Michael McGreevey) doesn't seem effective…

The brains of the operation. You would be forgiven for thinking it was the dog.

until a lab accident laces his vitamin-enriched cereal with another formula developed by his fellow seventh year student (at the four year college) Dexter Riley (Kurt Russel) -- then whoever eats the cereal becomes superhumanly strong for a brief time.

Showoff.

Suddenly, Higgins gets the idea to sell the formula to the Crumply Crunch cereal company, headed by the powerful Harriet Crumply (Eve Arden) and her nephew, Harry (Dick Van Patten).

Yeah, and keep those legs crossed!

Harry Crumble: Totally innocent and not the bad guy. Probably.

After a demonstration Harriet is keen to purchase Higgins' formula, but warns him of corporate spies from the Krinkle Krunch cereal company, headed by the devious Kirwood Krinkle (Phil Silvers).

Is Phil Silvers ever actually not funny?

A bitter spy game ensues, resulting in a weightlifting competition between the two cereal companies' chosen teams. Can the Medfield college misfits rediscover the secret formula and save the college?

Will Medfield beat the state team?

Not without some disturbingly disfiguring injuries at least.

This is the third and final film in Disney's Dexter Riley trilogy. It's notable for a number of reasons, including the fact that it was actor Joe Flynn's final role (he died of a heart attack a year before the film was released). It has a lot of callbacks to the two previous films, "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" (1969) and "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" (1972), and much of the cast (although the college students around Russel and McGreevey rotate every film).

Can confirm: Tennis shoes! Or maybe trainers. Whatever, I'll take it.

Not positively positive

It's your typical goofy 1970s teen film, with nary a scent of bad language or sex to be found (well, there is one "it's not the size but what you do with it" joke, but that's as raunchy as it gets here). There is a bit of violence near the end with a rather well-choreographed fight between a superhuman Dexter Riley and the gang of returning villain A.J. Arno (played once again by Caesar Romero).

I never realized just how tall Romero was in the "Batman" show.

It's not bloody or anything, but it is surprisingly action movie violent for such an otherwise benign film, so if you're trying to wean small children away from that, don't watch it with them.

Dick Van Bowling Ball.

It has problems

There's other problems with the narrative, most glaringly, for a film in the "Dexter Riley Trilogy," there's surprisingly little of Dexter Riley.

"What am I doing with my life?"

I can't find any information on why Kurt Russel is absent throughout MOST of the film, but he's basically just there for the inciting incident (as with all of these films) and shows up to save the day at the end.

Less of a car chase and more of a race against the clock.

As such, there's no direct hero in this film, unless you count Dean Higgins, whose antics we follow throughout most of the film. I welcome this, as Joe Flynn is hilarious, and watching his skeevy dimwitted character bumble his way through much of the film is a nice change of pace. Also, shouldn’t Dexter and Schuyler be doctors or professors by now? They've been in college since at least 1969 (at least there's a joke to this effect in the movie if you catch it).

Dexter Riley... Not the hero we need.

Where can you watch it?

If you want to watch the Dexter Riley Trilogy, well… You're out of luck. But if you want to watch the first film and the last film, both "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Strongest Man in the World" are streaming on Disney+. As for "Now You See Him, Now You Don't?" Well… you don't.

The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

I cannot confirm whether he's actually wearing tennis shoes

What's it about?

Tonight's nostalgic pic is "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" (Disney, 1969). Dean Higgins of Medfield College (Joe Flynn) has a bit of a money problem.

It's actually unknown whether the college is low on funds or if Higgins is just a skinflint.

So when the much more likable Professor Quigley (William Schallart) comes by proposing the college purchase a computer for its highly dubious student body led by the plucky (yet dense) Dexter Riley (a young Kurt Russell), well that's just ridiculous!

Pictured: The only altruistic adult in the film.

Dexter Riley isn't just likeable, he's a monster.

Undeterred, Dexter uses his inside connection to local businessman and secret criminal A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero, who some might recognize as the first actor to take up the mantle of Batman villain "The Joker") to convince him to donate the $10,000.00 computer to the college… Which Arno does, after withholding his annual Medfield endowment of $20,000.00, much to the chagrin of Dean Higgins.

"But what if... I didn't shave my mustache before putting on white makeup?"

After installing the room-sized computer and giving a brief demonstration of its capabilities, Professor Quigley is mortified when it almost immediately breaks down (as they tend to do). While trying to repair the machine, Dexter is zapped, causing the computer to bond with his mind, creating a human capable of almost infinite learning potential.

Pictured: Actual X-ray from the film, in case you were curious how serious it is.

With his new super-brain, Dexter becomes a national celebrity that everyone wants a piece of. Will he remember who his friends are, or will he fall prey to the newfound confidence his abilities bring?

Some details:

This is the first film in Disney's oft-forgot trilogy of Dexter Riley films (the other two are 1972's "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" and 1975's "The Strongest Man in the World"), and sets the tone for each of these goofy and lighthearted family friendly college films. There's no strong language, no nudity, and the only real adult themes explored are A.J. Arno's heavy-handed criminal underpinnings which are, expectedly, played for laughs.

Also, one scene of VERY distracted driving with no consequences. Dexter is a monster.

Problems, or just modern context?

Now, the obvious question is, had it aged well? And the obvious answer is, well… No. Most kids today cannot fathom having to switch a home computer on and off just to change programs (like we did back in my day) let alone that a computer with such limited functionality would cost the equivalent of a used Miata and take up an entire room. Of course, this too can be charming in and of itself, but the real appeal of this film are the incredibly silly character performances by the likes of Joe Flynn as Dean Higgins and his rival, state college Dean Collingsgood played with villainous aplomb by Alan Hewitt.

He's depicted as the bad guy, but Collingsgood is really just a more successful version of Dean Higgins.

The dopey college students provide a lot of the laughs, and there's a fair amount of slapstick and minor action sequences (including a memorable dune buggy chase near the end of the film).

Despite the goofy nature of this film, these stunts look awfully dangerous.

Side note:

If you see a particularly weird-looking kid in Dexter's friend group with an odd straight but not-quite-bowl-cut hairdo, that's an early and rare live-action appearance of Frank Welker, who many people will know as the modern voice of Scooby-Doo and Fred Jones from "Scooby-Doo" cartoons, Megatron and Soundwave from the original "Transformers" cartoon, Curious George, various "Gremlins," and any of the other nearly 900 voice and acting credits he has on IMDB.

"Jeepers, gang!"

Basically, if you've seen a movie, played a video game, or watched TV in the last 50 or so years, you've either seen or heard him at some point. Just worth noting.

"Ruh-roh, Raggy!"

My thoughts:

I like this film, but primarily because it falls into that time in my life when we would have movie days at my elementary schools, when the teachers would herd us into the cafeteria/gymnasium/auditorium room and show us a film that they ordered with the school's limited budget on an old reel-to-reel projector. They were always films like this (and indeed this exact film), which were old back when I was going to school but still felt fresh in our young minds. Its actual modern entertainment value is wholly debatable, and may not play with today's more sophisticated and special-effects hungry children.

Where can you see it?

"The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" is currently streaming on Disney+. Its sequel, "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" is not, however, but it's sequel, "The Strongest Man in the World," (oddly) is.