When Coach John Amos and his assistant Tim Conway go looking for athletic talent for Merryvale College, they say they'll travel anywhere. And in The World's Greatest Athlete they go to East Africa in search of a legendary jungle boy raised in the wild whose athletic prowess is beyond belief.
The subject of their search is Jan-Michael Vincent who plays the young Tarzan like man and he's every inch the athlete that former Tarzans like Johnny Weissmuller, Glenn Morris, and Buster Crabbe were. They have to use a little trickery to get him out of the jungle and away from his foster father, witch doctor Roscoe Lee Browne. Browne knows all the jungle remedies, but he's lived in the world outside the Kenyan veld and he's up to its challenges.
But he's still got concern for his foster son who ain't used to civilization and all the things that entails. Among which include women in the person of shapely Dayle Haddon who covers him on the academic end of things at college. Talk about remedial education though, this is really stretching it.
She's also got a jealous suitor in Danny Goldman. Goldman's a little ferret of a schemer, the would be Iago sends for Browne from Kenya to work his voodoo magic to get Vincent back to the woodland wilds and a clear path for Goldman back to Haddon. If that means him losing the big NCAA track meet where Vincent is going to represent Maryvale in all events like Jim Thorpe did years ago for Carlisle, so be it.
Jan-Michael Vincent looks just fabulous in a loin cloth. I'm surprised he never was cast in a straight out Tarzan film. He actually did appear in one years later when he was much older and the bad guy in that one. Of course he just had to utter "Me Nanu.......You Jane" to Haddon whose character name of course was Jane.
Vincent and Haddon get great support from the whole cast, especially Tim Conway who has to deal with being shrunk to three inches in height by Browne in a bar. Conway gets a nice fifteen minute sequence trying to deal with his unfamiliar surroundings. Nancy Walker has a fine bit as a Mrs. Magoo landlady who can't recognize a tiger that Vincent has brought from Africa as a pet. He must have gotten him from the zoo in Mombasa because as most kids know, tigers aren't native to Africa.
This was the final feature film appearance of Billy DeWolfe who plays the dean of the college and Goldman's uncle. I suspect he would have had more of a role had health permitted it.
The World's Greatest Athlete is one of Disney's better screen comedies for the Seventies. And as we learn in the end, Jan-Michael Vincent might not just be The World's Greatest Athlete.
The World's Greatest Athlete
1973
Action / Comedy / Family / Romance / Sport
The World's Greatest Athlete
1973
Action / Comedy / Family / Romance / Sport
Keywords: sports
Plot summary
Sam Archer is the beleaguered head coach of Merrivale College's many hapless sports teams and individual sports athletes, their poor performance placing his job on the line. Taking a break in Zambia with his assistant Milo Jackson to get in touch with his African roots, Sam believes he sees the answer to all his professional problems in the form of Nanu, arguably the fastest, strongest, and most agile person who he has ever come across, Nanu who also has pinpoint accuracy in his aim. After the death of his missionary parents, Nanu was raised as a jungle boy by Gazenga, an African witch doctor. As Nanu is reluctant to leave his African home, Sam and Milo have to manipulate a way for Nanu to want to attend Merrivale. Gazenga may have his own thoughts of what he wants for his son. Eventually, Nanu does go to Merrivale with Sam and Milo, with the one condition that he bring his best friend, Harri, who he's known since he was a child. Beyond adjusting to western life, Nanu finds that his stay at Merrivale is not always a smooth or happy one as some constituents don't want to see Nanu compete for Merrivale and as Nanu discovers the deception that brought him to Merrivale in the first place. As Nanu may come to his own conclusions of what he himself wants to do which may take into account his tutor Jane, everything in his athletic life at Merrivale may come to a head as Coach Archer has entered him into every event at an upcoming NCAA track and field meet.
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"Me Nanu.......You Jane"
a few laughs
Coach Sam Archer (John Amos) and assistant Milo Jackson (Tim Conway) can't win anything no matter the sport. They're on an African safari when they encounter Tarzan-type Nanu (Jan-Michael Vincent). According to tribal law, the one who saves another must follow him. Sam sees an opportunity to trick Nanu into coming to America to play sports for him. Part of package is that he brings along his tiger friend Harry. Sam recruits Jane to be Nanu's tutor.
This is so stupid that it's funny. Tim Conway is hamming it up before his stardom on The Carol Burnett Show. He is stealing scenes left and right. In an ill-advised turn, he gets shrink for awhile. The physical comedy potential is not enough to offset the truly ridiculous. It's one stupidity too far. Jan-Michael Vincent is humor-deficient but he's fine as a clueless meathead. Amos is fine and plays well with Conway. This is a stupid Disney live-action comedy from the 70's and it has a few laughs for the simple kid in everyone. I do wonder about having a tiger on set. It seems exceedingly dangerous.
Sports comedy from Disney degenerates into voodoo nonsense, all for the sake of yahoo laughs...
John Amos plays a luckless coach who bombs out at football, baseball, basketball--but during a trip to Africa he discovers a Tarzan-like athlete (Jan-Michael Vincent) and wisely turns his attention to the track and field. Inane family comedy from the folks at Disney--who apparently had no faith in their basic premise, thereby shoehorning in a dire voodoo subplot which allows for comedic special effects, such as over-sized props. Vincent, looking like a Tiger Beat pinup, is well-cast, and Amos tries hard, but Tim Conway (always an acquired taste) is both broad and boring in a gratuitous supporting role as a flunky. For aficionados of archaic matinée entries, not too terrible; however genuine inspiration is lacking, as is that old Disney snap. *1/2 from ****