The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969) was the first of a trio of films that Walt Disney Productions turned out featuring the fantastic exploits of a college kid in conflict with the Dean of his school and the city's crooked business chief. The films were a variation of the earlier formula concocted by the studio for their successful live-action fantasies starring Fred MacMurray as Prof. Brainard (The Absent-Minded Professor [1961] and Son of Flubber [1963]) and Tommy Kirk as Merlin Jones (The Misadventures of Merlin Jones [1964] and The Monkey's Uncle [1965]). As with those adventures, the college kid in this group of films finds himself empowered by a super-human ability derived from a pseudo-scientific discovery.

As The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes opens, Professor Quigley (William Schallert) is pleading his case in front of the board of Medfield College to authorize the purchase of a computer for his science class. Dean Higgins (Joe Flynn) rails against the notion in return, yelling that not only is a computer a luxury but the school is almost broke anyway. The entire meeting is being overheard by a group of students in the courtyard below, because the Dean's office has been bugged by a walkie-talkie system. The students, led by Dexter Reilly (Kurt Russell), decide to try and get a computer for the school on their own. They persuade A. J. Arno (Cesar Romero), the town's leading "businessman," to donate his used computer system to Prof. Quigley's class. When the computer begins to malfunction, Dexter tries to repair it with a new part – he sets off an electrical accident which results in the downloading of the computer's memory and calculating ability into his brain! Meanwhile, Dean Higgins is furious, because Arno annually donates $20,000 to the school and plans to forgo that donation because he gave them his computer instead. Dexter demonstrates incredible knowledge and quick mental abilities, and plans to use those to win the school money on the televised $100,000 College Bowl game show. Dexter's star-status begins to go to his head, however, and further complications arise when his computer-downloaded knowledge of Arno's illegal gambling sites cause him to become a kidnapping victim of Arno's gang.

Plainly filmed by director Robert Butler, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is a high concept comedy that strictly follows the convoluted plot demanded by its concept, sometimes at the expense of the gags. The slapstick level is rather tame by live-action Disney standards, in fact, at least until a car chase near the finish in which Romero's hissable villain is on the receiving end of several cans of paint. Roger Greenspun wrote in his New York Times review that "this computer isn't IBM's kind but it's homey, lovable, as exciting as porridge and as antiseptic and predictable as any homey, half-hour TV family show. ...Robert Butler, a TV alumnus ('Gunsmoke,' 'Batman,' etc.) has not struck it rich in this, his first feature film stint. He has merely kept his cast constantly on the move as if, perhaps, to escape the banalities of Joseph L. McEveety's script."

Russell, Flynn, and Romero all returned to the same characters for two sequels (along with a few other players, such as Michael McGreevey as dull-witted sidekick Richard Schuyler). The first sequel was Now You See Him, Now You Don't (1972), in which Dexter comes up with an invisibility formula, followed by The Strongest Man in the World (1975), which has Dexter at odds with Dean Higgins and Arno over a chemically-enhanced cereal which bestows superhuman strength. The same year that Kurt Russell appeared in the latter, he portrayed serial killer Charles Whitman in the TV movie The Deadly Tower (1975), after which he broke away from roles in Disney films.

Producer: Bill Anderson
Director: Robert Butler
Screenplay: Joseph L. McEveety
Cinematography: Frank Phillips
Art Direction: John B. Mansbridge
Music: Robert F. Brunner
Film Editing: Cotton Warburton
Cast: Kurt Russell (Dexter Reilly), Cesar Romero (A. J. Arno), Joe Flynn (Dean Higgins), William Schallert (Professor Quigley), Alan Hewitt (Dean Collingsgood), Richard Bakalyan (Chillie Walsh), Debbie Paine (Annie), Frank Webb (Pete), Michael McGreevey (Schuyler), Jon Provost (Bradley), Frank Welker (Henry), Alexander Clarke (Myles), Bing Russell (Angelo)
C-91m.

by John M. Miller