Written by / 2/02/2020 / No comments / , , , , , , , , , ,

COOLLY CRUISING THROUGH DISNEY'S OFFBEAT 'SUPERDAD'

Kurt Russell kicking back in SUPERDAD Year: 1973
A bizarre Disney film called SUPERDAD starring HOGAN’S HEROES star Bob Crane who, at this point, after his show was finished, appeared in more clandestine sex videos than mainstream movies. and so, Disney gave him a chance to upstart a fledgling career...

Maybe knowing Crane's backstory, the opening sequence is downright creepy and awkward. Bob Crane’s Charlie McCready doesn’t think his daughter deserves anyone else but Daddy...
Bob Crane and an incredibly annoying Bruno Kirby
Thus the first five minutes has daughter Wendy and her lifelong boyfriend Bart, played by Disney stock actor Kurt Russell, walking on a dusky beach while Charlie’s voice-over reminds her of his omnipresence. And like all desperate fathers, he eventually loses touch with Daddy’s Little Girl. She grows up to have lots of beachy friends and just wants to have... you know... fun.

Charlie, a well-paid lawyer, lives in a nice house in the cozy suburbs, has a pretty wife in former ingenue Barbara Rush, but wishes that the generation gap separating himself from his only child would close up, completely...
The gang taking dad on a water ski trip in SUPERDAD
During perhaps the best and most memorable scenes, which are supposed to be what SUPERDAD is all about, Charlie spends a day at the beach with her friends, trying to take part in volleyball, body boarding and eventually waterskiing...

What's really strange is hearing Crane's high pitch, sow-screeching scream whenever, say, a wave crashes on him, or any other unlucky circumstance occurs, which is commonplace here in this mostly slapstick venture that doesn't really know what kind of comedy it wants to be: laidback family oriented fare or frantic goofball madness...
Barbara Rush, Bob Crane, Bruno Kirby, Ed Begley Jr., Kathleen Cody and Kurt Russell in Superdad
Made during the early seventies, it’s fun watching Disney kowtowing to young hip audiences. Of course there aren’t drug or rock n’ roll references, but the kids are freespirited and of that independent mind-set that the conservative middle-age Charlie cannot relate to... And while The Gang seem more BEACH BANKET BINGO than EASY RIDER, they're still, in his eyes, just as aimless as if being perpetually loaded...

But a gist of the film takes place at college in San Francisco: Charlie sends his girl to the same fancy school he went, away from Bart and his friends (including the great Bruno Kirby who's not so great with an annoyingly high voice); but things eventually backfire (he tricked her into going) and she winds up with a nefarious beatnik... 
Paul Muni lookalike Joby Baker painting a self portrait of Klutch in SUPERDAD Rates: ***1/2
During a seemingly endless final act, Charlie has to rescue her and, with the secret help of Russell’s Bart, he goes up against Joby Baker’s Klutch, a dock-dwelling artist hybrid of Charles Manson, Paul Muni and a cast member of THE ELECTRIC COMPANY.

Throughout the misadventure, we forget about our put-upon heroes’ initial titular quest to be SUPERDAD, making the original title, A SON-IN-LAW FOR CHARLIE MCCREADY, far more befitting the plot and purpose. 
Kurt Russell and Kathleen Cody in SUPERDAD
Bob Crane goes waterskiing in SUPERDAD
Nicholas Hammond is the perfect son... for dad in Superdad
Bob Crane creeping in in SUPERDAD
Bob Crane and Kathleen Cody in SUPERDAD
Bob Crane and Kathleen Cody in SUPERDAD
SUPERDAD poster contrasts on gritty New York subway in the original DEATH WISH
Share This Post :
Tags : , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

ROBERT BEATTY WITH TERRY MOORE IN 'POSTMARK FOR DANGER'

Title: POSTMARK FOR DANGER Year: 1955 Rating: ** Twenty years before Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, involving a first-act wher...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "The Love Generation... Vicious little creeps!" Peter Strauss, Rich Man Poor Man

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)SHARKS' TREASURE 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)THE BREAK 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)HIDDEN FEAR 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)NIGHT CREATURES 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)EASY LIVING 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)FRENZY 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)CHARLES BRONSON1)VIRGINIA MAYO 2)SUE LYON 3)GENE TIERNEY 4)MERRY ANDERS 5)FAYE DUNAWAY DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)JOHN CARPENTER 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

FOR HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS

Most Popular Last Year

RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE