Ed Asner is the owner of a failing football team. They didn't score a single point the entire previous season. As a half-time attraction, he hires Yugoslavian Gary Grimes and his mule Gus. Gus can kick a soccer ball far and accurately. It turns out, he can do the same with a football. Asner installs Grimes and Gus as his field-point kicker, and soon the team is on its way to the Superbowl. This does not please Harold Gould, who has been lending Asner money for the team and will get the team if it doesn't win. He hires ex-cons Tom Bosley and Tim Conway to kidnap the mule.
It's based on a short novel by Ted Key. Key was best known for his series of cartoons about Hazel, which were turned into a TV series. Key also wrote juvenile novels, several of which were turned into movies by Disney.
This is one of the gimmick comedies that Disney produced for a couple of decades: lots of comedy gags by old pros like Don Knotts (who plays the coach here), slapstick sequences, and a cute young couple (Grimes and Louise Williams) and a clearly enunciated message in a G-rated setting. This meant that parents could take their kids to the film and snooze through it.
It meant that Disney had a stranglehold on G features, and given the situation, they simply ran the same stories over and again. It might be Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle, a cat from outer space, or a dog as a district attorney, the plot would center on a non-threatening focus.
GUS depends on performances to be interesting, and while everyone clearly tries hard, most of the performers give the impression that it's a paycheck job. Conway and Bosley have a long slapstick sequence in a supermarket that looks far more calculated than funny. Grimes should be speaking with an accent, but there's never one that's apparent, doubtless to avoid distressing any Americans about a foreigner from a Communist country getting the girl. While I'm sure that it made a profit for the company, and I didn't snooze through it, it's one of the unmemorable kid-safe comedies that came out in the 1970s. If it's remembered with especial fondness, it's through the lens of nostalgia.
It's based on a short novel by Ted Key. Key was best known for his series of cartoons about Hazel, which were turned into a TV series. Key also wrote juvenile novels, several of which were turned into movies by Disney.
This is one of the gimmick comedies that Disney produced for a couple of decades: lots of comedy gags by old pros like Don Knotts (who plays the coach here), slapstick sequences, and a cute young couple (Grimes and Louise Williams) and a clearly enunciated message in a G-rated setting. This meant that parents could take their kids to the film and snooze through it.
It meant that Disney had a stranglehold on G features, and given the situation, they simply ran the same stories over and again. It might be Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle, a cat from outer space, or a dog as a district attorney, the plot would center on a non-threatening focus.
GUS depends on performances to be interesting, and while everyone clearly tries hard, most of the performers give the impression that it's a paycheck job. Conway and Bosley have a long slapstick sequence in a supermarket that looks far more calculated than funny. Grimes should be speaking with an accent, but there's never one that's apparent, doubtless to avoid distressing any Americans about a foreigner from a Communist country getting the girl. While I'm sure that it made a profit for the company, and I didn't snooze through it, it's one of the unmemorable kid-safe comedies that came out in the 1970s. If it's remembered with especial fondness, it's through the lens of nostalgia.