The World's Greatest Athlete

Having noted the recent death of Jan Michael Vincent and never having seen a single episode of his most famous vehicle, the hit TV show "Airwolf", I remembered watching as a boy this Disney movie in which he starred and I which believe got him his start in pictures.

The studio I seem to recall was putting out a lot of real-action family entertainment features at this time of which this is one and watching it again, obviously myself now much older, I still enjoyed the gentle, innocent fun put on the screen. Vincent plays Nanu the running, jumping jungle boy who is tricked by an on-holiday failed U.S. sports coach played by the very Cosby-esque John Amos and his hapless sidekick Milo played by Tim Conway, into coming to America to represent Merrivale college at the national track and field event where he is entered in every possible discipline as their sole participant. Along for the ride too is his pet tiger Harry, which certainly earns its stripes with an excellent supporting actor performance. I understand thankfully that no humans were injured during the making of this movie in their scenes with the tiger.

With his limber physique and mop of blonde hair, Vincent makes for a handsome lead even if most of the time he only requires to speak in sub-Tarzan style mono-syllables in between all of his running and jumping exploits. His only stops along the way are for a little romance with his pretty female tutor and contending with his geeky rival for her affections, the latter of whom is aided in his nefarious plan to scupper Nanu's shot at glory by flying in the boy's African witchdoctor to dispense some voodoo magic against him.

Of course it all ends happily in an entertaining conclusion where Nanu wins every event, literally on the run, even finding time to sportingly help up a fellow competitor who's fallen during their race. Unsurprisingly, he wins the girl too! Some today might carp at the depiction of third world stereotypes plus I found the slapstick antics centring on Conway a bit wearing after a time, but with reasonable special effects and some nice touches of humour, especially at the witch-doctor's introduction to the college hierarchy, this was a pleasantly amusing if slightly dated film I was pleased to re-watch after so long.

R.I.P. Mr Vincent.

After a few decades of knowing about this '70s Disney comedy, I finally took my borrowed DVD and watched The World's Greatest Athlete. In this one, Coach John Amos and his assistant Tim Conway have been on the losing end of various sports endeavors for so long that dean Billy De Wolfe (in a too-brief role)-who's accompanied by his son Danny Goldman-remind them of just one more year on their contract. Amos tears it up and goes to Africa with Conway to get away from it all. There they find Jan-Michael Vincent who outruns a tiger. The only way they can get him, though, is if he saves one of them...I'll stop there and just say that this is one of those silly family comedies that was the House of Mickey's bread-and-butter during the decade that the other major studios were making big box office and winning Oscars with more mature fare. With the Tarzan-inspired story and many well-established special effects, there are quite a few chuckles here-and even a big laugh concerning a wheelchair-bound old man who can "suddenly" walk-that I admit to doing while watching. And it's fun seeing Conway either putting his head where it sometimes doesn't belong or getting moved by a voodoo doll once owned by a witch doctor played by Roscoe Lee Browne. But the stuff involving Nancy Walker as a near-sighted landlady and Goldman as the dean's interloping son I could do without. And stunning Dayle Haddon as Vincent's girlfriend (called Jane, of course) is just window dressing. Still, this is harmless fare that should provide enough enjoyable distraction for 90 minutes especially as you watch such real-life announcers like Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell join in on the fun. P.S. I just found out, via the IMDb site, that Mr. Goldman was the voice of Brainy Smurf on the "Smurfs" TV cartoon show.

Silly? You bet - and don't we love silly. A fish out of water? Most certainly - and aren't we all, at one time or another, a fish out of water. Loads of fun? Most definitely. The story line comes from the fertile imagination of someone impacted by Tarzan, but Tarzan was never this much fun. From Africa to America, covering a whole bunch of different types of people, including a tiger and a near-sighted landlady, The World's Greatest Athlete provides humor and a wonderful chance to relax. It gives you a happy chance to laugh at yourself and everyone else. The whole family will enjoy it. Our family found it a favorite when it first came out - and now that I am retired I still enjoy having a laugh at it now and then.

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.

I was lucky enough to be able to see part of "Athlete" being made at my college in Stockton, California in 1972.I also got to meet Jan-Michael Vincent, John Amos and Tim Conway.I also had a confrontation with the tiger. Those memories will be something I won't forget. To top it off, John Amos and Tim Conway also made a surprise visit to my parents, cousin, and Aunt's restaurant also located in Stockton, California. It was called "Al Funzo's.It was a great evening for me, and my family, and the Restaurant patrons that came in that night.As for the movie, The World's Greatest Athlete" was and still is excellent, and ranks high in my list of favorite movies.