Emil and the Detectives (Disney) (1964)

WaltDisney’s ‘Emil’ Star, Bryan Russell, Action and Suspense Key New Disney Discovered in the Most Unlikely Way In Hollywood, where everything is supposed to happen somewhat larger than life, Bryan Russell, star of Walt Disney’s feature motion picture, “Emil and the Detectives,” proved an exception to the unwritten rule and made his way into the limelight in the most unimaginative manner. The handsome 11-year-old, who today has more than thirty television shows and half a dozen movies under his belt, was simply playing in his front yard when a TV casting director happened by, saw the personable boy, and set in motion the means of getting him on a TV commercial. The discovering director’s acumen was’7 immediately borne out. The one appearance brought an avalanche of casting calls and Bryan was launched. It was his good looks and his kid-next-door air that solved a difficult casting problem when Disney started production for “Emil and the Detectives,” a light-hearted whodunnit, set in West Berlin and well embroidered with suspense and laughter. Walt and his director, Peter Tewksbury, needed to avoid the stereotyped child actor. And yet film experience was also a requirement. A series of screen tests brought Bryan to the fore in Disney thinking, and finally to the role of Emil. “Bryan has great powers of concentration and is quickly absorbed in his work,” says Tewksbury, a decided Russell booster. “The part proved a real tour de force for him, as he is scarcely off the screen during the entire picture. He’s very receptive to direction which helped make my job a relatively easy one, at least, where he was concerned.” Born in Los Angeles, Bryan comes from a family well versed in the ways of show business. His mother is a former concert pianist and his father is operatic tenor Talmadge Russell. Bryan’s older sister Jeanne, is well known to TV viewers for her role of Margaret in the “Dennis the Menace” series. Whenever practicable, the entire family attends Bryan’s location filming assignments, as was the case during the shooting of “Emil” in Germany. Bryan made his screen debut in another Disney picture, “Babes In Toyland,” which was quickly fol Mat EM-2E Mat EM-1C BRYAN RUSSELL lowed by appearances in “Safe At Home,” “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” and “How The West Was Won.” In “Bye, Bye Birdie” he played Ann-Margaret’s kid brother and was prominently featured in M-G-M’s “A Ticklish Affair” before his location trek to Berlin for “Emil.” Being an ardent baseball buff, one of his favorite roles was in Columbia’s “Safe At Home” with diamond greats Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. When approached with the familiar question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” he admits that he would like to be an engineer or an architect, but there is the strong possibility too, that he may become a professional baseball player. “T might also make a good actor’s agent,” Bryan said, “I got my sister Jeanne her first TV show, ‘Denis the Menace.’ I tried out for a part but the producer said I was too young. As I left the office I heard him say that he was looking for a girl about a year older than me for the part of Dennis’ girl friend. ‘How about my sister?’ I asked. They saw her and she got a running role in the series.” C 1964 Walt Disney Productions § BUNGLERS BEHIND BARS still enjoy the luxury of a good cigar in Walt Disney's Technicolor adventure-comedy, ‘“‘Emil and the Detectives.’’ That’s Walter Slezak puffing away, flanked by Heinz Schubert, right, and Peter Ehrlich. Comedy-Adventure Feature, ‘Emil’ To sustain action and suspense on the screen for ninety some odd minutes is always a neat trick for the most seasoned of producers. Walt Disney not only nicely manages the entertaining feat in his feature production, “Emil and the Detectives,” starring Walter Slezak, Bryan Russell and Roger Mobley, but blends in an equal amount of deft comedy that sets this movie apart as the most unusual in hilariously funny and thrillingly paced screen fare. From the comic-mystery opening scene, when a pintsized pickpocket shadows a young victim, through a slambang man-hunt in colorful West Berlin by a force of young sleuths, to the unexpected cliff-hanger ending, the emphasis is on excitement. In bombed out buildings, along dark, deserted streets, and in forbidding tunnels, ten sion builds like a burning fuse heading for a charge of TNT — and there is a scene in the picture where a live fuse does just that, and causes some considerable funny confusion along the way. This cloak and dynamite skulduggery is headed by the polished Walter Slezak as an underworld baron who surrounds himself with no-accounts for the express purpose of collecting a tidy profit from his Operation Banklift. Peter Ehrlich and Heinz Schubert play Slezak’s partners in crime as a kind of Mutt and Jeff comedy team. Disney contractee Bryan Russell stars in the title role and Roger Mobley enacts the head of a de tective band that takes up Emil’s cause celebre. In color by Technicolor, “Emil and the Detectives” stars Slezak, Bryan and Roger and features Cindy Cassell. The picture was directed by Peter Tewksbury for Walt Disney with Peter Herald as associate producer. A J Carothers wrote the screenplay based on Erich Kastner’s famous story. Buena Vista releases. Mat EM-1D AS MUCH FUN as the traffic will bear is packed into Walt Disney's ‘‘Emil and the Detectives.’ Here is Emil, played by Bryan Russell, demonstrating this point in a scene from the Technicolor comedythriller. DISNEY COINS WORD, ‘SKRINK,’ IN LATEST FUN FEATURE A new word is about to be added to the glossary of English slang by that innovator among producers of entertainment, Walt Disney. You might say it’s another first for a man whose history is packed with them. The word is ‘“skrink.” It isn’t in Webster’s or Roget’s, but is introduced to the English-speaking public in Walt’s very, very funny feature, “Emil and the Detectives.” Disney had scriptwriter A J Carothers coin the expression and give it to Gustav, played by Roger Mobley, a glib street urchin and leader of his own detective agency. Originally it was Gustav’s alone, his catch-all for those bothersome things that make a young detective’s day less than perfect. But as Walt sees it, everybody should be able to use this valuable term, for everything from wet feet to a cold in the head. What is a skrink? It’s a versatile term for anything skrinky, which is to say sneaky, criminal, cowardly, underhanded, worthless, goodfor-nothing. Used in many forms, it is conjugated — skrink, skrank, skrunk. In noun form it means the quality or state of being skrinky. Running skrinkily Cindy Cassell Turns Pro Actress And Becomes Walt Disney Star Cinderella’s rise from kitchen to castle has nothing on the story of 13-year-old Cindy Cassell, the young lady transformed, in just four short weeks, from a lass in a children’s little theatre to an actress with the femme lead in Walt Disney’s production of “Emil and the Detectives.” Disney opened auditions for the part of Pony Heimbold precisely one month after freckle-faced Cindy cajoled her father, actor Wally Cassell into finding an agent for her. Over 900 applicants were screened and when Cindy was chosen, director Peter Tewksbury proclaimed the cute button-nose newcomer as a “baby Rosalind Russell.” Despite her lack of professional experience, Cindy fitted perfectly into the role of a shrewd but vexatious high school newspaper reporter with a nose for news, who hovers around a group of young amateur sleuths like the plague. Pony obstinately maintains her composure despite the pleas and threats of her cousin and friends to stop trailing them, and finally proves her worth with a big assist at the most crucial part of the caper. Cindy is very much at ease in the role of the only girl among a group of adventurous boys. Her poise comes from years of appearing in piano and dance recitals, and on little theatre stages. But her decision to “turn professional” was her own, motivated by a desire to test her talent in the more challenging roles that come only with professional productions. The timing was perfect and, happily for Cindy, her wish came true after the first audition for Disney. In color by Technicolor, “Emil and the Detectives” stars Walter Slezak, Bryan Russell and Roger Mobley and features Cindy. will never win a race, but a skrinky race is only for skrinks and not worth running. To demonstrate the word’s versatility, three skrinks in the Disney film rob a Berlin bank, a skrinky thing to do, and attempt to skrink away from Gustav and his helpers, who have been like a skrink in the side of the three skrinks. In color by Technicolor, “Emil and the Detectives” stars Walter Slezak, Bryan Russell and Roger Mobley and features Cindy Cassell. The picture was directed by Peter Tewksbury for Walt Disney with Peter Herald as associate producer. A J Carothers wrote the screenplay based on Erich Kastner’s famous story. Buena Vista releases. isney Production: Mat EM-1E PEEK-A-BOO — Cindy Cassell turns the tables on a spying ‘‘detective’ in Walt Disney’s “Emil and the Detectives.’’ Walter Slezak stars in the Technicolor comedythriller.