Emil and the Detectives (Disney) (1964)

Mat EM-2F = 1964 Walt Disney Productions Slylelel TORRE: SUPER SLEUTHING gets the comedy treatment in this scene from Walt Disney's ‘Emil and the Detectives.’ Here one of the ‘detectives’ shows a ‘portrait’ of a skrink (bad guy) to Emil, who is played by Bryan Russell. Walt Disney Adapts Second Kastner Story for “Emil and the Detectives’ During his illustrious career, German author Erich Kastner has amassed an enormous following around the world. One of his most ardent fans, Walt Disney, has made two of Kastner’s novels into motion pictures. The first Disney-Kastner collaboration was “The Parent Trap,” an adaptation from the original “Das Doppeltte Lottchen.” The happy result was Disney’s biggest box-office: hit ever. Disney’s newest comedy, “Emil and the Detectives,” starring Walter Slezak and eleven-year-old Bryan Russell is based on Kastner’s inter national best seller. The book describes a boyhood detective agency’s attempts to recover a young client’s stolen money, which leads to the discovery of a plot to rob a large bank in Berlin. As with “The Parent Trap,” the Disney touch has added to the story some uproariously funny sight gags while maintaining the sharp Kastner insight into human nature. 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. A Tailor-Made Set Causes FunnyProblemfor Slezak If an actor has a set built around him it’s a sure sign of star status. Walter Slezak, star of Walt Disney’s ‘Emil and the Detectives,” received precisely that kind of treatment from the Disney crew. In Slezak’s case it was a pipe, through which the rotound veteran of Broadway, Hollywood, radio and TV is supposed to slide en route to an underground bank vault, which ee his henchmen are to rob. The pipe, of course, was tailored to Walter’s girth before production began, and it fit so snugly that he had to squirm a little to get through it. But several weeks later, when the scene was set for filming, Walter had changed weight enough to create a decidedly bad fit. He went through with the pipe bit anyway, and his real struggles to get to his bank vault were so funny they’ve been left right in the picture. Director Tewksbury Demonstrates Every Move for ‘Emil’ Cast Peter Tewksbury’s entire cast might have been from Missouri, the way he showed them every stunt and move during filming of Walt Disney’s zany feature motion picture, “Emil and the Detectives.” None were from the showme-state, but that didn’t faze one of the industry’s best and most dedicated directors. Crawling on his stomach, walking into walls, and falling down stairs, Tewksbury taught the art of slapstick to young Roger Mobley, Heinz Schubert and Peter Ehrlich, and never complained of aching bones. For one scene, which finds Roger Mobley stealthily shadowing a group of crooks, Tewksbury repeatedly stumbled and fell down a flight of stairs until he was sure 14-year-old Mobley could accomplish it. Which he did, in one try. In a Disney-built sewer, complete with water and dirt, Tewksbury was found tumbling from an iron sewer pipe into a muddy pool below, then sloshing around in it until everybody got the idea. With all of Peter’s exuberance, there are some things he just couldn’t demonstrate. When it came time for Peter Ehrlich to hoist Walter Slezak’s 260 pounds and carry him across another sewer pipe, the slight Tewksbury saved his back and laughed some of the aches out of his system watching. A DISNEY SKRINK BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL HILARIOUS Those who think they might shrink, like a fink, from a skrink should see Walt Disney’s latest, greatest featurelength comedy, “Emil and the Detectives.” What is a skrink? A skrink can be many things; a flat tire on the freeway perhaps, or rain the day of the game, a finger in the eye, a toothache, a hole in the boat. Skrinks come in assorted sizes and shapes. Some can be held in the palm of your hand, others are so big that only dark cellars can hold them. In Disney’s gag-filled picture they happen to take the shape of bank robbers, one with a teaspoon for digging tunnels, another with a muscle-bound brain, and the third with a picnic basket for carrying stolen money. Skrinks like: caviar, dynamite, short fuses, mud in the eye, skulduggery, and swimming in sewers. Skrinks sound like: a hand-made tunnel collapsing, a 1937 Mercedes Benz backfiring, an all-girl orchestra oom-pahing in a German beer hall, or a fortune in money blowing away in the breeze. Skrinks can: tell the difference between nitro-glycerin and wine, sometimes. Skrinks can’t: stay out of trouble, keep from making movie fans laugh. Parents preach about them, children follow them, waiters dislike them, policemen take pictures of them, and Walt Disney pits them against a band of grade school undercover agents in his cloak and dagger feature motion picture. In the Disney spoof, skrinks are very funny things. In color by Technicolor, “Emil and the Detectives” stars Walter Slezak, Bryan Russell, 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. 61364 Wat Disney Productions Mat EM-1F HEAD “SKRINK”’ (that means bad guy) Walter Slezak is searching for Emil in Walt Disney's Technicolor comedy-thriller, “Emil and the Detectives,’ a _ fun-filled adventure film about a bungled bank job. Mat EM-2G BASEMENT BANQUET is enjoyed by Walter Slezak and Peter Ehrlich in this off-beat scene from Walt Disney's Technicolor comedy-thriller, ‘Emil and the Detectives.” The festivities are part of a hilariously bungled bank job, which supplies both the thrills and the comedy. Roger Mobley, Star of Disney’s “Emil,’ Set Up His Own Command Performance Roger Mobley, 14-year-old star of Walt Disney’s “Emil and the Detectives,” answered his first command performance at the age of three. The command, however, came from the precocious little tyke himself. It was at a church concert featuring his older brother and sister that Roger left the audience to join them in singing a song he knew by heart. The family trio formed a repertoire of Young Disney Actor Bryan Russell Takes Hayley’s Cue In 1961, Walt Disney’s “The Parent Trap,” based on Erich Kastner’s “Das Doppeltte Lottchen,” gave Miss Hayley Mills international prominence as an actress. Now, Disney’s new comedy adventure, “Emil and the Detectives,” based on another best selling Kastner book, may do the same thing for young Bryan Russell as an actor. Russell, now 11 years old and a veteran of a half dozen movies and several TV shows, follows in Hayley’s footsteps by being awarded a long-term Disney contract after work in only one movie for the studio. In “Emil and the Detectives,” the talented newcomer plays Emil, a 10-year-old who is robbed of 400 marks during his first solo trip to Berlin to visit relatives and tries, with the aid of some new friends, to recover the money. Bryan’s portrayal of a child with unwavering determination and boundless imagination is so close to the original concept of Emil, that his director, Peter Tewksbury, was moved to comment, “Bryan is one of those rare people who are born actors and respond wonderfully to direction. He certainly is an actor beyond his experience.” Four years ago, Hayley Mills first received similar accolades. In color by Technicolor, “Emil and the Detectives” stars Walter Slezak, Bryan, 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. 120 songs, and two years later sang at the inauguration of Indiana’s Governor Craig. With such a zealous beginning, it is little wonder trouper Mobley is today a veteran of more than 50 television shows and six motion pictures. Roger was seven years old when the family left Evansville, Indiana, and moved to Whittier, California. When the singing trio appeared on the Ted Mack Show, a talent scout in the audience spotted Roger’s potential as an actor, signed him, and handed him the leading role in his first TV show, the internationally popular “Fury.” Working with many show business greats has given Roger a lifetime of acting experience in a few short years, but has not curtailed his activities as a growing American boy. Between acting assignments, Roger managed to master the drums, piano, ukelele, and guitar, while becoming a rabid Dodger fan and participating in high school football and baseball. His six brothers and sisters have kept his success in all these activities from going to Roger’s head. Yet he has developed a polish beyond his years, a prime requisite for the Disney role of Gustav, 14year-old chief of a band of Berlin boys who puts a dragnet across that German city to recover a wad of money stolen from a visiting country lad. Roger’s TV credits run the gamut from comedy to heavy drama and include appearances on “Wagon Train,’ “Gunsmoke,” “The Donna Reed Show,” “Bachelor Father,” “Dr. Kildare,’ “Ben Casey,” and “Alcoa Premiere.” Two of his latest movies are “Dime With a Halo” and “Comancheros” with John Wayne. His biggest break was an appearance on “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,” where the Burbank producer immediately recognized him as “Gustav.”