The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is a 1969 American science fiction comedy film starring Kurt Russell, Cesar Romero, Joe Flynn and William Schallert. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution Company.
It was one of several films made by Disney using the setting of Medfield College, first used in the 1961 Disney film The Absent-Minded Professor and its sequel Son of Flubber. The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is the first film for the series Dexter Riley.
Plot[]
Dexter Riley (Kurt Russell) and his friends attend a small, private college known as Medfield College, which cannot afford to buy a computer. The students persuade wealthy businessman A. J. Arno (Cesar Romero) to donate an old computer to the college. Arno is secretly the head of a large illegal gambling ring which used the computer for its operations.
While installing a replacement computer part during a thunderstorm, Riley receives an electric shock and becomes a human computer. He now has superhuman mathematical talent, can read and remember the contents of an encyclopedia volume in a few minutes, and can speak a language fluently after reading one textbook. His new abilities make him a worldwide celebrity and Medfield's best chance to win a televised quiz tournament with a $100,000 prize.
Riley single-handedly leads Medfield's team in victories against other colleges. During the tournament, on live television, a trigger word ("applejack") causes him to unknowingly recite details of Arno's gambling ring. Arno's henchmen kidnap Riley and plan to kill him, but his friends help him escape by locating the house in which he is being kept, posing as house painters to gain access, and sneaking him out in a large trunk. During the escape, he suffers a concussion which, during the tournament final against rival Springfield State, gradually returns his mental abilities to normal; however, one of his friends, Schuyler, is able to answer the final question ("A small Midwest city is located exactly on an area designated as the geographic center of the United States. For 10 points and $100,000, can you tell us the name of that city?" with the answer "Lebanon, Kansas"). Medfield wins the $100,000 prize. Arno and his henchmen are arrested when they attempt to escape the TV studio and crash head-on into a police car.
Cast[]
- Kurt Russell as Dexter Riley
- Cesar Romero as A. J. Arno
- Joe Flynn as Dean Higgins
- William Schallert as Professor Quigley
- Alan Hewitt as Dean Collingsgood
- Richard Bakalyan as Chillie Walsh
- Debbie Paine as Annie Hannah
- Frank Webb as Pete
- Michael McGreevey as Schuyler
- Jon Provost as Bradley
- Frank Welker as Henry
- W. Alex Clarke as Myles
- Bing Russell as Angelo
- Pat Harrington as Moderator
- Fabian Dean as Little Mac
- Fritz Feld as Sigmund van Dyke
- Pete Ronoudet as Lt. Charles "Charlie" Hannah
- Hillyard Anderson as J. Reedy
- David Canary* as Walski
- Robert Foul* as Police desk sergeant
- Ed Begley Jr.* as a Springfield State panelist