Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

First published June 10, 2020

Tommy Kirk would pass away Sept 28, 2021

When it comes to movies I’m a bit of a completionist. I also like to do a bit of research after watching something because I find the trivia fascinating. So when my research on The Monkey’s Uncle revealed I had just watched the sequel to The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, naturally I had to obtain and watch the duology in its entirety.

       I’ve since learned this was very likely a test pilot, so to speak, for a possible Disney tv show and both installments certainly feel like it. It’s very episodic and everytime I became interested in a plot line that really could have been fleshed out into its own movie, the plot line would peter out rather anti-climactically and switch gears. This is most evident in the sequel which begins with Merlin Jones (Tommy Kirk) petitioning the judge to allow him to be the legal guardian of a chimpanzee who played a large role in the first film. Once the ACTUAL plot of the film gets going the chimpanzee is pretty much brushed aside. Here I was looking forward to another hilarious chimpanzee/human buddy film.

       I found it strange that many of the characters seemed to serve multiple purposes. The football jock/ bully was also in charge of the lab animals and then he was an infantile moron in the next film. The judge was also on the school board of directors. It just seemed too convenient and was probably just done to save money. Consider the variety of hairbrained situations characters get into throughout the course of a sit-com. It’s the same thing here just in the course of an hour and a half.

Merlin Jones is a scientifically preoccupied teen who gets himself into mischief with his experiments. He adheres to my favorite scientific philosophy of “An invention is not an invention unless you can strap it to your head.” I loved when he gives himself psychic powers and when a teacher discovers Merlin’s albilities he’s just like “Well use it responsibly and don’t tell anyone. I’m off to Panama! Good luck.” He could not care less. Love it. Did I mention the authors of these films were blacklisted? Yeah that happened. I guess there was just too much communist propaganda in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones.

       Ultimately I found the situations in this film just stupid. I might have been more forgiving if it was a tv sitcom but as it was a full length film my expectations were a little higher. I wasn’t surprised to learn critics felt the same way when these films came out but it seems the general public loved these movies. But critics aren’t going to the movies to see a cute Tommy Kirk and an attractive Annette Funicello. They’re looking for quality, which this ain’t.

    As with anything I did giggle a couple of times but one can get the same effect by tickling me. I couldn’t stand it when Merlin got all twitterpated by the pretty blonde right in front of his girlfriend. Maybe that was thought to be funny among free-spirited teens in the 60’s but I didn’t find it funny at all and had trouble giving a rats-ass about Merlin after that. Then his girlfriend (Funicello) proved just as shallow. Whatever. Waste of time. I don’t recommend these films unless you’re interested in seeing an early performance by a fledgling little band called The Beach Boys who performed the theme song with Annette in the sequel. Despite their involvement in these films, The Beach Boys surprisingly became fairly successful down the road. Heck! They’re latest album came out in 2018! Tommy Kirk is 78 this year! I think it’s time for a Merlin Jones reboot!