THE GNOME-MOBILE (1967)

The grandchildren of D.L. Mulrooney (Walter Brennan), millionaire CEO of a lumber company, are spending part of their summer vacation with him in California. In his antique Rolls-Royce, they head out for a picnic in a redwood forest and discover two gnomes: the young and handsome Jasper (Tom Lowell) and the cranky 900-year-old Knobby (also Walter Brennan). Partly due to deforestation by companies like Mulrooney’s, Knobby fears that they are the last of their kind, and he's desperate to find other gnomes—especially female ones—to insure the future of gnomekind. They all take off in the Rolls-Royce, redubbed the Gnome-Mobile, to find other gnomes in other forests. Along the way, the gnomes are kidnapped by freak-show owner Horatio Quaxton, and D.L. is put into an asylum by Yarby, D.L.'s assistant who fears that the old man has gone nuts. But all is put right by the end, including, in a nod to Al Capp's invention of Sadie Hawkins Day for the L'il Abner comic strip, a contest among a number of young female gnomes for the right to marry Jasper.

This Disney film was one of the last that originated under Uncle Walt himself. The studio was cranking out live-action movies like crazy in the 60s; a few of them (Mary Poppins, The Absent-Minded Professor, The Parent Trap, The Love Bug) were big hits and are still remembered, but as many if not more (Monkeys Go Home, Those Calloways, The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin) were received mildly at best and have largely been forgotten today. This one is somewhere in the middle—it's not available on Disney+ but though it’s not quite a cult film, it does seem to have a devoted coterie of fans. I enjoyed it when I saw it in 1967 during its initial release when Disney must have been hoping for a cross between the 1959 film Darby O’Gill and the Little People (with gnomes instead of leprechauns) and Mary Poppins (the two kids, Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber played the Banks children). But it falls quite short of both films. It's watchable with some OK special effects, but the Disney magic is in short supply. Brennan, in his 70s, is game and still quite energetic, but Mulrooney never came across to me as an interesting character and his Knobby is all cranky bluster and not especially likable. The kids are fine and Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley on the Dick Van Dyke Show) is good as Yarby. Sean McClory overdoes it a bit as the villainous Quaxton, Ed Wynn plays another gnome, and it's fun to see supporting stalwarts Jerome Cowan and Charles Lane in small parts. There is a title song by the Sherman brothers (Mary Poppins) that is catchy but sung once too often. Pictured are Karen Dotrice and Tom Lowell. [Amazon Prime]