The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes | |
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1969 film poster
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Directed by | Robert Butler |
Produced by | Bill Anderson |
Written by | Joseph L. McEveety |
Starring | |
Music by | Robert F. Brunner |
Cinematography | Frank V. Phillips |
Edited by | Cotton Warburton |
Production
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Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
Release date
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Running time
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91 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $5.5 million (US/ Canada rentals) |
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is a 1969 American 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 as part of "The Last Laughs of the 1960s".
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. Now You See Him Now You Don't and The Strongest Man in the World, both sequels to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, were also set at Medfield.
Dexter Reilly (Kurt Russell) and his friends attend small, private 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 the secret head of a large illegal gambling ring, which used the computer for its operations.
While installing a replacement part during a thunderstorm, Reilly 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 Reilly a worldwide celebrity, and Medfield's best chance to win a televised quiz tournament with a $100,000 prize.