The World's Greatest Athlete

Plot synopsis:
Sam Archer and his assistant Milo Jackson are coaches at Merrivale College. They have lost every game in every sport they've coached, raising the concerns of the head of the Alumni Association. With only one year left on his contract, Archer decides that he is in need of a vacation. Together, Archer and Jackson head to Zambia in Southern Africa.
While out on a safari, the pair catch sight with their guide Morumba of the Tarzan-like Nanu, who can outrun a cheetah in full bound. Seeing this, the coaching staff quickly whip out their recruitment pen and papers, but soon fall (literally) into the clutches of Nanu's godfather, spiritual leader Gazenga whose assistant remains in Africa. Because Nanu is an orphan and an innocent child of the bush, Gazenga believes that throwing Nanu into the world of competitive United States college athletics would interfere with his spiritual development.
Despite Gazenga's concerns, the ambitious coaches persuade Nanu to join the Merrivale College program. From this point forward, the plot is driven by a combination of slapstick and suspense, for Nanu's destiny as the World's Greatest Athlete will annoy several powerful people who are used to getting their way.
Nanu's innocence, Archer's scheming, Jackson's ineptitude, Gazenga's outraged wisdom, and the Machiavellian plotting of the villains all play roles in the action as the movie heads toward the final track meet. The atmosphere of American competition does indeed threaten Nanu, but he is saved from disintegration by love interest Jane Douglas. Jane and Nanu's budding relationship angers rival Leopold Maxwell, whose attempts to sabotage the budding star build toward a crescendo as the ultimate competition approaches. The climactic track meet is peppered with commentary by ABC-TV sportscaster Howard Cosell, playing himself.
The movie ends with a framing device in which the hapless coaches are depicted trying to recruit a new athletic phenomenon, this time in China.

Tags: romantic

Review:
This is one of the funniest film's of Disney's live action library.
Taking another spin on the tale of Tarzan, The World's Greatest Athlete is the story of how college coach Sam Archer, tired of losing, tries to get away from it all by taking a trip to Africa.
Seeing a gold mine and wins with Nanu as his athlete on campus, Coach Archer lures him to their university, where Nanu indeed excels in sports, but also feels homesick.
Jon Amos and Tim Conway are great as the bumbling coaches, and Jan-Michael Vincent shows that he could act wonderfully within a comedic setting.
Also, this is one of the movies that displays Vincent's prowess, and makes people wonder what could have been.
While younger viewers may not know of Vincent, or wonder why anyone cares about a "second rate actor", there was a time when many movie fans felt that Vincent could have been a major box office draw.
While Nanu ultimately proves that he is a champion, Vincent will always make people ponder if he could have been a real Hollywood contender..
From Africa to America, covering a whole bunch of different types of people, including a tiger and a near-sighted landlady, The World's Greatest Athlete provides humor and a wonderful chance to relax.
I was lucky enough to be able to see part of "Athlete" being made at my college in Stockton, California in 1972.I also got to meet Jan-Michael Vincent, John Amos and Tim Conway.I also had a confrontation with the tiger.
To top it off, John Amos and Tim Conway also made a surprise visit to my parents, cousin, and Aunt's restaurant also located in Stockton, California.
It was called "Al Funzo's.It was a great evening for me, and my family, and the Restaurant patrons that came in that night.As for the movie, The World's Greatest Athlete" was and still is excellent, and ranks high in my list of favorite movies..
When Coach John Amos and his assistant Tim Conway go looking for athletic talent for Merryvale College, they say they'll travel anywhere.
And in The World's Greatest Athlete they go to East Africa in search of a legendary jungle boy raised in the wild whose athletic prowess is beyond belief.The subject of their search is Jan-Michael Vincent who plays the young Tarzan like man and he's every inch the athlete that former Tarzans like Johnny Weissmuller, Glenn Morris, and Buster Crabbe were.
They have to use a little trickery to get him out of the jungle and away from his foster father, witch doctor Roscoe Lee Browne.
Browne knows all the jungle remedies, but he's lived in the world outside the Kenyan veld and he's up to its challenges.But he's still got concern for his foster son who ain't used to civilization and all the things that entails.
Goldman's a little ferret of a schemer, the would be Iago sends for Browne from Kenya to work his voodoo magic to get Vincent back to the woodland wilds and a clear path for Goldman back to Haddon.
If that means him losing the big NCAA track meet where Vincent is going to represent Maryvale in all events like Jim Thorpe did years ago for Carlisle, so be it.Jan-Michael Vincent looks just fabulous in a loin cloth.
Of course he just had to utter "Me Nanu.......You Jane" to Haddon whose character name of course was Jane.Vincent and Haddon get great support from the whole cast, especially Tim Conway who has to deal with being shrunk to three inches in height by Browne in a bar.
Nancy Walker has a fine bit as a Mrs. Magoo landlady who can't recognize a tiger that Vincent has brought from Africa as a pet.
He must have gotten him from the zoo in Mombasa because as most kids know, tigers aren't native to Africa.This was the final feature film appearance of Billy DeWolfe who plays the dean of the college and Goldman's uncle.
I suspect he would have had more of a role had health permitted it.The World's Greatest Athlete is one of Disney's better screen comedies for the Seventies.
And as we learn in the end, Jan-Michael Vincent might not just be The World's Greatest Athlete..
Jan Michael Vincent - cuddling and wrestling with a REAL TIGER!!!!!!.
If you are a fan of Jan Michael Vincent and would like to see him with very little threads on, this is the film for you!
Yes, there's also a cute plot about a black football/baseball/basketball coach (John Amos) who travels to Africa on safari with his hopelessly stupid assistant (Tim Conway).
While in Africa, they discover Nanu (Jan Michael Vincent)a young white African boy who possesses amazing athletic abilities.
Nanu travels to the USA with the coach to excel in sports.
JMV wouldn't be remembered for his acting in this movie, but his physique certainly got attention!
But really, the star of this film is the TIGER!
You never see this in movies today - a real, live, full-size tiger wrestling with the leading actor!
JMV cuddles and rolls around with this Tiger throughout the movie.
Move on over Russell Crowe - Jan Michael Vincent takes on real tigers, not CGI ones!!!.
Silly Fun. This is a fish out of water story in which coach John Amos and sidekick Tim Conway find a young jungle man and figure he'd be a great athlete if he were taken to civilization to compete in athletic competitions.
Like many Disney films from the early 1970s, it's loaded with silly humor and contrived sentiment, yet there is a certain charm that may endear it to the younger members of its audience..
The World's Greatest Athlete is definitely not as good as I remembered it to be, but I still enjoy it, for the most part.
I think that this movie largely came from someone at Disney saying, "Hey!
The World's Greatest Athlete was an amusing enough Disney comedy from the '70s.
After a few decades of knowing about this '70s Disney comedy, I finally took my borrowed DVD and watched The World's Greatest Athlete.
In this one, Coach John Amos and his assistant Tim Conway have been on the losing end of various sports endeavors for so long that dean Billy De Wolfe (in a too-brief role)-who's accompanied by his son Danny Goldman-remind them of just one more year on their contract.
Amos tears it up and goes to Africa with Conway to get away from it all.
There they find Jan-Michael Vincent who outruns a tiger.
The only way they can get him, though, is if he saves one of them...I'll stop there and just say that this is one of those silly family comedies that was the House of Mickey's bread-and-butter during the decade that the other major studios were making big box office and winning Oscars with more mature fare.
With the Tarzan-inspired story and many well-established special effects, there are quite a few chuckles here-and even a big laugh concerning a wheelchair-bound old man who can "suddenly" walk-that I admit to doing while watching.
And it's fun seeing Conway either putting his head where it sometimes doesn't belong or getting moved by a voodoo doll once owned by a witch doctor played by Roscoe Lee Browne.
Still, this is harmless fare that should provide enough enjoyable distraction for 90 minutes especially as you watch such real-life announcers like Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell join in on the fun.
Sports comedy from Disney degenerates into voodoo nonsense, all for the sake of yahoo laughs....
John Amos plays a luckless coach who bombs out at football, baseball, basketball--but during a trip to Africa he discovers a Tarzan-like athlete (Jan-Michael Vincent) and wisely turns his attention to the track and field.
Inane family comedy from the folks at Disney--who apparently had no faith in their basic premise, thereby shoehorning in a dire voodoo subplot which allows for comedic special effects, such as over-sized props.
Vincent, looking like a Tiger Beat pinup, is well-cast, and Amos tries hard, but Tim Conway (always an acquired taste) is both broad and boring in a gratuitous supporting role as a flunky.
Having noted the recent death of Jan Michael Vincent and never having seen a single episode of his most famous vehicle, the hit TV show "Airwolf", I remembered watching as a boy this Disney movie in which he starred and I which believe got him his start in pictures.The studio I seem to recall was putting out a lot of real-action family entertainment features at this time of which this is one and watching it again, obviously myself now much older, I still enjoyed the gentle, innocent fun put on the screen.
Vincent plays Nanu the running, jumping jungle boy who is tricked by an on-holiday failed U.S. sports coach played by the very Cosby-esque John Amos and his hapless sidekick Milo played by Tim Conway, into coming to America to represent Merrivale college at the national track and field event where he is entered in every possible discipline as their sole participant.
Along for the ride too is his pet tiger Harry, which certainly earns its stripes with an excellent supporting actor performance.
I understand thankfully that no humans were injured during the making of this movie in their scenes with the tiger.With his limber physique and mop of blonde hair, Vincent makes for a handsome lead even if most of the time he only requires to speak in sub-Tarzan style mono-syllables in between all of his running and jumping exploits.
His only stops along the way are for a little romance with his pretty female tutor and contending with his geeky rival for her affections, the latter of whom is aided in his nefarious plan to scupper Nanu's shot at glory by flying in the boy's African witchdoctor to dispense some voodoo magic against him.Of course it all ends happily in an entertaining conclusion where Nanu wins every event, literally on the run, even finding time to sportingly help up a fellow competitor who's fallen during their race.
Some today might carp at the depiction of third world stereotypes plus I found the slapstick antics centring on Conway a bit wearing after a time, but with reasonable special effects and some nice touches of humour, especially at the witch-doctor's introduction to the college hierarchy, this was a pleasantly amusing if slightly dated film I was pleased to re-watch after so long.R.I.P. Mr Vincent..
Coach Sam Archer (John Amos) and assistant Milo Jackson (Tim Conway) can't win anything no matter the sport.
They're on an African safari when they encounter Tarzan-type Nanu (Jan-Michael Vincent).
Sam sees an opportunity to trick Nanu into coming to America to play sports for him.
Sam recruits Jane to be Nanu's tutor.This is so stupid that it's funny.
Jan-Michael Vincent is humor-deficient but he's fine as a clueless meathead.
Amos is fine and plays well with Conway.
This is a stupid Disney live-action comedy from the 70's and it has a few laughs for the simple kid in everyone.
Most track & field events in the movie were filmed at Cal State LA.
Tim Conway was funny on/off camera, and he had co-stars in tears during most of the shooting.
The one question I asked one of the directors was how they chose a tiger for a young Tarzan-like character who came from Kenya?
No trained lion could be located in time for filming, according to my source.
Jan-Michael Vincent Has a Tiger by the Tail.
This "Tarzan" variation has losing coach John Amos (as Sam Archer) finding "The World's Greatest Athlete" in the form of loin-clothed Jan-Michael Vincent (as Nanu), while on safari in Africa, with sidekick Tim Conway (as Milo Jackson).
Naturally, Mr. Amos brings Mr. Vincent home, to bone up his failing college team.
Vincent's furry companion "Harry" (a tiger) also makes the trip.
Alas, voodoo godfather Roscoe Lee Browne (as Gazenga) wants Vincent returned to Africa...A well, dumb movie.
All you really have are some 1970s TV favorites, sweetened with a young and beautiful Jan-Michael Vincent.**** The World's Greatest Athlete (2/4/73) Robert Scheerer ~ Jan-Michael Vincent, John Amos, Tim Conway.
70's Disney Family Fun.
"The World's Greatest Athlete" stars John Amos ("Good Times), Tim Conway ("The Carol Burnett Show"), and Jan-Michael Vincent ("Airwolf").
The plot follows Amos' college sports coach who is down on his luck.
On a vacation to Africa, he and Conway discover Nanuan orphaned Caucasian boy who was the son of missionaries, he was adopted by local villagers.
The coach sees his fortunes right in front of himbut Nanu is uninterested in the Western world.
So the coach concocts a scheme to trick Nanu into following him to America, where he promptly is enrolled as a student and made a star of the track and field program.
The under-rated character actor Roscoe Lee Browne plays a witchdoctor in a supporting role.
By the early 70's, Disney studios was not known for casting African-Americans in prominent rolesthe most obvious exception would be the still-controversial Song of the South.
Here, Amos is the ostensible lead, with Conway as the sidekick, instead of vice-versa.
In another decade, the Nordic athlete Nanu might have been portrayed as being worshipped as a god by the villagersfortunately the filmmakers bypass outdated notions of the "white jungle king" and portray Nanu as a young man satisfied with tribal life..
...but not the world's greatest movie..
One in a long series of formulaic, "teenager with a difference" Disney comedies, this movie is of interest mainly for its cast and its occasional bits of amusement accidentally tossed in amongst the tedium.
Amos plays a college athletics coach, who leaves on a sojourn to Africa with his assistant Conway in tow, after suffering yet another humiliatingly bad season.
While there to forget his troubles, he is introduced to Vincent, a spectacularly talented young man who is the orphaned child of missionaries and who has been raised in the wild.
In an extended sequence, Amos coerces him to return to his school (with his pet tiger along for the adventure!) and play for his track & field team.
Since Vincent has been in the jungle his entire life, he needs a tutor to help him with his college subjects (!) and so Amos enlists pretty Haddon to help him.
This leads the jealous and devious Goldman to retrieve Vincent's witch doctor mentor Browne from the continent and have him taken back, out of the way.
Browne uses voodoo to foul up Amos's dreams of glory for Vincent and to keep Conway from alerting Amos to his presence.
Naturally, it all ends well, this being a Disney movie.
Amos (who made something of a historic footnote by playing the first black lead in a Disney film in decades) is animated and enthusiastic in his role, though a bit one note.
It's hard to imagine that the man here, straining to make a lot of tired jokes funny and overplaying a lot of them, is the same one who stormed off of "Good Times" because of the scripts and who later made such an impact in "Roots." Conway's improvisational style sort of butts up uncomfortably against the carefully structured formula comedy found here and his timing seems off as a result, though he does have an amusing extended sequence in which he is shrunken to the size of a doll and knocked around inside a purse and around a bar area.
Vincent, who, naturally, is in peak shape here, is hilariously bad in his acting, but impressive in the action sequences.
It's also quite stunning to see him (and Amos, Conway and Walker!) cavorting with a real tiger in the film!
Haddon, not coincidentally playing a girl named Jane, has a rather sensuous moment with Vincent as she's tutoring him, but otherwise isn't given much to do.
(She would famously appear in Playboy right after filming this, confounding the Disney executives!) Browne is clearly enjoying his sly, magical role and has a lot of fun disrupting things and yanking the chains of those around him.
cute, Innocent, and by far one of the silliest sports movies ever made, this is classic, slapstick Disney comedy nostalgia at it's most indicative.
when the numerous children's audience flocked to the Saturday matinée to see a Disney film they usually expected it to be good for a few laughs.
after all, the whole Disney enterprise's foundation in the beginning were cartoons.that's pretty much what Disney's 'Athlete' is, like most live action Disney comedies, it's a cartoon show with real actors.
Jan Michael Vincent's jungle boy Nanu is taken less seriously and more satirically than the Tarzan films.the gags here are pretty funny and more memorable than the film is given credit for.
many of the scenes with Vincent and his Tiger pet are appealing, cuddly, and endearing.
especially the moment when JMV runs toward his love interest in clichéd slow mo', only to bypass her and throw himself in the arms of his little Tiger pal for a big screen kiss.
the scenes where Roscoe Lee brown enchants Tim Conway and miniaturizes him are very funny and pretty surreal.
more like Haiti.some people might be uncomfortable with Roscoe Lee Brown's witch doctor and perceive it as mildly racist.
besides, Brown's witch doctor has some very funny lines, especially in the scene where he meets with the America Medical Assoc.
and begins making snide remarks and jabs at the American medical community.all in all this isn't a great movie or a all time great comedy, but it is definitely a very cute movie a good Disney film.
mostly that's what a Disney movie should boil down to, they should be ever so cute and feel like Disney above all.
like all of Disney's classic baby boomer comedies, 'Athlete' manages to have humour with some edge, but it doesn't forsake family values or wholesomeness.
definitely a must for anyone who likes Disney and cute Bengal kitties.