The Barefoot Executive (1971)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

A young man who works in the mail room at a TV network wants to move up the corporate ladder but finds himself stymied by his selfish boss. By chance he discovers that his neighbor's chimpanzee has a knack for picking successful TV programs.This is classic Disney all the way. Somewhat silly, harmless fun, it is not hard-hitting and has really no deeper meaning or social commentary. One could, if they wanted, point to the jokes about monkeys picking what we see on TV. But that is not exactly deep satire.Kurt Russell was alright early in his career, but it seems like this was an even bigger showcase for John Ritter. As Ritter's first film, he does not get a large amount of screen time, but certainly makes the most of each line he delivers.

I could never give a truly bad review to a film with as talented a cast as this one. One of the things I liked about the Walt Disney Studios is that they gave employment to a lot of familiar faces from the big studio era when they were finding it hard to get work. But this was not one of the better efforts from the Magic Kingdom.Disney's All American hero in films at this time was Kurt Russell who plays a kid who is a mail delivery clerk at the UBC network by day and a night school student looking to better himself. By accident he discovers that the chimpanzee his girlfriend Heather North has can pick winning television shows. His taste mirrors that of the American public which is a proposition a lot might agree with.Russell is promoted to a Vice Presidency in charge of programming keeping the chimp's participation a closely guarded secret. But a whole lot of vested interests want to find out. They stop at nothing as you will see.Some might call this film cute and innocuous as most of the Russell Disney flicks were, but I think The Barefoot Executive is the worst of what he did for that studio. To me the whole thing was so dopey and even a cast that has Harry Morgan, Wally Cox, Alan Hewitt, Joe Flynn, and Iris Adrian in it can't sell this one. I will say that Adrian has only a small bit, but it is memorable.John Ritter is also in The Barefoot Executive playing a role that might have led him to be cast as Jack Tripper in Three's Company. Maybe the film did his career some good.I'd see The Barefoot Executive should be seen for the marvelous cast, but I think you'll agree with me when you see how silly it is.

The Barefoot Executive may appear to just be a light and fluffy 1960s/1970s-style Disney comedy, and it can certainly be enjoyed that way, but you don't have to dig very far below the surface to find a subtly clever satire of the television industry with a very insider feel. Having worked in radio for a while, and having friends and family who do or did work in television, as well as reading a lot of behind the scenes books on television programs, a lot of the jabs at the industry feel spot on.The humorous premise, probably stemming from a common joke about this, is that a "monkey" (actually a chimpanzee here) could pick a television stations' programming and do just as good or even a better job at it. Screenwriter Joseph McEveety and director Robert Butler get the dynamics between various levels of employees right, including the bigwigs. There are nice, continuing threads of intertwined sycophancy, insular ideas, fears of getting canned or demoted over ratings or general incompetence, and self-righteous assertiveness. Some of those things may be contradictory, but nevertheless they're representative of life within the walls of a broadcast media outlet--and probably many other places of employment as well. To an extent, the personal dynamics aspects of The Barefoot Executive are suggestive of an early version of Office Space (1999). But towards the end of the film, The Barefoot Executive nicely diverges into slightly more absurdist territory.Raffles, the chimpanzee, is charismatic and impressive. But an unexpected surprise was the scope and chemistry of the cast, which includes veteran character actors and Disney regulars Joe Flynn and Harry Morgan, veteran television actor Wally Cox, the woman who has supplied the voice of Daphne in most of the Scooby-Doo series and animated films since 1970, Heather North, and in one of his first films, John Ritter. Ritter is on fire here. He steals almost every one of his scenes. And that's quite a feat seeing that the star is an engaging Kurt Russell, who had already made a string of very successful films for Disney.

All the way through this film, part of me was saying "I don't like this kind of film" while the rest of me was replying "No, but I'm enjoying it!" The rather offensive premise here is that the tastes of the great american television-watching public can best be assessed by a chimpanzee.There's a little go at political-correctness, major swipes at TV production values and some great characterisations of TV exec types. I watched it while laying carpet tiles and it made a welcome distraction and a good excuse to take a break. I enjoyed it