The World's Greatest Athlete is a 1973 American sports comedy film directed by Robert Scheerer and starring John Amos, Roscoe Lee Browne, Tim Conway, Dayle Haddon, and Jan-Michael Vincent. Released by Walt Disney Productions, it is one of the few wide-release Hollywood sports films to look at the world of track and field. In the film, two coaches recruit a jungle boy who makes history by winning every event at the NCAA Track & Field Championship. The screenplay was by Dee Caruso and Gerald Gardner who also wrote a novelization of the film. This film was also one of Billy De Wolfe's final roles before he died the following year.
Contents
Plot
Sam Archer and his assistant Milo Jackson are coaches at Merrivale College. They have lost every game in every sport that they have coached, raising the concerns of Dean Maxwell and the Alumni Association. With only one year left on his contract, Archer decides that he is in need of a vacation. Archer and Jackson head to Zambia.
While on a safari, they see a Tarzan-like jungle boy named Nanu, who can outrun a cheetah. The coaches attempt to pursue and recruit Nanu, but soon fall (literally) into the clutches of Nanu's godfather, spiritual leader Gazenga. 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, Archer and Jackson persuade Nanu to join the Merrivale College program. Nanu brings his pet Bengal tiger, Harry, with him. From this point forward, the plot is driven by a combination of slapstick and suspense when Nanu's destiny as the "World's Greatest Athlete" annoys several powerful rivals who are accustomed 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 film 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. The climactic track meet is peppered with commentary by ABC-TV sportscaster Howard Cosell. After his victory, Nanu decides to return home, accompanied by Jane and Harry. Archer and Jackson bid him farewell at the airport.
In the final scene, Archer and Jackson try to recruit a new athletic phenomenon who resides in China.
Cast
John Amos as Coach Sam Archer
Tim Conway as Milo Jackson
Jan-Michael Vincent as Nanu
Roscoe Lee Browne as Gazenga
Dayle Haddon as Jane Douglas
Billy De Wolfe as Dean Maxwell
Nancy Walker as Mrs. Petersen
Danny Goldman as Leopold Maxwell
Don Pedro Colley as Morumba
Vito Scotti as Games Spectator
Liam Dunn as Dr. Winslow
Ivor Francis as Dean Bellamy
Leon Askin as Dr. Boris Gottlieb
Joe Kapp as Buzzer Kozak
Clarence Muse as Gazenga's Assistant
Virginia Capers as Native Woman
Philip Ahn as Old Chinaman
John Lupton as Race Starter
Sarah Selby as Woman on Safari
Russ Conway as Judge with Stopwatch
Al Checco as Dr. Checco
Dick Wilson as Drunk in Bar
The film also features many prolific athletes and sports journalists in small or cameo roles, including Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, Jim McKay, Bud Palmer, Joe Kapp, and Bill Toomey.
Production
Much of the film was shot at University of the Pacific and San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California, and in the Newhall neighborhood of Santa Clarita, California. The track scenes were filmed at California State University, Los Angeles. The live-action jungle scenes were shot at Caswell Memorial State Park, on the Stanislaus River outside of Ripon, California.
Release
The film opened on February 1, 1973 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It opened on February 7 in Los Angeles and then expanded on the 14th.
Home media
The World's Greatest Athlete was released on VHS in October 1986 by Walt Disney Home Video, and by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on March 18, 1997. The film was also released on DVD on August 2, 2005. As of March 2024, the film had not appeared on the Disney+ streaming service (unlike the majority of Disney's catalogue titles), for reasons unknown.
Reception
Critical response
Upon the film's release, A.H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote: "It's a dream that is more often simple-minded than simple and generally as hilarious as finishing fourth in the mile run. It should be stressed, however, that this ribbing of the Tarzan myth runs a good, clean course that should grab all red-blooded sports fans up to and including the 14-year-old group. It might be added that everyone from coach Amos to Jan-Michael Vincent, in the title role, athletically tries without much success to make all this good-natured nonsense funny."
Box office
The film opened with a disappointing $125,000 in its first week in New York but was one of the most popular releases of 1973, earning $10,600,000 in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada that year.