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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1960s
    Movies - 1960s Movies - R 2 Mins Read

    Reluctant Astronaut, The (1967)

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    Two years prior, Don Knotts had put his patented comedy spin on ‘haunted house’ horror movie conventions in The Ghost and Mr Chicken (1965), and he did the same to the Western in 1968 as The Shakiest Gun in the West. So a foray into the world of sci-fi made perfect sense – Mr Knotts, after all, was not a man to be kept out of a genre.

    Roy Fleming operates a space-themed kids’ ride at the local amusement park, and that’s just fine for him. But Roy’s dad, an old-school military man named Buck, wants bigger and better things for his chip off the block – and so he signs young Roy up for a NASA-sponsored space program in Houston.

    Unfortunately, Roy soon finds out he’s the proud new owner of an assistant janitor’s position – not exactly Neil Armstrong!

    Roy works overtime to keep up the illusion that he is indeed an astronaut-in-training, but he’s fired after donning a spacesuit and giving family and friends an official tour of the base – the base he’s supposed to be mopping up.

    It doesn’t look good for Roy ever getting to the outer limits until the honchos at NASA decide to send a layperson up into orbit – what better way to one-up the Russkies and prove the utter safety of their latest spacecraft model?

    With space hero Major Gifford looking on (and yes, that is Leslie Nielsen in the straight man’s role), our favourite former janitor is selected for the gig – height phobia and all.

    Somehow, Roy’s adventures in space, which include his chronically shaky nerves and an extremely trying peanut-butter-in-zero-gravity experience, end up making him a hero.

    No sex, no bad language, no violence – just good clean bumbling around and perpetual Knotts-brand jumpiness.

    Roy Fleming
    Don Knotts
    Major Fred Gifford

    Leslie Nielsen
    Ellie Jackson

    Joan Freeman
    Buck Fleming

    Arthur O’Connell
    Mrs Fleming

    Jeanette Nolan
    Donelli

    Jesse White
    Plank

    Frank McGrath
    Bert

    Guy Raymond
    Aunt Zena

    Nydia Westman
    Rush

    Paul Hartman
    Moran

    Robert Pickering

    Director
    Edward J Montagne

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    Yes, one of the great presenters. R.I.P.

    For fans of the radio series Round The Horne (1965 - 1968) - starring the inimitable Kenneth Williams - there are several full episodes on Spotify. Some of the humour is still pretty close to the edge, even by modern standards. Bona! 

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