The Incredible Mr. Limpet (Arthur Lubin, 1964): USA

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed on Netflix.

  In 1964 Warner Bros. released a ridiculously fun family movie about Henry Limpet (Don Knotts), a nerdy bookkeeper who falls off a pier at Coney Island and emerges as The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

Just prior to the attack at Pearl Harbor Henry Limpet is eager to enlist, but rejected and rated a 4F by the U. S.  Navy.  His favorite pastime is gazing into his fish tank, while neglecting his wife Bessie (Carole Cook).

Henry can’t swim, but agrees to go with Bessie and their navy friend George (Jack Weston), for a picnic at the Coney Island pier.  Henry falls in the water, and although George makes several attempts to rescue him, everyone assumes he has drowned.

Henry’s world becomes animated as he is suddenly transformed into a talking tilefish.  Gifted with an especially disturbing thrum sound, Henry is able to distract underwater sonar instruments.  When he stumbles upon a Nazi U-boat, he realizes his calling and enlists the help of his friend George, who amazingly convinces the Navy of Henry’s existence.

The film adjusts auspiciously from live-action in George’s world, intermittently with animation in Henry’s world.  And before the advent of CGI Performance Capture, Warner’s Animation Dept. very effectively produced a tilefish that resembled Don Knotts’ bulging eyes, fish lips, and buck teeth.  The story is light-hearted entertainment, but the animation is great.

This live-action/animated film, which is based on a novel by Theodore Pratt (Mr. Winkle Goes to War), was one of many successful films of its kind, produced by the various studios as far back as the early stages of film.  Disney mastered this technique with Mary Poppins (1964), Bedknobs and Broomsticks(1971), and especially, the wonderful yet enigmatical Song of the South (1946).