The Gnome-Mobile
| The Gnome-Mobile | |
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Original window card, 1967
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| Directed by | Robert Stevenson |
| Produced by | James Algar |
| Written by | Ellis Kadison |
| Based on | The Gnomobile novel by Upton Sinclair |
| Starring |
Walter Brennan Tom Lowell Matthew Garber Karen Dotrice Ed Wynn Richard Deacon Sean McClory |
| Music by |
Buddy Baker "The Gnome-Mobile" song by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman |
| Cinematography | Edward Colman |
| Edited by | Norman R. Palmer |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
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Release date
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Running time
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84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $4,000,000 (US/ Canada) |
The Gnome-Mobile is a 1967 Walt Disney Productions comedy-fantasy film directed by Robert Stevenson. It was one of the last films personally produced by Walt Disney. It was based on a 1936 book by Upton Sinclair titled The Gnomobile.
Walter Brennan plays a dual role as D.J. Mulrooney, the kind-hearted lumber tycoon of Irish descent; and as the irascible 943-year-old gnome Knobby. The children, Elizabeth and Rodney, were played by Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber, familiar from their roles as Jane and Michael Banks in Mary Poppins. Tom Lowell who plays the young gnome Jasper in this movie, also appeared in the 1965 Disney film That Darn Cat! as Canoe, the befuddled surfer boyfriend of Hayley Mills. The Gnome-Mobile was both Matthew Garber and Ed Wynn's last movie role. Wynn died of throat cancer before the movie was released and Garber died ten years later, having contracted hepatitis while visiting India. Richard and Robert Sherman contributed the song "Gnome Mobile."
The Gnome-Mobile was re-released theatrically on November 5, 1976.
The story opens with the children's grandfather, D.J. Mulrooney (Walter Brennan), a well-known executive officer of a vast timber-trading company. D.J. is an eccentric and passionate man. D.J. is going to Seattle to sell 50,000 acres of timberland. D.J. takes his personal, customized 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom II on the trip. In a brief conversation with his Company Head of Security, Ralph Yarby (Richard Deacon), we learn that the car was purchased after D.J. earned his first US$1 million. His first stop is The Airport where he picks up his grandchildren Elizabeth (Karen Dotrice) and Rodney (Matthew Garber) who are to accompany D.J. on his trip to Seattle. The children ask about the Rolls, to them an unusual car, and D.J. compares the Rolls with his first car back in Ireland, a one-horsepower "Jaunty Car".
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