Snowball Express * (1972, Dean Jones, Nancy Olson, Harry Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Mary Wickes, Johnny Whitaker) – Classic Movie Review 13,702

Dean Jones stars in Walt Disney’s 1972 American screwball comedy film Snowball Express as a man who leaves his city job to run a Colorado hotel left to him by his great-uncle.

Director Norman Tokar’s disappointing 1972 Walt Disney comedy film Snowball Express is based on the novel: Chateau Bon Vivant by Frankie O’Rear and John O’Rear, and stars Dean Jones, Nancy Olson, Harry Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Mary Wickes and Johnny Whitaker.

Snowball Express is the story if the ups and downs of Dean Jones and Nancy Olson’s family of townies who chuck in their New York urban lifestyle in favour of a racoon-strewn life in the mountains of Colorado after they are bequeathed a run-down ski resort hotel and try to make a success of it.

Poor old Jones and Olson plus the stalwart support acts do their level best in an uphill struggle in this tepid comedy aimed at all ages groups of the family and hitting none. It is just too silly and slapstick for words. Uninspired direction from Disney staple Tokar misses the boat, but manages to make a passable use of the magnificent snow-clad locations (shot by Frank Phillips), and there are a couple of decent action sequences.

Cast: Dean Jones, Nancy Olson, Harry Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Mary Wickes, Johnny Whitaker, Kathleen Cody, Michael McGreevy, George Lindsey, David White, Dick Van Patten, Alice Backes, Joanna Phillips, John Myhers, and George Kirkpatrick.

It was Disney’s Christmas treat for the year. Release date: December 22, 1972.

Johnny Whitaker (born December 13, 1959) played the title character in the 1973 musical version of Tom Sawyer.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,702

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