神童1965

     Dear Brigitte is one of the funniest comedies from the 1960s, about a tone-deaf, color-blind boy genius with one interest Brigitte Bardot       James Stewart plays professor Robert Leaf, a typical college professor (when speaking of college professors typical means liberal, but this was 40 years ago and labels change)       Leaf teaches poetry, lives in a houseboat in San Francisco, vocally opposes nuclear power and progress in general       He has an original way to make the family stick together - family concerts       His daughter calls him square       Leaf's 8-year old son Erasmus is played by Billy Mumy (Sammy the Way Out Seal, Lost In Space, Bless The Beasts Children, Three Wishes)       Leaf hopes to find artistic genius of some sort in his only son, and nurtures him in music, painting, literature, etc       But Leaf is disappointed, to put it mildly, when it turns out Erasmus has a gift for math, can out-think the colleges newest computer, instantly compute horse-race winners       I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but Erasmus had been writing to Bardot regularly, and after the family comes to depend on his ability, his love-sickness causes a mental block       Glynis Johns (Father's Delicate Condition, The Cabinet of Caligari, Mary Poppins) plays Leaf's wife       Ed Wynn (Requiem For A Heavyweight, Mary Poppins) is a neighbor captain narrator       Other cast include Fabian, Cindy Carol, John Williams, Jesse White, Jack Kruschen, and James Brolin in an early bit part       Brigitte Bardot appears at the end