Flipper is an American feature film (1963) written by Ricou Browning and Jack Cowden. Produced by Ivan Tors and directed by James B. Clark, it portrayed a 12-year old boy living with his parents on the Florida Keys, who befriends an injured wild dolphin. The lad and his pet become inseparable, eventually overcoming the misgivings of his fisherman father.
The film introduced the popular song Flipper, by Dunhama and Henry Vars and inspired the subsequent television series of the same name (1964–1967) and film sequels.
Plot
Sandy Ricks (Luke Halpin) is a young boy living in the Florida Keys who convinces his father, fisherman Porter Ricks (Chuck Connors) to take in a dolphin injured by a harpoon. His dad reluctantly agrees, until the new pet causes Sandy to neglect his chores and jeopardize the family income.
After "Flipper" (as Sandy names his new friend) recovers from the wound, the dolphin puts on a show to entertain the neighborhood children. Later, however, the animal devours Porter's entire catch of pompano. Porter harshly berates Sandy for allowing Flipper to jump into the holding pen of valuable fish waiting to go to market, "What's wrong with you boy? How old are you, 12, almost in your teens, or are you five, a child who doesn't have the sense to know what his next meal depends on?" Reduced to tears, Sandy retreats to his bedroom as Porter's wife Martha (Kathleen Maguire) remonstrates that "he's only a boy".
Determined to make up for the loss, Sandy sets off to find more fish, and is led by Flipper to a large school of fish near a reef. Later, Sandy is rescued from a threatening shark by Flipper, and the grateful father draws closer to his son.
Main cast
Production
Filmed in color in 1961 and released in 1963, Flipper has several underwater sequences, along with scenes of the trained dolphin performing stunts. Flipper the dolphin was played by "Mitzi" (1958-1972), a female trained at the Santini Porpoise School (later the Dolphin Research Center), by Milton and Virginia Santini, who are credited in the film. Mitzi died in 1972 at age fourteen. She is buried at the Dolphin Research Center, where her grave is the first stop on the center's public tours.
In addition to Mitzi, four other dolphins were filmed for the production of the movie. Two of the dolphins, Little Bit, a female, and Mr. Gipper, a male, reproduced at the Dolphin Research Center. The calf was named Tursi, and she still lives at Dolphin Research Center as of 2009.
One "stunt" dolphin (one of several used in the film) is speared on screen in the peduncle. This is an actual spear-gunning of a live dolphin, not a special effect, which the producers could not afford.[citation needed] The dolphin appears in several subsequent scenes with Luke and the actress playing his mother, having "beached" itself with the spear still sticking out of its tail.
The unnamed dolphin survived this abuse. Producer Ivan Tors gave it to Dr. John C. Lilly, then of the Communication Research Institute in Miami. "It wouldn't come near us," Lilly later said. "I gave it 100 micrograms of LSD, and it was all over us."[citation needed] Tors told Lilly that the dolphin had been speared "by mistake" and that the scene was shot by a second unit without his direct knowledge. Lilly is credited in the film as "scientific adviser".
Sequels
A film sequel, Flipper's New Adventure, was released in 1964. That same year, a television series inspired by the movie, Flipper, began and ran until 1967. A 1990s revival featured Jessica Alba. In 1996, a remake was released, Flipper starring Paul Hogan and Elijah Wood.
See also
- The Cove, a 2009 documentary film about dolphins
External links
