Shatner, 1970's, Kid's Movie, Dramatic Pauses....A Whale of a Tale

I did not know what to expect from the 1977 children's film, "A Whale of a Tale" starring William Shatner other than at least one great Shatner pause. Said Shatner pause from this film can be seen in the above clip. This is actually a collection of pauses, all in a brief 23 seconds. When I put the vhs tape I own into the vhs to dvd dubbing machine, I had no idea the extent to which I would be moved by greatness while watching this unknown kid's movie.

"A Whale of a Tale" was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, to borrow a phrase from my friend, KenAngryPuppyFilms. The film, directed by Ewing Miles Brown, tells the tale of Joey (Scott C. Kolden), a boy who wants to work at Marineland, a water park in Southern California. Marineland, a park similar to Sea World, located on the Palos Verdes peninsula in Los Angeles operated from 1954-1987. Thanks for the info, www.moderndayruins.com. Incidentally, Scott C. Kolden, since his acting career in the 1970's, has been a working sounds effects editor in Hollywood since the early 1990's. He has an impressive list of credits on IMDB. Good for him!

Joey is befriended by Louie (the usually crazy-haired comedian, Marty Allen, a staple of 70's game shows such as "The Hollywood Squares"), a fisherman who works at Marineland as a getter of whales. Allen's hair is, for the most part, restrained in this film. I do not know much about whaling, so I do not know if the treatment of the whales in this film is humane or not. Everything looked fine to me, but, since this film does not include any scenes detailing the ins and outs of whaling or other aspects of life on the sea like that one big book about the big whale does, we do not learn that much about whale capture from this film. I hate being decieved by a vhs cover box. So common back in the vhs era. That girl in the bikini never showed up in the film either.

Louie introduces Joey to Dr. Jack Fredericks (Shatner), a marine biologist at Marineland. Dr. Fredericks allows Joey to work at Marineland, giving him dull, repititive jobs to do, hoping that Joey will get bored and stop coming to the park. Alas, the opposite occurs. Joey's zeal for more interaction with the whales and this thirst for more knowledge of the world of marine biology increases. Dr. Fredericks recognizes this and allows Joey to stay. I liked this part of the script. Dr. Fredericks understands that Joey's interest in the whales could be the birth of a passion for his field and encourages Joey. 

Despite the absence of whaling lessons or women in bikinis, "A Whale of a Tale" is a fairly straight-forward film. I expected many more scenes involving hindrances to characters trying to accomplish what they wanted to get done. There is one scene in which Marty Allen gets pushed into the water by a sea lion and alleged zaniness ensues. This scene hurt for a few seconds. Several minutes of running time are devoted to filmed accounts of the whale show at Marineland, which, for nostalgia's sake was of interest for a bit, however, after the 8th whale had jumped out of the water, I was ready for more of Shatner. Though not to the Fred Olen Ray-esque extent of time fill variety, scenes of 2 or 3 whales doing tricks goes a long way.

Joey's Aunt Meg (Nancy O'Conner) expresses concern about all the time he is spending at Marineland to Joey's mother, Anne (Abby Dalton). You may remember Dalton from her time on "Falcon Crest" in the 1980's. As expected, Anne meets Dr. Fredericks. Even in a kid's film, Shatner's character gets laid, even if it is just implied that the possibility for said action is inevitable, due to his character's charm.  Nothing can stop the man! Maybe it was in his contract in the 70's and 80's that every character he plays, no matter the film, has the quality of being able to get the girl with absolutely no hindrances in his way.

In the third half of the movie, Joey runs away, or more precisely, boats away after his mother tells him that he can no longer work at Marineland. Joey is lost at sea. Dr. Fredericks, being the confident soul that he is, gathers a search team headed by zany Marty Allen and the search for Joey commences.

"A Whale of a Tale" is a pleasant film, worth watching for the presence of Shatner, the gorgeous Abby Dalton, a look at Marineland, a now gone memory of an interesting period of time, and for the uncomplicated structure of the story. It's not on dvd, however, you may be able to find a copy of it on vhs on Ebay or Amazon. I did not feel that I had had my 90 minutes stolen from me by this movie.