JIM BACKUS in Amazing Cosmic Awareness Of Duffy Moon

I used to spend long weekends with my [much older] stepsister in Merchantsville [near Cherry Hill, NJ]. She was a Lance Kerwin fanatic and had a collection of these movies on VHS tapes that we'd watch together.

In this one particular special ["The Amazing Cosmic Awareness Of Duffy Moon"], a kid named Duffy orders a "Cosmic Awareness Home Study Course" through the mail, primarily to stop violent attacks by groups of bullies. The "course" includes the book "Turn Your Body Into A Dynamic Machine And Grow Rich" written by Dr. Louis Flamel. Dr. Flamel is played by Jim Backus.

Obsessed with the teachings of Dr. Flamel, Duffy travels from his comfy suburban home to the shadiest part of Downtown Los Angeles where he discovers Backus' destitute character living in a Skid Row flophouse. That encounter would just never appear in a movie today.

Flamel, dressed in tattered rags, senses Duffy's vulnerability as a victim of abuse and lures him into his filthy hotel room. Flamel then sets his sites on deceiving Duffy, who is innocent to his huckstering.

Man, the way he leads the child into that dumpy room is downright eerie. You may have marveled at his performance in "Rebel Without A Cause" and loved him as Thurston Howell III and Mr. Magoo. Even so, this is the most creepy and unsettling thing you'll see Jim Backus do in his entire career. I can only guess that this was produced [for children specifically] in more innocent times -- when people did not jump to horrible conclusions at the notion of seeing indecent old men using chicanery to lure attractive juveniles into their deplorable hotel rooms.