Father Goose (film)

Father Goose
Directed by	Ralph Nelson
Produced by	Robert Arthur
Written by	S. H. Barnett Peter Stone Frank Tarloff
Starring	Cary Grant Leslie Caron
Studio	Granox Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	December 10, 1964
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Father Goose is a 1964 romantic comedy film set in World War II, starring Cary Grant, Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard. The title derives from "Mother Goose", the codename assigned to Grant's character. The film won an Academy Award for its screenplay.

Plot

While the Royal Australian Navy evacuates Salamaua in February 1942 ahead of a Japanese invasion, Commander Frank Houghton (Howard) coerces old friend, American beachcomber Walter Eckland (Grant), into becoming a coast-watcher for the Allies. Houghton takes Eckland, who is uninterested in anything other than fishing and drinking, to deserted Matalava Island to watch for Japanese planes. Houghton rewards Eckland's sightings with directions to one of the whisky bottles hidden around the island, once coast-watchers on other islands confirm it. To ensure Eckland remains on duty Houghton's naval vessel "accidentally" hits his boat, leaving a large hole in its hull.

Houghton finds a replacement watcher, but Eckland has to retrieve him from a nearby island. He unexpectedly finds Frenchwoman Catherine Freneau (Caron) and seven young schoolgirls under her care stranded there. She informs him that the man he came for was killed in an air raid, and Eckland reluctantly takes them back to Matalava with him.

There is no way to evacuate them safely. At first, Houghton promises them a parachute drop with more supplies, but there is too much enemy activity in the area to accomplish it safely. The fastidious Freneau and the slovenly and uncouth Eckland's personalities clash; they call each other "Miss Goody Two Shoes" and "a rude, foul-mouthed, drunken, filthy beast". He adjusts to her and her girls, however, and cares for her through what they mistakenly believe is a deadly snakebite. Freneau learns that Eckland had been a history professor before he fled civilization to the South Pacific.

The "frustrated spinster" and the "undisciplined, self-indulgent escapist" fall in love and arrange to be married by a military chaplain over the radio. A Japanese airplane interrupts the ceremony. Since they have been detected Houghton sends an American submarine to pick them up, but an enemy patrol boat shows up at the same time. Eckland takes his boat out to lure the Japanese vessel out beyond a reef so the submarine can torpedo it. His boat is sunk, but Eckland survives and the submarine safely evacuates everyone.

Cast

(Codenames for each cast member are shown in parentheses)

• Cary Grant as Walter Christopher Eckland (Mother Goose)
• Leslie Caron as Catherine Freneau (Goody Two Shoes)
• Trevor Howard as Commander Frank Houghton (Big Bad Wolf)
• Jack Good as Lieutenant Stebbings (Bo Peep)

The children:

• Sharyl Locke as Jenny
• Pip Sparke as Anne
• Verina Greenlaw as Christine
• Stephanie Berrington as Elizabeth Anderson
• Jennifer Berrington as Harriet "Harry" MacGregor
• Laurelle Felsette as Angelique
• Nicole Felsette as Dominique

Production

Father Goose was filmed on location in Jamaica.

Reception

Time Out Film Guide panned the film, complaining, "It's a shame that Grant ... should have logged this sentimental claptrap as his penultimate film" and "Grant frequently looks as if he really didn't want to be there, wading lost in a sludge of turgid drama and pallid comedy." Film4 agreed, stating "the story all too slowly descends into sentimental sludge."

In its contemporary review, Variety found more to like: "Cary Grant comes up with an about-face change of character.... [He] plays an unshaven bum addicted to tippling and tattered attire, a long way from the suave figure he usually projects but affording him opportunity for nutty characterization. Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard are valuable assists to plottage...."

Awards and nominations

The film won the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, which was written directly for the screen by S. H. Barnett, Peter Stone, and Frank Tarloff, and was also nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Sound (Waldon O. Watson). It received a nomination for the 1965 Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy award.

External links

• Father Goose at AllRovi
• Father Goose at the Internet Movie Database
• Father Goose at Rotten Tomatoes
• Father Goose at the TCM Movie Database
• Stephanie Berrington McNutt, one of the child actresses and now a lawyer, talks about making the movie