Accuracy demands that I confess there is no other comedy of any kind that succeeds as well as Father Goose, because the chemistry of Grant, Caron, and Howard was absolutely unique and unrepeatable, if the standard of excellence is humane and real and wholesome. The plane spotter is dead so he ends up begrudgingly taking the woman and her students back to his island. This one had good ratings and even won an Academy Award for screenplay. More than that, it's extremely rare to see a mature comedian surpass and transcend all of his previous work, as if he was finally, at long last, given a wardrobe and a performance space that fit a great star's soul. Jokes and gags are repeated over and over. If you don't have this film in your collection it is well worth having.
His courage and intelligence are there for the asking, if anything in life is morally capable of evoking it without the trick angle of Kate Hepburn's intransigence in The African Queen. Cary Grant is hands down my favorite old time movie star. Once there, he finds the spotter had died at the hands of the Japanese, and he asks to be picked up again by the Navy, but Houghton refuses, wanting Walter to take the place of the spotter instead, since he served such a vital job. The great British actor Trevor Howard is along for the ride. I watched Charade recently, which I loved, and was looking for another Cary Grant or Audrey Hepburn film. I love this movie, and always have.
The air of polite bossiness which she gives Catherine is beautiful when paired up with the grumpy Walter and whilst I wouldn't say there is great romantic chemistry between the two stars the comic timing between them works. When Grant was asked by a Universal Pictures executive to read the short story, he liked it well enough to pass it along to Peter Stone, who told him he wanted to write the screenplay. When he goes to rescue another spotter on a nearby island he instead finds a a class of young schoolgirls and their uptight teacher who he must now bring to his island. Archived from on June 6, 2011. Grant then arranged for him to be signed to Father Goose; Stone's contract called for a picture a year for five years. Leaving Catherine and the schoolgirls to make their way to the submarine in his dinghy, Eckland takes his now-repaired launch out to lure the Japanese vessel beyond the surrounding reef so the submarine can torpedo it.
The movie plays out like the African Queen. A classic Cary Grant not playing his normal suave clean cut persona he usually plays. In one of the funniest scenes Grant is showing Caron how to catch a fish with her hands. Grant slips in and out of a gruff American accent into his Mid-Atlantic accent causing much of his comedic charm and timing to be lost with his line delivery. Houghton finds a replacement watcher, but Eckland has to retrieve him from nearby Bundy Island by dinghy.
The man made everything he did look effortless, which, ironically, is why he never got the recognition he deserved as an actor. In both movies a carefree drunk, almost by accident, rescues a proper acting woman. The straight-laced teacher, as played by Caron, lets her hair down and shows off her dancer's agility in what is a truly inspired moment. During the war, the government distributed enemy identification manuals to spotters, but never charts. Leslie Caron and Grant have no chemistry to justify the ending--they appear to immediately fall in love after slapping each other across the face a few times. Too often stars keep on making movies long after they've worn out their welcome. These set designers really did their homework to make Walter's temporary hut-home an authentic looking spotter's pad.
Father Goose never weakens or stumbles because Leslie Caron is absolutely real, Trevor Howard fully inhabits his role, and the result rockets Cary Grant's flawless, beautifully layered leading performance into the stratosphere. However, I found it difficult to watch. A great family movie that is also a war comedy. There, he finds a school teacher and her brood of school girls. The Japanese sink his boat, but the submarine sinks the patrol boat, and Eckland survives to be rescued.
They blend in so well, and look so authentic, that it is easy to just assume that a location scout found these buildings on a deserted island and sent the cast and crew to film them. I use to fantasize about being stranded on a Pacific island with just a little shack like that to live in. Working with him on this project was Henry Bumstead, another veteran art director, who actually was still making films as late as 2006. This was the penultimate film of Cary Grant's long career. Houghton escorts Eckland to deserted Matalava Island to watch for Japanese airplanes. Also, not only are there no extras, it doesn't even include standard things that we've come to expect on a Blu Ray like captions.
What differs the most between the two film is that Father Goose is far more light hearted. He's wonderful opposite Ingrid Bergman in Notorious. Watch this movie and you will agree. We'll be covering this talented man's work in further detail in a future post, but for today we wanted to spotlight the sets in one of the films he worked on - the 1964 comedy Father Goose. I love Caron's drunk scene and the conversation they end up having over how her blood tastes.
That's twice I have compared Father Goose to one of the best loved classics, and Father Goose wins hands down, because the love story of Father Goose is powered by children, not grown-ups. Still I think most people today will agree he is the epitome of what a Movie Star should be. Eckland learns that Freneau speaks Japanese when she explains that the sailors are only hunting for turtles; she learns that Eckland had been a history professor before he chose a less socially constrained way of life in the South Pacific. It doesn't quite play out the same way, but the similarities are there. Barnett, , and , and was also nominated for and. To motivate Eckland, Houghton has his crew hide Eckland's whisky around the island, rewarding each aircraft sighting once it is confirmed with directions to one of the bottles. Smooth and elegant in an otherwise lunkheaded Charade.
Its story content and life lessons are essential and presented openly and simply -- war is war, men are men, women are women, and children are resilient. But like Eric said the mood is never allowed to become heavy, even when the danger grows and they are forced to flee for their lives. The film won an for. There are not a lot of likeable characters in this movie. Cary Grant and Leslie Caron in Father Goose. Father Goose was Cary Grant's next to last film. Grant has equally good chemistry though with all of the children, from the youngest to the oldest, but especially with young Jenny, the girl whom he gets to speak and who brings him bottles of whiskey.