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Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

bombersflyup Father Goose has its flaws, but it's a pretty rare kind of film. A romance/comedy in a world war II setting, with a little bit of action to boot.I didn't like the film much at the start. Grant's character was a bit ridiculous. A common occurrence in the characters he plays, flamboyant and over the top. When the school teacher and her pupils arrive it becomes fun though. Leslie Caron was particularly good as Catherine. Having the chaplain there for a death and then asking for him back for a wedding, really got me after all that had gone on.

Gideon24 Cary Grant's effortless screen charisma was the primary selling point of a 1964 comedy called Father Goose.Grant lights up the screen as Walter, a beachcomber who lives on an isolated south seas island who has been recruited by the military to spot enemy aircraft during World War II, where he is allowed to pretty much live like a hermit and drink to his heart's content who finds his quiet existence disrupted by the arrival of a teacher (Leslie Caron) and seven young girls who have become shipwrecked on the same island as Walter.Peter Stone's screenplay, which seems to have been tailored to Grant's comic sensibilities, actually won an Academy Award, but it's not just the screenplay that works here, but the offbeat choice of character for Grant as well. Grant was always known as being suave, urbane, and sophisticated on screen, but Grant took a calculated risk here playing a character the polar opposite of his traditional on screen image...Walter is unshaven, slovenly, crude, self-absorbed, and a bit of a sexist and having such a character interacting with a straight-laced teacher and a group of young girls turned produced comic gold.Grant offers one his best performances here and his chemistry with Caron is surprisingly solid, considering the vast difference in their ages. I guess it isn't an issue here because the relationship between the two characters is more combative than romantic and Caron somehow manages to hold her own against a cinematic legend who, even though he would make his final film appearance three years later, proved that he still had the chops to carry a movie by himself, but he gets help here from an offbeat character, an unusual story, and breezy direction from Ralph Nelson.

dimplet This movie comes dangerously close to being a stinker. The Cary Grant and Leslie Caron characters are both a bit exaggerated, Grant with his constantly sucking on a bottle but never appearing drunk, and Caron with her manipulative primness. We know Caron is going to do a Katherine Hepburn to Grant's Bogie in African Queen, and confiscate the liquor, and eventually get him to put on some clean clothes.And, of course, they're going to fall in love. But get married? There's not much of a transition here; at least Grant could have confessed how afraid he was she was going to die, or something. It's a real weak spot in the script, but then I guess this is sort of a children's movie, or at least one of those early Sixties family movies, a la Disney.I'm as shocked and mystified as anyone that this won an Oscar for best original screenplay. But then the good stuff, like Dr. Strangelove, Goldfinger, My Fair Lady and even Mary Poppins were based on books, and so didn't qualify. Speaking of My Fair Lady, can you believe Grant turned down Henry Higgins to be in this mediocrity? And he had hopes of Audrey Hepburn stooping to co-star, although I must it, she would have been good in the role, as always. I wish Caron had played it more like Caron, with more class and finesse, and less anger.I saw this when I was a kid, and found it reasonably amusing. Viewing it from an older perspective, I can sympathize a lot more with Grant's character. The strongest section is the beginning, when he is being strong-armed into being an island watcher, the antithesis of South Pacific's Emile De Becque. The little girls certainly do a good job of being annoying, and providing a bachelor with good reason for retaining this status.Grant provides enough edginess to avoid turning this into a saccharine Disney number. He delivers a well-balanced comedic performance. But the roles are fairly generic, and other actors who could have played the lead, include Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon or Walter Matthau.What makes Father Goose most interesting, from a cinematic perspective, is that it came only a year after director Ralph Nelson's masterpiece, Lilies of the Field. This was a heart-warming story not unlike Father Goose, of a reluctant hero dragged into doing his duty by a bunch of women. But it was a gentle, slow movie grounded in realism. I wonder if Father Goose could have been made with a similar approach? Instead, we have slightly unrealistic acting matched with a somewhat improbable story. It might have been better had it been more believable. It might have been more dramatic, but then it might not have been as funny.As to one comment about it being "sexist," that's hilarious. What do you expect the little girls to do, grab a machine gun and mow down the Japanese sailors? Swim out and attach a mine to the Japanese patrol boat? Father Goose is very much a product of its time: an early Sixties mainstream comedy. And that's the way it was.Oh, as to the mystery of the screenplay Oscar, perhaps it had something to do with writer Frank Tarloff having been blacklisted during the Fifties for being an "unfriendly witness" before the HUAC committee, and having moved to England. He wrote under assumed names, but what, I do not know. Perhaps the award was a surrogate for some of his work under a pseudonym.Father Goose is not a masterpiece, even of its genre, but it is reasonably entertaining, and holds up fairly well. It could have been better, from an adult perspective, but no one involved needs to apologize. Most of all, it is good, clean family fun, which might be why some reviewers are so ecstatic about it.

kenjha During WWII, an American is stationed on a South Seas island with the task of spotting Japanese planes, but ends up looking after a woman and seven schoolgirls. This is a colorful and entertaining comedy, but the material is stretched a bit thin at nearly two hours. Surprisingly, the screenplay won an Oscar. Grant seems to be having fun in his penultimate film, although he was perhaps too old to be getting romantic with Caron, nearly 30 years his junior. Even Grant knew he was too old, as this was the last time he played a romantic lead. Caron mostly just tries to be French, although the scene where she gets drunk is amusing.