Father Goose

Media:	DVD
Directed by:	Ralph Nelson
Starring:	Cary Grant, Leslie Caron
Release date:	26 March, 2002
List price:	~~$14.98~~
Our price:	$12.72 that is 15% off!

Father Goose

Average rating: Stars

Risk your life for a case of Scotch?

Funny story. The urbane Mr. Grant, always funny in a non-threatening "Bond" sort of way with a resume decades long and some of the best mysteries and dramas made. A favorite of Alfred Hitchcock, his appearances are only rivaled by Jimmy Stewart and you would have to flip a coin between the spookiness of Rear Window or North by Northwest to select a favorite.

Walter Eckland is a History Professor who leaves acadamia because they made him wear a necktie. He just wants to float around all those pacific atolls in an 26 foot cabin cruiser and drink Black and White Scotch. Regrettably, it's 1943 and all those dreamy white sandy beaches are now inhabited by angry, rifle carrying Japanese soldiers.

Walter complete with two week beard and scrufty attire is coerced by Royal Australian Navy Commander Trevor Howard, always on top of his game, to be a 'coastwatcher.'

These fellows were really quite heroic even though Grant plays it up for laughs and drinks an impossible amount of scotch daily . . . hell, hourly while doing it. Of course he ends up saving Leslie Caron and her 8 school girls in the process, marries Caron by coastwatcher high freq radio, and is saved by an American Sub.

Funny stuff. It's 1964 so everything is bloody clean with only an occasional innuendo regarding things that go bump in the night. My only criticism (and the film is a lot of fun and fairly timeless) is that there's not a lot of chemistry between Grant and Caron. And there could have been. There's a lot of heat between Stewart and Kelly in the aforementioned Rear Window, and likewise with Grant and Saint in NNW. Here it's really almost dull. Take for example Heche and Ford in "Six Days, Seven Nights." The movie was kind of lame but there was electricity between, again, the aging actor (there Harrison Ford) and the younger woman, Anne Heche. All in all a funny movie and a credit to Cary Grant on the eve of his departure from films. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury

Father Goose - Cary Grant, Leslie Caron

A great relaxing movie

A sweet and simple gem of a movie, fun for all ages. It is nice to be able to share such movies with children and not worry about negative images. It is set in WW2 and involves a beachcomber and a teacher with 7 charges.

Cary Grant, Leslie Caron - Father Goose

Cary Grant plays an unshaven outcast!

Director: Ralph Nelson
Format: Color
Studio: Republic Studios
Video Release Date: November 23, 1999

Cast:

Cary Grant ... Walter Christopher Eckland/Mother Goose
Leslie Caron ... Catherine Louise Marie Ernestine Freneau
Trevor Howard ... Commander Frank Houghton RAN/Big Bad Wolf
Jack Good ... Lieutenant Stebbings RAN/Bo Peep
Sharyl Locke ... Jenny
Pip Sparke ... Anne
Verina Greenlaw ... Christine
Stephanie Berrington ... Elizabeth Anderson
Jennifer Berrington ... Harriet 'Harry' MacGregor
Laurelle Felsette ... Angelique
Nicole Felsette ... Dominique
Alex Finlayson ... Doctor Bigrave
Peter Forster ... Chaplain
Richard Lupino ... Radioman
John Napier ... Lt. Cartwright, USS Sailfin Executive Officer
Simon Scott ... Captain of Submarine, USS Sailfin
Don Spruance ... Navigator
Ken Swofford ... Helmsman, Submarine USS Sailfin

An unkempt, scruffy Cary Grant plays an American ex-patriate during WWII who is running from civilization, but is recruited into the coast watcher service against his will by Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard)of the Royal Australian Navy with promises of whisky as a bribe. While on an island radioing aircraft and ship traffic, he is induced to take a teacher (Leslie Caron) and her girl charges into his custody. Japanese forces are a constant threat, as well as the danger of snakebite, for which Cary Grant maintains a supply of snakebite remedy. Of course, it is suspected that he also carries a supply of snakes for the same purpose.

This is one of the last movies that Grant made. Two years after it was made, he retired from the movie industry.

The usually dapper, suave Grant, was out of character in this part: unshaven, scruffy, and a drunkard. It was a refreshing part for him, and he played it superbly.

It is a thoroughly entertaining film.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre