Father Goose (film)

Father Goose
Film poster
Directed by	Ralph Nelson
Written by	Peter Stone Frank Tarloff
Based on	A Place of Dragons short story by S. H. Barnett
Produced by	Robert Arthur
Starring	Cary Grant Leslie Caron
Cinematography	Charles Lang
Edited by	Ted J. Kent
Music by	Cy Coleman
Production company	Granox Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 10, 1964 (1964-12-10)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$12.5 million

Father Goose is a 1964 American Technicolor romantic comedy film set in World War II, starring Cary Grant, Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard. The title derives from "Mother Goose," the code name assigned to Grant's character. Based on a story A Place of Dragons by Sanford Barnett, the film won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. It introduced the song "Pass Me By" by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh, later recorded by Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra and others.

Plot

While the Royal Australian Navy evacuates Salamaua, Papua New Guinea, in February 1942 ahead of a Japanese invasion, Commander Frank Houghton coerces an old friend, American beachcomber Walter Eckland, into becoming a coast watcher for the Allies. Houghton escorts Eckland to deserted Matalava Island to watch for Japanese airplanes. To ensure Eckland stays put, Houghton sees to it that his own ship "accidentally" knocks a hole in Eckland's launch while departing, so his only boat is a utility dinghy. To motivate Eckland, Houghton has his crew hide bottles of whisky around the island, rewarding each aircraft sighting (once it is confirmed) with directions to one of the bottles.

Eventually, Houghton offers Eckland a replacement (actually another coast watcher in need of rescue), but Eckland has to retrieve him from nearby Bundy Island by dinghy. He instead finds eight civilians stranded there who escaped from Rabaul: Frenchwoman Catherine Freneau and seven young schoolgirls (four British, two French and an Australian) under her care. She informs him that the man he came for was killed in an air raid. Eckland reluctantly takes the party back to Matalava with him, but there is no safe way to evacuate them.

The fastidious Freneau clashes repeatedly with the slovenly, uncouth Eckland; they call each other "Miss Goody Two Shoes" and "a rude, foul-mouthed, drunken, filthy beast," respectively. In the end, though, he adjusts to her and the girls, with Eckland getting one of the traumatised girls to speak again. Freneau learns that Eckland had been a history teacher before he became fed up and chose life in the South Pacific. Afterwards, Eckland cares for Freneau after they mistakenly believe she has been bitten by a deadly snake. With nothing else to do, he gives her whiskey; she gets drunk and speaks freely.

Now in love, the couple arrange to be married by a military chaplain over the radio, but strafing by a Japanese airplane interrupts the ceremony.

Since they have been detected, Houghton sends an American submarine, USS Sailfin, to pick them up, but an enemy patrol boat shows up first. Leaving Freneau and the schoolgirls 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 Japanese sink the launch, but the submarine sinks the patrol boat. An uninjured Eckland, his wife, and the girls are picked up.

Cast

• Cary Grant as Walter Christopher Eckland
• Leslie Caron as Catherine Louise Marie Ernestine Freneau
• Trevor Howard as Commander Frank Houghton
• Jack Goode as Lieutenant Stebbings
• Peter Forster as the chaplain
• Simon Scott as submarine captain
• Ken Swofford as submarine helmsman

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

The film was based on a short story by S Barnett called A Place of Dragons. Hal Chester, a producer, hired Frank Tarloff, with whom he had worked with on School for Scoundrels, to write the screenplay. Tarloff turned the project down at first calling it "a poor man's African Queen" but changed his mind. Originally the film was going to be a "small British picture" directed by Cy Enfield, who like Tarloff was an American blacklistee living in England. Tarloff added the children, who were not in the original story. Chester then sold the project to Universal, although they refused to let Chester produce.

According to New York Times Cary Grant was given the original story by an executive at Universal who lived it. He passed it along to Peter Stone, who told him he wanted to write the screenplay. Grant then arranged for Stone to be signed to Father Goose; Stone's contract called for a picture a year for five years.

At one stage David Miller was going to direct but that job eventually went to Ralph Nelson.

Father Goose was filmed on location in Jamaica. Filming began in May 1964.

The Japanese patrol vessel at the end of the film was portrayed by a former U.S. Coast Guard wood hull 83-foot WPB patrol boat. Director Ralph Nelson stated he tried to avoid professional child actors; with one exception, he succeeded.

Reception

Box Office

The film grossed $12.5 million at the domestic box office, earning $6 million in US theatrical rentals.

Critical

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...."

Bosley Crowther, The New York Times critic, considered it "a cheerfully fanciful fable" and "some harmless entertainment". Of the title character, he wrote, "It is not a very deep character or a very real one, but it is fun."

Awards and nominations

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

When Stone accepted his Oscar he said "Thank you to Cary Grant who keeps winning these things for other people.”

See also

• List of American films of 1964

External links

• Father Goose at AllMovie
• Father Goose at IMDb
• Father Goose at Rotten Tomatoes
• Father Goose at the TCM Movie Database
• Father Goose at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Stephanie Berrington McNutt, one of the child actresses and now a lawyer, talks about making the movie