All poor Cary Grant wanted to do was sit out World War II in peace, but the British Navy and the Japanese in the Pacific had some other ideas. Drafted by his friend, Royal Navy Commander Trevor Howard into being a coast watcher on some Pacific tropic isle, Grant's problems multiply exponentially when he finds himself on the same island as Leslie Caron and several school girls, playing Father Goose.
Ms. Caron is a schoolteacher with several young ladies in her charge and they've been stranded. Hard enough being a solitary coast watcher in the South Pacific in 1942, now he has to take care of several females as well.
It's good to remember that this is not the dapper Cary Grant we're all used to seeing. Grant reversed type and did it quite successfully playing a combination of Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut from The African Queen and Charles Laughton's Ginger Ted from The Beachcomber. With a little bit of John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn thrown in.
Actually I think Grant most reminds of Laughton as Ginger Ted. Charlie Allnut went into World War I far more willingly than Grant did, and Rooster Cogburn if nothing else was about doing his duty albeit in his own fashion. But Grant's Walter Eckland is definitely Ginger Ted if Laughton had gotten himself dragooned into being a coast-watcher.
Father Goose is a nice change of pace for Cary Grant and there's a bit of Elsa Lanchester and Katharine Hepburn in Leslie Caron's portrayal as the spinster schoolteacher. Though Grant likes his liquor as much as Wayne, Bogart, and Laughton did, in this film we've got a reverse situation. He has to give Caron some medicinal alcohol when he thinks she's snake bitten. It's the best scene in the film.
Father Goose is not in the first rank of Cary Grant films, but it's pleasant enough entertainment. It turned out to be his next to last film and he was lucky enough to go out as people remembered him.
Ms. Caron is a schoolteacher with several young ladies in her charge and they've been stranded. Hard enough being a solitary coast watcher in the South Pacific in 1942, now he has to take care of several females as well.
It's good to remember that this is not the dapper Cary Grant we're all used to seeing. Grant reversed type and did it quite successfully playing a combination of Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut from The African Queen and Charles Laughton's Ginger Ted from The Beachcomber. With a little bit of John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn thrown in.
Actually I think Grant most reminds of Laughton as Ginger Ted. Charlie Allnut went into World War I far more willingly than Grant did, and Rooster Cogburn if nothing else was about doing his duty albeit in his own fashion. But Grant's Walter Eckland is definitely Ginger Ted if Laughton had gotten himself dragooned into being a coast-watcher.
Father Goose is a nice change of pace for Cary Grant and there's a bit of Elsa Lanchester and Katharine Hepburn in Leslie Caron's portrayal as the spinster schoolteacher. Though Grant likes his liquor as much as Wayne, Bogart, and Laughton did, in this film we've got a reverse situation. He has to give Caron some medicinal alcohol when he thinks she's snake bitten. It's the best scene in the film.
Father Goose is not in the first rank of Cary Grant films, but it's pleasant enough entertainment. It turned out to be his next to last film and he was lucky enough to go out as people remembered him.