While the Royal Australian Navy evacuates Salamaua, Papua New Guinea, in February 1942[4] 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 has his own ship "accidentally" knock a hole in Eckland's cabin cruiser while departing, leaving him only a utility dinghy to get around in. To motivate the alcoholic Eckland, Houghton had his crew hide bottles of Scotch whisky around the island, rewarding each confirmed aircraft sighting with directions to one.
As Japanese forces grow ever closer and more threatening, Eckland begs for a replacement, ultimately being offered one that he must retrieve himself across open ocean. In return, he extorts the location of his entire supply of whisky (and gathers the cache). Upon arrival on Bundy Island he is instead greeted by a parade of eight females: Frenchwoman Catherine Freneau and seven schoolgirls under her care since escaping Rabaul, but no coast watcher; he'd been killed in an air raid and buried by Freneau. Recognizing his plight, Eckland dutifully takes the troop back to Matalava.
The next morning, Freneau clashes with Eckland, whom she decries to Houghton as "a rude, foul-mouthed, drunken, filthy beast." In return, Eckland dubs Freneau "Miss Goody Two Shoes".
Eckland settles into a grudging détente with the group. One by one, he befriends the girls (four British, two French, and an Australian), becoming pals with the outgoing tomboyish "Harry" and even getting the youngest, traumatized mute since being separated from her parents to speak again.
When the girls frantically report that Freneau has been bitten by a snake and Houghton confirms that all on the island are deadly venomous, Eckland commences a vigil over her. To ease her pain, he's advised to administer an 'analgesic sedative', which he does liberally. A veteran social drinker from her consulate days - evidently entirely out of practice - she enthusiastically downs the whisky.
When she passes out Eckland mistakenly believes she has succumbed (and taken with her solemn secrets he revealed in their reverie), only to learn she'd merely been pricked by a thorny stick that just looked like a snake. The next day she remembers everything - to his horror.
Realizing they are in love (rather than a case of lust they once narrowly averted), the couple arrange to be married by a military chaplain via radio. Houghton then finally agrees to evacuate them, by U.S. submarine the following morning.
Unsurprisingly, the couple is unable to consummate their marriage, spending their honeymoon night on the beach with the girls waiting for a signal from the sub. Before it arrives a Japanese patrol boat returns and sends a pair of landing parties shoreward in rafts. Ordering Freneau and the girls into his dinghy, Eckland heads out to sea in his newly repaired cruiser in the opposite direction to draw the Japanese away.
On station, the sub is unable to torpedo the patrol boat because of an intervening reef. The cruiser runs full-out, bracketed by Japanese shells. Finally the patrol boat is in the clear, but before the torpedoes can hit their mark the cruiser is blown to splinters.
All is not lost, though: Eckland had lashed its wheel and jumped overside to safety. He pops up cheerfully alongside the dinghy.
The film was based on a short story by S Barnett called A Place of Dragons. Producer Hal Chester hired Frank Tarloff, with whom he had worked 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.[5]
According to the New York Times, Cary Grant was given the original story by an executive at Universal who liked it. He passed it along to Peter Stone, who told him he wanted to write the screenplay.[6] Grant then arranged for Stone to be signed to Father Goose; Stone's contract called for a picture a year for five years.[6]
At one stage David Miller was going to direct but that job eventually went to Ralph Nelson.
There were a number of films and TV shows in the early 1960s that featured coastwatcher characters, in part due to the fact President John F. Kennedy's life had been saved by a coastwatcher during World War Two.[7]
Father Goose was filmed on location in Jamaica.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] Director Ralph Nelson stated he tried to avoid professional child actors; with one exception,[who?] he succeeded.[6]
Reception
Box office
The film grossed $12.5 million at the domestic box office,[1] earning $6 million in US theatrical rentals.[8]
Critical
In its contemporary review, Variety was positive: "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...."[9]
Bosley Crowther, The New York Times critic, considered it "a cheerfully fanciful fable" and "some harmless entertainment".[10] Of the title character, he wrote, "It is not a very deep character or a very real one, but it is fun."[10]
Leslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French and American actress and dancer. She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards.
Cary Grant was an English and American actor. Known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he was one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men. He was nominated twice for the Academy Award, received an Academy Honorary Award in 1970, and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981. He was named the second greatest male star of the Golden Age of Hollywood by the American Film Institute in 1999.
The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 American romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey. Directed by George Cukor, the film is based on the 1939 Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry about a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist. The socialite, played by Hepburn in both productions, was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia heiress who had married Barry's friend.
Peter Hess Stone was an American screenwriter and playwright. Stone is perhaps best remembered by the general public for the screenplays he wrote or co-wrote in the mid-1960s, Charade (1963), Father Goose (1964), and Mirage (1965).
They Were Expendable is a 1945 American war film directed by John Ford, starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, and featuring Donna Reed. The film is based on the 1942 novel of the same name by William Lindsay White, relating the story of the exploits of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three, a United States PT boat unit defending the Philippines against Japanese invasion during the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42) in World War II.
PT 109 is a 1963 American Technicolor Panavision biographical war film depicting the actions of John F. Kennedy as an officer of the United States Navy in command of Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 in the Pacific theater of World War II. The film was adapted by Vincent Flaherty and Howard Sheehan from the book PT 109: John F. Kennedy in World War II by Robert J. Donovan, and the screenplay was written by Richard L. Breen. Cliff Robertson stars as Kennedy, and the film features performances by Ty Hardin, James Gregory, Robert Culp and Grant Williams.
In Harm's Way is a 1965 American epic historical romantic war film produced and directed by Otto Preminger and starring John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Patricia Neal, with a supporting cast featuring Henry Fonda in a lengthy cameo, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, Stanley Holloway, Burgess Meredith, Brandon deWilde, Jill Haworth, Dana Andrews, and Franchot Tone. Produced with Panavision motion picture equipment, it was one of the last black-and-white World War II epics, and Wayne's last black-and-white film. The screenplay was written by Wendell Mayes, based on the 1962 novel Harm's Way, by James Bassett.
Father Goose may refer to:
Hal E. Chester, was an American film producer, writer, director, and former juvenile actor.
Charles Bryant Lang Jr., A.S.C. was an American cinematographer.
The 42nd Academy Awards were presented April 7, 1970, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. For the second year in a row, there was no official host. This was the first Academy Awards ceremony to be broadcast via satellite to an international audience, though outside North America, Mexico and Brazil were the only countries to broadcast the event live.
Black & White is a blended Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was originally produced by the London-based James Buchanan & Co Ltd, which was founded by James Buchanan.
That Hagen Girl is a 1947 American drama film directed by Peter Godfrey. The screenplay by Charles Hoffman was based on the novel by Edith Kneipple Roberts. The film focuses on small-town teenaged girl Mary Hagen, whom gossips believe is the illegitimate daughter of former resident and lawyer Tom Bates. Lois Maxwell received a Golden Globe award for her performance.
One Potato, Two Potato is a 1964 black-and-white American drama film directed by Larry Peerce and starring Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton. The film centers on an interracial romance and was produced and released at a time which such were very rarely openly conducted in the United States, and violated the prevailing social norms of the time.
Thirty Day Princess is a 1934 pre-Code comedy film directed by Marion Gering and starring Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant and Edward Arnold. The film was based on a story of the same name by Clarence Budington Kelland, adapted by Sam Hellman and Edwin Justus Mayer, and written by Preston Sturges and Frank Partos.
Herbert Baker was a songwriter and screenwriter for television and films.
"Charade" is a Parisian waltz with music by Henry Mancini and lyrics by Johnny Mercer performed in the 1963 film of the same name starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was nominated that year for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Frank Tarloff was a blacklisted American screenwriter who won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Father Goose.
Sanford Howard Barnett was an American screenwriter. He won an Academy Award in the category Best Original Screenplay for the film Father Goose.
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