1964 film by Ralph Nelson
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 is a play on the children's fiction character of "Mother Goose," which is used as a code name assigned to the coast watcher character played by Grant. Based on a story A Place of Dragons by Sanford Barnett,[2][3] 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[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 venemous, Eckland commences a vigil over her. To ease her pain, he's advised to administer an anodyne, 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 dingy, 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.
Production
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.
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.[7]
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...."[8]
Bosley Crowther, The New York Times critic, considered it "a cheerfully fanciful fable" and "some harmless entertainment".[9] Of the title character, he wrote, "It is not a very deep character or a very real one, but it is fun."[9]
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.[10] 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.”
