Father Goose *** (1964, Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, Trevor Howard) – Classic Movie Review 3,073

Cary Grant’s spy code-name is Mother Goose in the feather-weight but charming 1964 wartime adventure romantic comedy Father Goose. 

Director Ralph Nelson’s modest but sprightly 1964 wartime adventure romantic comedy Father Goose stars Cary Grant, aged 60, in his penultimate film as South Sea island drifter beachcomber Walter Eckland, who is persuaded by the Australian Navy to spy on Japanese planes passing over his island during World War Two.

Both his war and his peace are shattered by the arrival of marooned schoool-marm Catherine Frenau (Leslie Caron) and her flock of seven school girls running from the enemy. ‘I am not a father figure,’ Eckland tells Frenau. ‘I am not a brother figure or an uncle figure or a cousin figure. In fact, the only figure I intend being is a total stranger figure.’

Father Goose is a feather-weight but charming comedy, with Grant always good value, enriching and enlivening a choice script that won the 1965 Best Original Story and Screenplay Oscar for screenplay writers Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff, and for S H Barnett, the writer of the original story A Place of Dragons.

Also in the cast are Trevor Howard, Jack Good, Verina Greenlaw, Sharyl Locke, Pip Sparke, Laurelle Felsette, Nicole Felsette, Jennifer Barrington, Stephanie Barrington, Sharyl Locke, John Napier and Ken Swofford.

Grant’s spy code-name in the movie is Mother Goose, hence the title. The theme song ‘Pass Me By’ has lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and music by Cy Coleman, and is sung by Digby Wolfe.

It was filmed at Ocho Rios, St Ann, Jamaica.

Grant’s final film is Walk, Don’t Run in 1966.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3,073

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