Father Goose

Plot synopsis:
It's 1942, and the war in the Pacific is not going well for the Allies. At the moment, the British are evacuating the island of Salamaua, taking what they can and destroying the rest. In all the confusion, scruffy beachcomber Walter Eckland (Cary Grant) arrives, ties his launch to the pier and begins helping himself to cans of His Majesty's Royal Navy petrol.A young officer, Stebbings (Jack Good), spots him and indignantly asks what he's doing. Walter pauses long enough to look at Stebbings, and say, portentously, "Do you know who I am?" Taken aback, Stebbings admits, "Well, no, I don't." "Well...we'll let it go this time," says Walter, magnanimously, and resumes stacking cans by his boat.In the harbormaster's office, Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard) is talking on the radio to the admiral, reassuring him that everything will go as planned. Stebbings bursts in, meaning to ask Frank if he knows the cheeky Yank at the far end of the pier. Frank motions him to hush, then tells the admiral that yes, all the coast watcher positions have been assigned...all except for Matalava. But at that moment, Frank catches sight of Walter and his face brightens. He tells the admiral he has found his man for Matalava. As they walk down the pier, Frank tells Stebbings that Walter is a hard-drinking drop-out from civilization, but he knows the islands like the back of his hand and is as sharp as they come.Frank and Walter greet each other in a way that suggests they share a certain amount of history. Frank explains the coast watching service to Walter, and asks him to go Matalava, just for a while...until they can find someone permanent. Walter cheerfully refuses. Frank immediately turns to Stebbings and orders him to confiscate all the small boats on the pier (although Walter's is obviously the only one). At first Walter protests, but he soon realizes Frank will indeed follow through on the order, so he cheerfully agrees to go to Matalava. Frank is not fooled. In the next scene, Walter arrives at Matalava...escorted by a large British destroyer, with Frank and Stebbings watching from the bridge. As sailors transport Walter's supplies to the island, Stebbings asks Frank what's to prevent Walter from sailing out again the moment they leave. Frank chides Stebbings for having so little faith in his fellow man...and orders him to get underway by turning hard a-port. Stebbings starts to obey, then stops, uncertain...he asks Frank to confirm the order, then he nods happily, and orders the coxswain to turn hard a-port. As the destroyer turns, it tears a big, ragged hole in Walter's hull just above the waterline.Using his dinghy (which is equipped with a small outboard motor), Walter tows the launch to a tiny, sheltered lagoon, and makes his way to a little grass hut just off the beach. The supplies have been left here; there's a cot, table and chairs, radio, and charts of Japanese planes and ships on the walls. Frank calls up on the radio to give Walter further instruction on his duties, and on the use of code names when talking on the radio. Frank is Big Bad Wolf, Stebbings is Little Bo Peep...and Walter is to be Mother Goose. Frank hastily switches off the radio on Walter's angry, profane response."I don't see we've accomplished anything," says Stebbings. "After all you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." "Oh, if he gets thirsty enough, Stebbings, he'll drink," replies Frank, dryly. And sure enough, a moment later Walter calls to ask about the case of whiskey that was delivered with the supplies. Frank tells Walter his men have hidden the bottles in spots he will never find on his own. Whenever Walter calls to report any Japanese planes or ships he's seen, he'll be given directions on where to find one bottle. Walter immediately tells Frank that he's seen a couple of Japanese planes, and starts giving him a detailed description. "CONFIRMED sightings, Walter," says Frank, interrupting Walter's attempted ruse.Walter resigns himself to an indefinite stay on Matalava...at least until he can repair his boat. He works on it whenever possible...and diligently reports any Japanese plane and ship movements...and loses no time applying for the promised bottle afterward.Stebbings informs Frank that another of the coast watchers, Perry on Bundy Island, is ringed in by the Japanese and requesting to be withdrawn. A quick look at their map shows shows that Walter is the only one near enough to help. Frank calls Walter and offers him a bargain: if he'll go to Bundy, and pick up Perry, Perry will help him fix his boat and stay on at Matalava in his place. Walter refuses at first, shrewdly guessing Frank hasn't told him everything. Then he calls Frank back and makes a counter offer: after all, a man in a seven-foot dinghy traveling over all those miles of open sea would need a little comfort...after a failed attempt at bartering, Frank agrees to provide directions to all the remaining bottles of whiskey.Walter lands at the south jetty on Bundy after dark, as instructed...but Perry isn't waiting there for him, as promised. He cautiously makes his way to Perry's shack...and stumbles just outside over what looks like a grave, marked with a rough cross. He goes inside and sees that the hut has been strafed from the air...everything has been shot to pieces.He hears a faint noise, turns, and sees a shadow behind the window blind. He creeps over, pulls it up suddenly, and finds himself pointing his gun at a lovely young Frenchwoman (Leslie Caron)--who is pointing a gun right back at him. He asks her about Perry, and she answers if that's the man who lived here, she found him dead and buried him. A Japanese patrol boat passes...they duck...the light sweeps over them, but they are not seen. Walter tells her they should get out of there, and she motions to someone out of sight, and whispers, "Come on, we're leaving." Walter watches dumbfounded as seven little schoolgirls, each in a neat uniform and hat, and carrying a suitcase, file past the window and follow the woman down to the jetty. Walter protests that his little dinghy won't hold all of them. "All right," says the woman, "Tell me which of them you want to leave behind?" Realizing he's beaten, he helps them all into the dinghy. But he throws away all their luggage, growling "This isn't the Queen Mary," when they protest.The trip back is harrowing...the dinghy rides very low in the water. At one point, two Japanese destroyers pass on either side of them in the dark, and the little craft is almost swamped: all must bail to keep it afloat. When they arrive at Matalava, Walter angrily jumps off the boat and storms up to the hut, leaving the girls to make their own way. He calls Frank on the radio and accuses him of tricking him into picking up the girls. But Frank is as puzzled by their presence as Walter, and the woman takes the radio mike to explain. She is Catherine Freneau, daughter of the French Consul at Rabaul...the girls are the daughters of other diplomats. They were being evacuated to Australia when their pilot got a distress call from a downed bomber. He dropped them off at Bundy, promising to return for them...but then the Japanese landed on the island.Frank asks them to stand by while they figure something out. Walter opens a bottle of whiskey, and drinks...opens a can of food, and begins to eat out of the can as the girls look on. Catherine points out that they could all do with some food. He tosses a can to her, and goes on eating. She sighs, and begins to order the girls to straighten up the hut, clean off the table, open some tins...she asks Walter where he keeps his tea things. He watches warily, but only intervenes when one of the girls starts to move his hard-won whiskey.Frank comes back on the radio to inform them that he can't take the girls off Matalava...they may have to stay there for several weeks. He will arrange a parachute drop in a couple of days, to deliver additional supplies. Walter is outraged. He wants them off his island, immediately...especially Catherine, whom he calls "Miss Goody Two-Shoes." For her part, Catherine tells Frank that Walter is "a rude, foul-mouthed, filthy beast." But there's nothing to be done, they're all stuck with each other.Catherine sends the girls outside, and tries to convince Walter that they must work together, and their main concern must be the children: He must let them have the hut, and help her keep them safe and secure; above all, he must stop swearing and drinking in front of them...after all, he is the "Father" figure. Walter retorts that he has no intention of being a "Father" figure...all he intends to be is a "Total Stranger" figure. He tells her to get out and let him get some sleep. He defiantly takes off his pants in front of her, and lies down on the cot. She leaves...but a few moments later her little guerilla fighters attack the hut with sticks and coconuts. Walter comes outside with a blanket wrapped around his waist, pants over his arm, and a bottle in his hand..."Lady," he says to her threateningly, "you're making a powerful enemy." But it's an empty threat, and they all know it. He retreats to his boat, where he will stay for the duration.Later, one of the girls comes down to the boat to fetch him: Frank is on the radio. Walter hurries off to the shack...not noticing the girl stays behind, and beckons to the others, hidden in the trees nearby. Walter finds Catherine alone in the shack, mending a piece of clothing. He looks around nonchalantly for the whiskey..."I asked you to stop drinking in front of the girls," she says, primly, "but you wouldn't." She has hidden it all away again, to Walter's supreme frustration!Frank is no longer on the radio, but he left a message, and after some suspicious fumbling and stalling, Catherine finally produces it. Frank has been unable to arrange a parachute drop...they'll have to make do with what they have. Catherine asks Walter if he would consider sharing some of his personal belongings with her and the girls. He tells her he'd trade for his whiskey. She refuses, and he leaves.As he starts back down to the boat, the girls run past him one by one, each concealing a bundle of clothing, tools, blankets, which they've taken from his boat. As the last little girl runs by, Walter finally gets wise...he tries to stop her, and she hits him on the toe with the hammer she's stealing. By the time he recovers, all the girls are inside the hut with Catherine standing guard. Out-maneuvered again, he retreats to his empty, empty boat.He keeps a watch on the hut, and on Catherine and the girls, now wearing bits, pieces and strangely-altered versions of his clothes. There's Elizabeth (Stephanie Berrington), 14, pretty, but shy and bespectacled; Anne (Pip Sparke), 12, sullen and aloof, whose answer to every question is, "I want to go home"; Harriet (Jennifer Berrington), ten, a cheerful tomboy who prefers to be called Harry; Angelique and Dominique (Laurelle and Nicole Felsette), the twins, nine, who speak only French, but may understand more than they let on; Christine (Verina Greenlaw), about six, a no-nonsense little Brit; Jenny (Sharyl Locke), also British, around six, very quiet and sad. He waits for his chance: he'll give up the hut, and they can have the clothes...but he wants that whiskey!One day he spots a Japanese destroyer in the bay, and an inflatable raft with four armed Japanese sailors coming ashore. He runs up to the shack and finds only Catherine and Christine there. The rest are on the beach gathering coconuts. He and Catherine run down quickly to find them. They find four of them coming back from the beach, their arms full of coconuts, and send them back to the shack to hide. They continue to the beach, where they find Anne perched precariously, but more or less hidden, high up in a palm, near where the sailors are landing. Jenny is nowhere to be seen. Walter motions to Anne to stay where she is, and he and Catherine crouch down behind a couple of fallen logs. The sailors set off down the beach, away from them...just as Jenny appears, oblivious to what's going on, to add two more coconuts to the pile under the palm. Walter whispers to Catherine that if Jenny makes a sound they're done...Catherine murmurs that Jenny hasn't spoken since she left her parents. "She can still scream, can't she?" says Walter grimly, and runs swiftly to Jenny while the sailors' backs are turned. He puts his hand over her mouth to silence any outcry (managing not to cry out himself, when Jenny give him a good, hard bite), and hides her until the sailors are out of sight. Then he brings her back, frightened and crying, to Catherine, who comforts and quiets her.It turns out that Catherine understands Japanese, and she tells Walter that they are trying to find turtles for soup. Unable to find any, the Japanese return to the dinghy, and shove off. They don't leave a moment too soon: Anne is slipping from her perch. Walter manages to get under her, and, quietly but painfully, break her fall. When the sailors are back on board, and the ship is out of sight, they all leave the beach. No one notices that the bright red bandana Anne was wearing (one of Walter's) has snagged in the fronds of the palm.Walter is working on his boat when Jenny suddenly appears, staring silently over the railing at him. He looks back at her for a moment, surprised, then tells her to beat it. She produces a bottle of whiskey, and sets it on the railing near him. Dumbfounded, he looks at it, then at her...and says, "Thank you", in a slightly hoarse voice. He removes the cap, takes a healthy swig, and thanks her again. He asks her name--she doesn't answer. He reaches into his pocket and produces a small silver whistle on a chain. "Would you like this?" he asks. She nods. "All you have to do is repeat three words after me." She nods again. "Elephant," he says. After a pause, she repeats, "Elephant." "Rhinoceros," says Walter. "Rhinoceros," she repeats. "Wrong!" says Walter. "Why?" she demands, indignantly. "No, not 'Why'..," says Walter, " 'Wrong!' That was the third word--you lose." He puts the whistle back in his pocket...and Jenny snatches back the whiskey. Muttering about poor losers, Walter hands her the whistle, and she returns the whiskey. He takes another swig, and when he looks again, Harry is standing next to Jenny, smiling happily. They offer to help him fix his boat, and he tells them they can swab down the deck. Soon all the girls are there, working on the boat in one capacity or another.Catherine arrives, looking for the girls. She orders them back to the shack for lessons, but Jenny protests that they'd rather stay and help Mr. Eckland. Catherine stares at Jenny in surprise, and Elizabeth brightly explains that Mr. Eckland got her to talk. "Better do as she says," Walter tells the girls, and reluctantly they head back to the shack. A little jealous, Catherine says tartly that next time she needs the girls to do anything, she'll just call on Mr. Eckland. "It's not my fault that boats are more fun than lessons," he replies, mildly. As he's talking, he wades out into the lagoon a little way. He crouches, and after a moment plunges his hands into the water and skillfully flips a fish onto the shore. "Why don't you teach them something useful, like that?" he says. Catherine tries it, but fails miserably. Walter approaches to show her how it's done...but standing so close to her, he suddenly realizes that he's very...attracted to her. Startled, he backs away. Confused, Catherine asks, "Mr. Eckland, are you or aren't you going to teach me to fish?" After a moment's consideration, he replies "I aren't". He wades deeper into the lagoon, and begins to swim away, while she watches, mystified.Catherine and Anne are foraging for berries, near a little pond. Catherine slips off a log, into the water. "Oh... Something bit me", she exclaims, and looks at two little holes near her left ankle. "A snake, a snake!" cries Anne, pointing to a long, dark shape in the water nearby. Catherine jumps out of the water, and they flee to the hut. After a moment, the dark shape emerges fully from the water: it's only a branch, with thorns and a couple of wilted leaves.Catherine is on the cot surrounded by the girls when Walter comes in, summoned by one of the French twins. Catherine briefly explains what happened; he sends the girls out, and examines the tiny wound gravely. With his knife (sterilized over the stove's flame) he makes a small cut across the marks, and attempts to suck out the venom. Then he calls Frank on the radio: "What kind of snakes have they got around here?" he asks. "Uh, is that a rhetorical question, I hope?" asks Frank, warily. "Miss Freneau went and found one," replies Walter, evenly. Frank sends Stebbings for a doctor, and tells Walter to stand by. "And Walter," he adds, "until we know what we're dealing with, don't try to be a movie hero and suck out the venom, ok?" Walter and Catherine look at each other a little sheepishly.Frank returns shortly, and asks Walter to put on the headphones. The doctor tells him there are three varieties of snakes indigenous to the islands, all extremely poisonous. Nothing can be done for Catherine...the end will come very soon: She'll experience a general feeling of numbness, then dizziness, and then death. The doctor tells Walter to make her comfortable, and recommends the liberal use of any strong, analgesic sedative he may have on hand to do so. "I don't have anything like that," protests Walter, and Frank replies, "Nonsense, Walter, you've been using one for years."Walter persuades Catherine to tell him where he can find a bottle of whiskey...best medicine for snakebite, after all. She drains her first coconut cupful quickly...and as he pours another, she tells him she doesn't disapprove of drinking, only excessive drinking. As she's working on her third cupful, she says that since the death of her mother, she has served as hostess at every consulate function for years. "We had martinis before dinner, white wine with the fish," she says, running through the checklist, "red wine with the main course, champagne with dessert, cognac with coffee, and port after dinner." Walter takes a swig of the whiskey and comments enviously, "Sounds GREAT!"After her fifth drink, Catherine observes that it's getting very hot in the shack...and seems unable to keep from waving her very limber legs in the air and giggling. She asks Walter what her blood tasted like. After some discussion as to whether or not it was too salty, Walter decides to close the blinds and pull the curtain over the door. Listening on the porch with the other girls, Anne suddenly shouts she's going to kill that rotten snake, and runs off toward the pond.Catherine admits she's obsessively disciplined. "I'm a picture-straightener," she laments. "Whenever I see a picture hanging crookedly, I straighten it. And I brush my teeth every morning and every night, no matter what." She tells him that she's lived in 11 countries and speaks seven languages...that she once had a fiance named Cesare...he worked for the Italian Consulate, and whenever he kissed her, he would first ask "Permesso", and afterward he would say "Grazie." She giggles wildly, and tells Walter that Cesare would never have done to her leg what he did. She tells him earnestly that she liked what he did to her leg.Then she asks Walter what "she" was like. "What 'who' was like?" asks Walter. "The woman who drove you to this," she says, gesturing all around her, to the shack, the island...to his solitary life. "It was no woman," he replies, "it was a necktie." Believing that she will not live to pass the story on, he tells her that eight years ago, he'd been a professor of history at an American university. One morning, in a rush, he'd gone to class without his necktie...and they'd refused to let him in. He'd thought they'd care more about the content of his brain than what he wore around his neck, but he'd looked at them, then, and realized they all wore neckties. They all looked the same, talked the same, and thought the same, and they weren't learning anything...at least nothing he had to teach...and they were perpetuating the same old problems. So he'd packed up and departed for the South Seas the next day.Catherine listens with interest...then giggles to think that he was once a school teacher...then remarks that she's beginning to feel numb. Recognizing this symptom of approaching death, he helps her lie back on the cot. "Oh, I'm dizzy," she murmurs, "I'm so dizzy!" She suddenly sits up and exclaims, "Oh, dear!" in a surprised little voice...and passes out cold.Slowly, gently, Walter takes Catherine's cup of whiskey from her hand, crosses her hands on her breast and pulls the blanket up over her face. Then he drinks the whiskey left in her cup (waste not, want not!)Meanwhile, Anne has returned, carrying the snake-resembling branch in her hand. "What's that?" asks Elizabeth. "It's the snake," replies Anne. "That's not a snake," says Jenny. "It LOOKED like a snake," says Anne. "You ninny!" declares Christine. "Oh, la!" sighs one of the little French twins.Walter calls Frank: "It's over," he says, "Miss Freneau is...gone." "I'm sorry, Walter," says Frank. "Have the girls been told?" "No," replies Walter, "Stick around, why don't you...I may need you later."Walter comes out and sits down on the porch, and the girls gather around him. He tells them gently that Miss Freneau is gone. They tell him earnestly that she's not. Anne produces the stick, and he asks, "What's that?" "It's the snake," says Anne. "Well, that's not a snake," he replies. "It LOOKED like a snake," says Anne. She hands it to him, he looks at it, and after a moment, agrees, "That looks like a snake." He goes back inside, and pulls the cover back from Catherine's face. Her eyes open, and she looks at him, quizzically...."Is it morning already?" she asks, and he covers her up again. He goes back to the radio, and calls Frank. Frank has summoned the chaplain to say a few words of comfort. "Never mind," says Walter. "Miss Freneau's alive. It's the snake that's dead." Leaving Frank sputtering on the radio, he takes what's left of the bottle of whiskey, and heads back to his boat.He's tinkering with the patch he's rigged for the hull when Catherine, walking gingerly due to a monstrous hangover, comes in to talk to him. She asks him if she said or did anything for which she'd need to apologize. He tells her no...except when she put the flower between her teeth and danced naked around the room. "I couldn't' have done that!" she protests, then asks doubtfully, "Did I?" He asks her what she does remember. She replies nothing, really, and he relaxes. Or at least, she adds, nothing after his story about the necktie, she adds, and he explodes. He shouts at her that he never wants to hear about that again. She doesn't see why it should bother him so much, she'd thought he was running away from something much worse. He shouts that he wasn't running away, he was escaping...from hypocrits like her who have to get drunk to let themselves go. "If you'd start letting men wear their own pants, maybe they'd feel they could touch you without asking 'Permesso'," he shouts. Catherine slaps his face, crisply. He thinks about it...and slaps her back, not hard, but with sincerity. She isn't hurt, physically, but her face crumples into tears, and she runs off the boat. Walter watches her go with the beginnings of shame on his face.Later, as the girls are sitting down to dinner, Walter arrives at the front door. "Look," says Jenny, in wonder, "he's combed his hair." "And he's actually wearing socks," says Christine, awed. He apologizes for interrupting, and says he thought that if they had any extra food, he might... Catherine jumps up to prepare a plate for him. She is wearing the blouse and skirt she wore when they first met. They look at each other shyly, knowingly, and she sits down and passes the plate she has fixed for him down the table."I'm tired of tinned beef," says Anne. "Why can't we ever have fish?" "Professor Eckland was giving me fishing lessons," says Catherine, demurely..."but he never finishes what he starts!" Walter chokes on the bite of food he's just swallowed...the nearest girls all begin to pound on his back, while the others shout advice. In the midst of the confusion, practical little Jenny brings him a bottle of whiskey. He takes off the cap and prepares to have a swig...but Catherine says, "Uh-uh-uh, Mr. Eckland," and he reluctantly, but respectfully, puts the bottle aside. Shuddering a little, he has a sip of coconut milk instead.Suddenly, they hear a plane...very loud and close. A Japanese pilot has spotted the red bandana in the coconut tree, and is flying by it repeatedly, trying to figure it out. Walter runs out of the shack, and watches the plane from behind a palm tree, as it circles around. When it's gone, he immediately calls Frank. But Frank is unimpressed, convinced this is another ruse on Walter's part to get off the island. Angry, Walter stalks out of the shack, knowing that at some point the plane will come back.Later, Catherine comes down to his boat, to talk to him about the girls. She notices that the hole has been patched and he's working on the engine now. The talk turns to their own situation, and raised voices follow as they try to deny they have feelings for each other. Finally, after Catherine calls Walter a drunken escapist, and Walter calls her a frustrated old spinster, Catherine slaps Walter's face again...And, Walter slaps her right back. But instead of running away this time, Catherine gets a very determined look on her face, and slaps him again. Walter pauses, considering what to do next.Stebbings calls to Frank, and tells him that Walter is requesting a chaplain. "Good heavens," Frank exclaims, "he's finally killed her!" "No," declares Stebbings, "they want to get married!" "Married?!?" says Frank, astounded, "Goody Two Shoes and The Filthy Beast?!?"A chaplain is summoned, and a sailor with an accordian. Catherine has put her hair up, and all the girls have dressed in their neat school uniforms. Walter has dressed up again, and even fastened his collar button. Harry removes her necktie and offers it to Walter. "Oh, no thank you, Harry," says Catherine, "neckties don't suit Mr. Eckland," signifying that she's ready to accept him "as is".Frank says he needs to fill out a little paper work on their behalf...they each tell their full name for the record, and each smiles a little at hearing the other's for the first time. Frank asks the name of the maid of honor, Catherine supplies Elizabeth's name, and Elizabeth looks pleased. Frank asks the name of the best man...Walter looks around at the girls, and finally announces, "Harry MacGregor." Harry smiles radiantly.The sailor begins to play "Oh Promise Me" on his accordian, and the chaplain begins to read the text. Just as he asks if there are any objections to the marriage, the angry sound of an airplane engine interrupts them. Walter runs to the door, and looks up...the Japanese fighter plane has returned, and is lining up for a strafing run on the shack. They dive for cover just in time, as bullets rip through the shack. The plane turns around for a second run, and they scurry out to hide in the trees. Walter darts back inside, while the plane turns around for a third run...he interrupts the chaplain who is droning on about Walter taking this woman, and asks for Frank. He tells Frank the plane has returned. Frank is still doubtful, but Walter leaves the mike open so Frank can hear the bullets from the plane's last run, and Frank hurries off to make arrangements to get them all off the island.Catherine runs into the shack to make sure Walter's all right, and the chaplain asks if there's anything he can do. The plane has gone, so Walter tells the chaplain to finish the ceremony. Lying under the table in the ruined shack, and using a bandaid for a ring, Walter and Catherine are pronounced man and wife. Frank breaks in at this point, and tells Walter that an American sub is running submerged a few miles away. When they surface at nightfall, he'll get a radio message to them, and they should be able to make Matalava by dawn. He advises them to stay away from the hut, to sleep on the beach and be ready to signal the sub when it arrives.That night, as Walter and Catherine keep watch over the sleeping girls, she whispers to him, "You'll not be coming with us, will you?" "I can't leave the boat," he replies. "It must be a good one," she says, wistfully. "Good or bad, it's all the dowry you're going to get," he responds. "I'm thinking of starting a charter service, after the war...somewhere around the Solomons or maybe the New Hebrides. There'll be good money for anybody with a boat who knows the islands." Walter, it seems, has plans to rejoin the human race for Catherine's sake.At dawn, they hear the sound of a heavy engine approaching. But as the ship comes into view, they see it's not the promised American submarine, it's a Japanese patrol boat. Walter hurries the girls off the beach, telling Catherine to hide with them at his launch. Trying to distract and delay them, Walter runs up to the shack, and sets it on fire. Two rubber rafts have landed, with a dozen or so armed Japanese sailors. He ducks them as they run toward the shack, and runs down to their rafts on the beach, slashing them with his knife to deflate them.Catherine and the girls are hiding, but come out when he returns to the launch. Catherine points to the transom, where Walter has neatly painted "Catherine", with "Matalava" underneath, and asks when he did that. "Last night while you slept," he says...and adds in a meaningful tone, "There wasn't much else to do." He tells them to get into the dinghy, but to stay hidden in the lagoon. The sub will not surface while the patrol boat is there, but they will be watching, and he will decoy the patrol boat out past the reef where the sub can sink it. As he jumps into the launch, Catherine calls after him to be careful..."I look simply awful in black," she says.On the submarine, just outside the bay, the captain and the mate are taking turns watching the hut burn through the periscope. They see Walter's launch dart out of the lagoon, and watch as the patrol boat comes about to pursue it. The patrol boat is firing on and lobbing shells at the launch...some of the shots come perilously close. The captain watches tensely as both boats approach the reef, and as the launch crosses over it, he orders the torpedos readied. Just as the patrol boat clears the reef, one of its shells hits its mark... and the launch is blown to smithereens. The captain orders the torpedos to be fired, and the patrol boat is itself destroyed. The captain orders the mate to surface and look for survivors...without much hope.Catherine and the girls have piloted the dinghy out into the bay, and they are desperately looking through the wreckage of the launch for Walter. The motor has stalled, and Catherine is frantically trying to get it started again. One of the girls notices Walter's hat floating by, and Catherine sorrowfully reaches out to retrieve it. Suddenly Walter himself swims up to the boat, and they greet him joyously. At the last second, he'd been able to tie off the wheel and jump overboard. "I'm sorry about our boat," Catherine says. "Well, in a war, everybody loses something," he says, philosophically..."I'm just glad it was THAT Catherine." She leans down to kiss him, and he tells her to wait just a moment, and let him get in the dinghy. He puts a leg up over the side, and the boat rocks ominously. The girls squeal, and Catherine protests that he's going to tip them in. "No, no, no," he says, "this will work...all of you get over to that side. Look, will you just do it MY way for once?"In the next scene, the little boat is upside down in the water. Walter, Catherine, and all the girls are sitting on top of it, soaking wet. They all look at Walter accusingly. "Shut up," he says, morosely. The sub commander has been watching, and smiles. "Looks like we're going to be taking on passengers after all," he tells the mate. As the sub approaches, Walter muses, "I wonder if they serve coconut milk on submarines."

Tags: comedy

Review:
He was nicely paired with Leslie Caron, and the two struck an engaging chemistry for these capers.Grant also had the good sense to say farewell to these leading man parts (being aware that he could never become a "character" actor) threw in the towel and moved on to better things, like Fabrege.
Cary Grant and Leslie Caron were very intelligent in this movie: the way they brought out character they played - Mr. Eckland and Madame Freneau.I feel connected with the story.
In Father Goose, Cary Grant played a character, which was quite different from other of his movies such as Indiscreet, That Touch Of Mink, To Catch A Thief, etc.., He was unshaved, uncombed, filthy, untidy, insensitive, and care-free.
Leslie Caron's Catherine Frenau is not as zany as Hepburn's Susan, but still manages to irritate Grant for most of the film until he finally realizes that he is in love with her.
The reluctant recruit is rewarded with a bottle of whiskey (previously hidden somewhere on the island by the Royal Navy) each time one of his reports is confirmed.Walter seems to thrive on this assignment until he has to share his island with a French teacher Catherine Frenau (Leslie Caron) and seven young charges.
"Father Goose" is not my pick for the best Cary Grant flick (I think that's "Operation Petticoat", if you exclude his collaborations with Hitchcock), but it's a pleasant--if a little overlong--movie that works very well as light entertainment.
The usually pleasant Leslie Caron rises to nearly Audrey Hepburn status in his presence.Film historian David Thomson called Cary Grant the finest actor in Hollywood history and Time critic Richard Schickel once called him "a technician of genius".
Father Goose cobbles together elements of The African Queen, The Beachcomber, and the Monty Woolley WWII comedy, The Pied Piper.Cary Grant, as a South Seas wastrel, plays against type.
He was as charming in person as he is on the silver screen.I love Cary Grant's movies and "Father Goose" is by far one of his funniest and most underrated.The first time I saw this movie was December 1965 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, NY, with my parents, brother and sister.We waited 3 1/2 hours in line to get into the theater and my Dad kept running to get hot chocolate for all of us to help keep warm.
It's timeless - Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, the children and the whole cast are excellent!If you want to see a good, fun family film, this is the one to see!.
I had no conception of perfect timing, flawless delivery, or crackling wit, but, luckily, Grant could more than supply my deficiencies.Walter Eckland is, in fact, my patron saint, because he embodies the hope that when I am an old broken-down drunk with a hole in both my boat and my bottle, without a penny to my name (and in fact $200 in hock to Old van Der Hoven), I, too, can get a hot chick like Leslie Caron.
I wanted to watch this movie initially because I am a big fan of Cary Grant, who was an amazing actor and terrific in the majority of what he has done.
It is a Odd Couple- type of set up, but the gags that ensue between these two very different people are not one bit funny, and as a result of Leslie Caron's irritating performance, is a bit painful to watch.It is also a complete drag, a two hour movie that should not have stretched beyond ninety minutes, it never uses the war theme to add any sort of emotional depth and build up characters' relationships, instead going for one lazy gag after another.
In the intervening years, I have come to recognize Cary Grant's immaculate precision as a comic actor, and even playing a grizzled, alcoholic beachcomber like Walter Eckland, he still exudes the sharp wit and crack timing that is his hallmark.
This movie is so silly and unbelievable the comedy seems to be straining and never hits home.Cary Gant and Trevor Howard put in good performances.
Family-oriented comedy with a dash of harmless salt is hardly a step up from the live-action Disney films of this era, with only Cary Grant's ruffled panache holding interest.
The Good One. I think that Cary Grant still had a lot to offer in the 60's (take Charade for example and, most of all, his 1968 movie Walk, Don't Run, which is fantastically funny and smart).
I still don't think that Nort By Northwest is a very good movie, although it's not a bad one, and if I had to scan thru his filmography, I'd take his early movies with Katherine Hepburn (I Was A Male War Bride, Holiday) and the before-mentioned Walk, Don't Run. As for Father Goose, he updates his film role from Operation Petticoat with Tony Curtis and does a very fine job..
With movies like Father Goose, they usually set up a comedic crisis, onto which more and more outlandish crises are stacked.Through it all, Mr. Grant keeps his powder dry.I personally prefer `Operation Petticoat' (directed by Blake Edwards) for boys will be boys' comedy.
But the romanticism of Father Goose (Leslie Caron is great) makes this film play far better to couples.You cannot go wrong with either..
This is a great little comedy deserving of all the praise it has here from other posters.Cary Grant shakes off his usual polished self as the grizzled hard-drinking loner, Walter Ekland, staying out of the war and harms way.
I remember watching it as a child in the 1960's and it still delights me every time it happens to come on t.v. Cary Grant, who was known for playing suave, debonair characters in most of his movies, plays against type as a scruffy, hard drinker who was a professor before he decided to drop out of society and make a living as a boat captain.
Leslie Caron is perfectly cast as the uptight Catherine, headmistress to several young ladies of different nationalities who are dropped on a deserted island during World War II as the Japanese prepare to invade.
Hilarity ensues as Walter (Cary Grant's character) and the girls and headmistress all meet up and try to live together on the island until they are rescued.
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.
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.
His country is fighting the Japanese in a war for survival following Pearl Harbor, but this character just wants to drink and fish--or drink like a fish.Then he meets the Leslie Caron character and the seven little girls in her charge.
(As a side note, I put a copy of this DVD in her casket when she passed away six years ago.) The movie has good clean humor, you never hear a swear word in the movie, even though you know that Walter Eckland swears like a drunk sailor, they use creative ways to get around it by innuendo as well as others.Grant's interaction with the children is great, especially with a young girl who refuses to talk, how he gets her to open up and speak is heart warming, and hilarious the way the child reacts to him.The movie is filled with humor from beginning to end, and regardless of your mood, you will always find yourself laughing at some point in the movie..
In this zany but delightful comedy, the film " Father Goose " takes Cary Grant and nearly replicates his actual persona.
The chemistry between Grant & Leslie Carron makes this one worth watching.The plot & type of humor is aging & wink & hint kind of stuff but is brought off well enough that it is better than the average movie fair being produced in this era.
That allows Walter's friend, Navy Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard) to coerce him to go to one of the islands to watch for and report enemy Japanese ships or planes.
Who doesn't want to watch Cary Grant alone on an island with a schoolteacher and children as they try to avoid the Japanese and mess everyone's life up.My Grade: B+.
He hasn't slowed down in his age (this being his next to last movie), and keeps everything well together, along with his co-star in Leslie Caron, who basically take the ball and run with it, making their story of strange love the forefront to this cute little film.
When the film begins, the British commander (Trevor Howard) deliberately strands an 'American'(!), Walter (Cary Grant), on a small island so that he can be an observer for the navy.
Unfortunately for Walter, this routine is disrupted when he's asked to go on a rescue mission to a nearby island--but when he arrives, he only finds a school teacher and her seven young charges."Father Goose" is an enjoyable family film.
On a South Seas island during WWII, beach bum Cary Grant is paid (in alcohol) by the Allies to watch for Japanese planes and ships.
Grant seems to be having fun in his penultimate film, although he was perhaps too old to be getting romantic with Caron, nearly 30 years his junior.
Not that his last picture, Walk Don't Run, is a stinker, I just feel this particular film leaves a more fitting impression to the great man's comedic ability.Playing against his sophisticated image, Father Goose sees Grant playing a drunken beach bum who is stuck on a South Sea island with Leslie Caron and her seven young lady scholars.
Cary Grant's penultimate film was one I had missed out on countless times on Italian TV: it is a curious blend of romantic comedy and war adventure (winning the Best Screenplay Oscar no less) that proves a surprisingly palatable, if overlong, confection.
As I said, FATHER GOOSE goes through several moods (a battle-of-the-sexes scenario, child interest, thrills, exotic locale) and does so relatively successfully on all fronts: naturally, Grant is always worth watching and the film undeniably very funny in spots and good-looking to boot..
But during World War 2 Royal Australian Navy Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard) pushes Walter to become a watchman on a desolate pacific island so he just searches for Japanese planes.
One day he comes across Catherine Freneau (Leslie Caron) a snobby school teacher and all of her female pupils who inadvertently end up on Walter's island.
During World War II, a man (Cary Grant) persuaded to live on an isolated island and spot aircraft finds himself responsible for a teacher (Leslie Caron) and several students, all daughters of diplomats.Some people complain that there is nothing likable about Catherine (Caron), and they make a very fair argument.
During the start of World War II, Walter Eckland (Cary Grant) buys a boat on cheap to sail around in the south Pacific.
How odd.I now intend to remedy that fact by posting a few as I do believe he was one of the most versatile performers and gifted comedy actors ever to hit our screens.My favourite Cary Grant comedy is 1937's The Awful Truth and it is an amazing tribute to his talent that in Father Goose made 27 years later, he seems to have aged very little and has not lost one iota of the spark or zest that graced his performances throughout the decades.In his penultimate screen appearance, Grant for once plays a character far removed from his immaculately dressed man about town persona as he takes on the role of Walter Eckland a south sea drifter complete with dirty slacks, tennis shoes and beard.
It is only after he agrees to take her off the island to safety that life goes from bad to worse as it appears she is not travelling alone, but with seven schoolgirls.The interplay between Grant,Caron and the kids is hilarious, as the contrast of lifestyles between Walter and his reluctant family is immediately apparent and almost at once they become warring factions.She wastes no time in confiscating and hiding his liquor, evicting him from his house, and commandeering his clothes, his tools, his food and just about everything else she can get her hands on.Walter is more or less banished to his half submerged boat.
Cary Grant was 60 and Leslie Caron was 33 when this film came out in 1964.
This movie gets its title from his code name, Mother Goose, and when he was forced to share his South Pacific island with a teacher (Caron) and her seven little girl students, he became more like a father goose.ssssome SPOILERS, READ FURTHER AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Eventually the kids softened him up, and he softened up the school marm.This is just silly fluff of a movie, the only reason to watch it are Cary Grant and Leslie Caron.
The film was the film comedy FATHER GOOSE, co-starring Leslie Caron as Catherine Freneau (the daughter of a French colonial governor), and Trevor Howard as Commander Frank Houghton of the Royal Navy.
As with the other two pairings they eventually fall in love.But the humor in FATHER GOOSE is Grant's attempts to maintain his control over the island, even while thrown out of his hut by Caron and her charges.
Overall an excellent movie and one of Cary Grants best roles after Arsenic and Old Lace and Philadelphia Story, although most all of his films are eminently watchable..
Father Goose is directed by Ralph Nelson, has a screenplay by Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff and stars Cary Grant, Leslie Caron and Trevor Howard.Cary Grant plays a character here who is far removed from the suave and immaculate characters he played in the 30's and 40's, but is just as lovable.He and Leslie Caron have a wonderful chemistry and he gets to show his comic abilities, the film is an excellent blend of romance and comedy.Father Goose is set during the Second World War, Walter Eckland(Cary Grant)is happily living alone in the Pacific repairing his boat and boozing.
His solitude is shattered when Commander Frank Houghton(Trevor Howard)asks him to stay on one of the islands and radio back any sightings of Japanese air activity.This he agrees to do until his solitude is shattered again by the arrival of young French schoolteacher Catherine Freneau(Leslie Caron)and a group of schoolgirls.
They are stranded on the island and need to get back to the mainland.After a failed attempt to take them to the mainland they must stay with him which causes a lot of friction.As he gets to know her better though Eckland grows to like and even love the bubbly Catherine.He even becomes a surrogate father to the girls.Danger comes in the form of Japanese soldiers, bomb threats and poisonous snakes.Father Goose proves once again why Cary is one of the best and most likable actors ever to grace the screen.He himself said this was one of his favourite films and it's easy to see why.For once he's playing someone very unlike himself and it's such a shame that he didn't get a chance to do more roles like this in his long career..
A romance/comedy in a World War II setting, with a little bit of action to boot.I didn't like the film much at the start.
I know the plot sounds awful -- Cary Grant marooned on an island with Leslie Caron and half a dozen young girls -- but I found this pretty consistently funny.
Of course you can predict just about everything that happens but it's so well written and the cast good enough that it should entertain most people.Grant is a grizzled, irritable, hard-drinking loner in New Guinea at the start of World War II and is finessed by the local Navy Commander, Trevor Howard, into manning a coast watcher station on an isolated island.
Cary Grant's effortless screen charisma was the primary selling point of a 1964 comedy called Father Goose.Grant lights up the screen as Walter, a beachcomber who lives on an isolated south seas island who has been recruited by the military to spot enemy aircraft during World War II, where he is allowed to pretty much live like a hermit and drink to his heart's content who finds his quiet existence disrupted by the arrival of a teacher (Leslie Caron) and seven young girls who have become shipwrecked on the same island as Walter.Peter Stone's screenplay, which seems to have been tailored to Grant's comic sensibilities, actually won an Academy Award, but it's not just the screenplay that works here, but the offbeat choice of character for Grant as well.
Now it's being offered on blu ray in a great version from Olive Films.The story revolves around Walter (Cary Grant), a loner who's left the world behind to live off his wits in the south pacific.
Taking them with him back to his island the film becomes a comedy of wills as the teacher Catherine (Leslie Caron) sets about taking over the place until help can rescue her and the girls.With the Japanese in the area the best the allies can promise is a rescue in a week.
It is a treat for those who remember movies like this and who want to enjoy yet another Cary Grant classic..
Trevor Howard is enjoyable in a supporting role as a military commander, though again, this is far from his best work.If you want depth in a World War II film, you'll be disappointed.