Father Goose

Cary Grant plays a crusty hermit happily paid in booze to spot enemy planes on a deserted Pacific island during World War II, who soon finds himself stranded with a French schoolteacher, played by Leslie Caron, and a slew of little girls.

Father Goose starts well enough, with Grant playing against type as a somewhat cantankerous beachcomber roped into service in the Pacific. His interactions with Trevor Howard are great fun, and Grant clearly seems to enjoy the role, which he claimed was the closest to his true personality of all his performances.

Unfortunately, Leslie Caron and the brat army soon show up and the film stumbles. Lacking Grant’s innate charisma, Caron and the children fail to generate any sympathy and nearly sink the picture. Caron’s failure highlights just how impressive Grant’s performance is, since on paper, his is a much more unlikable character, yet, on screen, it’s quite the opposite. Interestingly, Grant wanted Audrey Hepburn for Caron’s role, but she had already committed to My Fair Lady, a film Grant had already turned down. Considering their chemistry in the previous year’s Charade, she would have been a better choice.

Fortunately, Father Goose recovers with a solid third act that puts the film squarely on Grant’s shoulders to carry, which he does with ease. Father Goose was Cary Grant’s penultimate film and proof that, even at sixty years of age, he still had star power to spare.