Father Goose (1964)

I hadn't heard of this movie before YouTube suggested it. It turns out to have been Cary Grant's second-to-last work and one of his favorites, not least because he acts more like himself than ever before. (No, the protagonist doesn't do any drugs besides whiskey.)

American civilian sailor Walter Eckland (Grant) swipes Australian naval supplies and openly cares only about himself, so we don't feel too scandalized when Commander Frank Houghton (Trevor Howard) strong-arms him into staying at a Papua New Guinea hut and watching for Japanese planes during World War II. He hears about an eligible replacement he can fetch, but by the time he arrives, the replacement has been killed. All he finds are teacher Catherine Freneau (Leslie Caron) and seven female students of various ages, two of whom speak only French. Reluctantly, Walter takes them to the relative safety of his hut, where Catherine disapproves of his slovenly lifestyle. The navy can't rescue them any time soon, so they'll have to get used to each other.

Nobody actually states the title, but the rationale is clear enough: Walter's call sign is "Mother Goose," which he consistently declines to use on the radio, and he gradually becomes fatherly toward the girls. The film is adapted from the short story A Place of Dragons, which netted an Oscar for S. H. Barnett, but the studio deemed that title misleading for something so lighthearted.

Things don't get quite as wacky as I anticipated. Most of the humor consists of Walter bouncing off someone, whether old acquaintance Frank, the more formal yet uncertain Lieutenant Stebbings (Jack Good), the undisciplined girls, or the uptight Catherine. That last matchup reminds me and others of The African Queen, except that the transition from mutual annoyance to love seems more abrupt. Of course, matters are more serious whenever the Japanese show up.

Could a movie like this be made today? Only to a point. Sixties audiences were more open to seeing a man slap a woman back -- right before they agree to marry, no less. Personally, I was less thrilled with the romance than with the gradual way each romantic lead became more like the other, finding a happy medium. Walter certainly becomes a better man, sometimes exercising more patience with the brats than I picture myself doing.

Father Goose is good enough to remind me what I've been missing since Netflix stopped offering discs. Thanks, YouTube.