Cary Grant in Father Goose (1964)

Father Goose lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Ralph Nelson and Universal Pictures delivered the delightful Father Goose to movie theaters in 1964. Cary Grant plays the bewhiskered beachcomber, with Leslie Caron as the prim schoolteacher.

S.H. Barnett’s A Place of Dragons

Father Goose is based on the short story A Place of Dragons by S.H. Barnett. Frank Tarloff and Peter Stone penned the screenplay, with Ralph Nelson (Requiem for a Heavyweight, Lilies of the Field, Soldier in the Rain) in the director’s chair. Cy Coleman created the playful music score with Charles Lang Jr. serving as cinematographer.

The film’s catchy theme song, “Pass Me By,” was written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. Coleman, the young New York composer of such hits as “Witchcraft and “The Best Is Yet to Come,” met Cary Grant and producer Robert Arthur for lunch at the Universal Pictures commissary one day. Grant began singing a few tunes from his old English music hall days, all of which had the same tempo. Coleman liked what he heard, and after studying Grant’s jaunty walk came up with the memorable “Pass Me By.”

Digby Wolfe, a British-Australian comic and singer who later became the head writer on TV’s Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, performed “Pass Me By” in the movie’s soundtrack.

Cary Grant and Leslie Caron Head Father Goose Cast

Cary Grant (Walter Eckland) and Leslie Caron (Catherine Freneau) head the cast. Other players include Trevor Howard (Commander Frank Houghton), Jack Good (Lieutenant Stebbins), Sharyl Locke (Jenny), Pip Sparke (Anne), Verina Greenlaw (Christine), Stephanie Berrington (Elizabeth Anderson), Jennifer Berrington (Harriet MacGregor), Laurelle Felsette (Angelique), Nicole Felsette (Dominique), Alex Finlayson (Dr. Bigrave), Don Spruance (Navigator), Peter Forster (Chaplain), Richard Lupino (Radioman) and Ken Swofford (Helmsman).

Grant had originally wanted his Charade co-star Audrey Hepburn in the role of the French schoolteacher. But when she proved unavailable, he asked a surprised Leslie Caron to take the part.

Father Goose Filmed in Jamaica

Cary Grant began working on Father Goose on April 9, 1964. Changes in the script, mainly executed by Grant, contributed to some hefty postponement costs. As the executive producer, Grant was accountable for these cost overruns, and could be heard complaining, “I’m getting ruined with this.”

Father Goose was filmed on a coconut plantation in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, with cast and crew housed at the local Hilton Hotel. Shooting in Jamaica lasted about four weeks, with an additional eight weeks spent in Hollywood. The ocean-crossing scene in the small dinghy was filmed in a water tank on Universal’s back lot using a wave machine.

By all accounts, Cary Grant got on famously with the kids in the movie. “He was very down to earth…He laughed easily and was very sharp and quick-witted,” recalled Stephanie Berrington McNutt in a 2005 interview.

Father Goose: World War II Movie Comedy

Father Goose opens with Walter Eckland, a filthy, disheveled beachcomber helping himself to fuel and other supplies at a storefront dock run by the Royal Australian Navy in 1942. Commander Frank Houghton is informed of Eckland’s illegal foray, and calls him into his office. Houghton is in dire need of a coastwatcher, someone familiar with the local islands who can report on Japanese air and sea movements.

After an Australian gunboat “accidentally” rams his motor launch, rendering it inoperable, a reluctant Eckland accepts Commander Houghton’s offer. Towed by the Austalian Navy to his new home on a remote island, Eckland is forced to perform his coastwatching duties in exchange for hidden bottles of Black & White scotch.

When Eckland investigates the status of one of his fellow coastwatchers on an island some 40 miles away, he discovers a stranded French schoolteacher and her seven young female pupils. He ferries the teacher and her charges to his island where a battle of the sexes takes place. Also complicating matters are Japanese forces, who are threatening a rescue mission by an American submarine to pluck them off the island.

Father Goose Opens in New York City

Father Goose opened at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on December 10, 1964.

“Cary Grant comes up with an about-face change of character in this World War II comedy…Grant 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,” reported Variety (11/18/64).

“It is Mr. Grant’s blustering and bristling in his filthy old clothes and a scraggly beard, rising in righteous indignation and shooting barbed shafts of manly wit that make for the major personality and most pungent humor in the film,” observed Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (12/11/64).

Father Goose Box Office, Trivia, Oscar Nominations, DVD

• Father Goose grossed $12.5 million at the American box office.
• Oscar nominations: Best Story and Screenplay (won), Best Film Editing (Ted J. Kent), Best Sound (Waldon O. Watson).
• When accepting his Oscar on April 5, 1965, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, writer Peter Stone told the audience, “My thanks to Cary Grant, who keeps winning these things for other people.”
• Before filming Father Goose, Cary Grant had spent some time preparing for the role of the aging poker player in The Cincinnati Kid (1965). When he lost interest in the part, which went to Edward G. Robinson, he acquired the Father Goose script for his own Granox Productions.
• Radio code names in the picture: Walter Eckland is Mother Goose, Commander Houghton is Big Bad Wolf, Lieutenant Stebbins is Little Bo Beep and navy headquarters is Briar Patch.
• Peggy Lee, who made “Pass Me By” a big hit in 1965, gave a party in the penthouse of her Tower Grove apartment in Los Angeles one evening. She blasted the Father Goose theme song from her big sound system, whereby guest Cary Grant led about 35 people in an impromptu parade through the lobby.
• Now hear this! Stock footage featuring a torpedo firing was lifted from the 1959 Cary Grant/Tony Curtis film Operation Petticoat.
• The production company for A High Wind in Jamaica (1965) arrived in Rio Ochos at the same time Father Goose was wrapping up filming.
• On DVD: Father Goose (Republic, 2001).

“Married? Goody Two-Shoes and the Filthy Beast?” an incredulous Trevor Howard inquires.

That would be Leslie Caron and Cary Grant…