The Second World War rages across the Pacific, as Commander Houghton (Trevor Howard) does his best to protect his Allied forces during the Japanese invasion. He employs a number of lookouts on a variety of the surrounding islands, to alert the army to the movement of the Japanese military by watching for enemy planes. He is currently struggling to find enough people to take on the job, which means the serendipitous arrival of Walter Eckland (Cary Grant) is quite opportune to his intentions. Walter is a raggedy bon vivant, who has been living his best years on a small boat, sailing around the Pacific Ocean and visiting their various islands, looking for enough treasure to keep his self-indulgent habits satiated. However, he’s very gently coerced into taking the position as one of the lookouts on a small tropical island, which is void of any life other than a few animals that baulk at the sight of any human activity. Faced with no other choice, Walter takes on the job – but suddenly finds himself in the presence of a boisterous teacher named Catherine (Leslie Caron), and her responsibility – eight young pupils who she was entrusted with before they were stranded on a neighbouring island. With rescue not possible for months, they need to all learn to get along and live together – but through the combination of Walter’s crotchety misanthropy, Catherine’s strict insistence of decorum, and the girls’ mischievous nature, their stay is going to be anything but easy, with the group constantly clashing, particularly when it comes to undermining the authority of a man who both doesn’t want to be in charge, but refuses to let go of the little power he has. Hilarity ensues, particularly when it becomes clear that there is a spark between Walter and Catherine, with their monumental differences in personality proving that on occasion, opposites do indeed attract.

There are a few reasons to see Father Goose, the outrageously funny World War II-based romantic comedy (three words that don’t normally appear together all that often). The first is that it was the penultimate acting appearance by the legendary Cary Grant, who was soon going to hang up his status as one of the greatest performers in the history of Hollywood in exchange for the responsibility of becoming a father (something echoed quite heavily in this film). Another reason is that it is a hilariously twisted comedy of manners, a slight but effective glimpse into the trials and tribulations of a set of eccentric characters caught in a perilous situation with absolutely no way out. Finally, perhaps the most significant reason for seeing Father Goose is also the most simple: this film is an absolute delight. Brimming with joy from beginning to end, this is one of the most entertaining films of its era, a very simple but wonderfully buoyant piece of comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, while still being daring enough to go to great lengths to be as endearing as it possibly can, overcoming many of the challenges a less-organized film may encounter while attempting to be insightful about more dire issues. Normally reserved as a trivial footnote in commenting on the final years of Grant’s career, Father Goose deserves so much more. Not a particularly serious affair by any means, it is nonetheless exactly the kind of crowd-pleasing comedy that has the perfect blend of humour and depth to justify its existence. It isn’t a major work, but it’s also not one that should be underestimated in any way – instead, it’s a comic gem that is ripe for rediscovery, a well-meaning comedy that is as sincere as it is outrageously funny, which makes it one of the more enjoyable films made on the subject of the most harrowing period in recent history.

Laughter, when exercised in restraint, is an incredible way to comment on more serious issues, especially when it comes to something as daunting as looking at war, in whatever form. This seemed to be the approach taken by Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff in putting together Father Goose,w which was in turn helmed by Ralph Nelson, who was the embodiment of a “director for hire” for much of his career but still managed to put together a few gems, such as the wonderful Lilies of the Field and the present film. Precisely what makes Father Goose work so well isn’t entirely clear from the outset – ultimately, it could be seen as a derivative piece of comedy that extracts various fragments of more successful films, strips them of their more potent satire, and jumbles them up into a series of misadventures, which are siphoned through the interactions between a charismatic acting legend and a young but fascinating actress who had already made a name for herself in the industry. What pushes Father Goose over the edge and turns it into something far more than the sum of its parts is the heartfulness with which it is executed. This is not a film designed to convey any particular meaning, and the satirical roots that would normally come with such a story, whereby comedy is used as a means to provide some scathing indictment on wartime antics, are removed in favour of something slightly more conventional, but nonetheless enduring in its own minor way. It has been relatively forgotten outside of its status as one of Grant’s final performances, but yet deserves another reevaluation, not only because it is as charming as a comedy can be, it also has an authenticity underpinning it, a rousing call to momentarily forget reality and just embrace the inherent joie de vivre that is sometimes difficult to find in a time like this (both in the era depicted, and the actual socio-political context in which this film was made – the Cold War was at its apex at the time). Whichever way you intend to look at it, as a product of its time or as the kind of charming comedy that doesn’t quite exist anymore, Father Goose is a truly wonderful film in numerous ways.

Ultimately, Father Goose really begins and ends with Grant’s performance, with much of what makes it memorable being the result of his charming work. The role of Walter required Grant to play somewhat against type – the epitome of debonair sophistication for the majority of his career, Grant abandons these preconceived notions to play a man who is perhaps the antithesis of the kind of character he played for the entirety of his career. A vulgar, angry curmudgeon who yearns for the bottle more than he does the embrace of another person, Grant sells every aspect of the character. What makes it even better is that he is clearly having fun with the role – the part is brimming with quirky characteristics, which require Grant to stretch himself (not that this was ever a problem for him), and adopt a very different set of eccentricities, giving him the chance to come close to being the character actor he claimed he could never be. He’s afforded the chance to be unlikable (within reason), and is able to play a part that simply wasn’t typical for him, with even his most challenging roles depending on his suave, almost ethereal, personality traits. Father Goose is obviously not so much a departure since there’s still a great deal of Grant’s irrepressible charm embedded within the character, but for the most part, he’s giving a very unique performance that plays on a different set of idiosyncracies than we normally saw from him. Caron was recently coming off a string of highly-successful films that played on her own inherent charms, particularly films like An American in Paris and Gigi, where her stark talents made her a formidable scene partner for some of the industry’s very best performers. Her chemistry with Grant is off the charts, being able to bounce their very different, but equally compelling, talents off each other, resulting in a pair of wonderfully compelling performances that run the gamut and ground this film, giving it nuance and elegance that may have been lost had such a wonderful pair not occupied the leading roles.

Beyond these small details that make it something worth remembering, Father Goose is a relatively simple affair that doesn’t offer much more than what we’re presented with at the outset. It’s a well-meaning comedy set during wartime, which is not reduced to simple inconveniences (as many comedy films of its kind tended to do), but rather shown as a foreboding, omnipotent threat that always seemed a stone’s throw away from the action, without getting too close to it until the very end, where an enthralling climax proves to only show that this film is able to do action-packed adventure as much as it does absent-minded romance. Built on the effortless charisma of its two stars (and a gaggle of giddy children who are delightful to watch, particularly because the film doesn’t try too hard to make them the focus of the story), and bolstered by a delightfully sumptuous visual scope, which is gorgeous but intimate enough to allow the story to flourish. The film may not make any particularly bold statements, and it does tend to become somewhat weak, particularly when the initial “fish out of water” plot begins to lose momentum, which occurs concurrently with the erosion of some of the more biting aspects of the story, but it is ultimately an enthralling adventure that wastes no time in establishing a coherent set of quirky ideas, which it executes with good-natured humour and an endless amount of heart. Father Goose is a small film that doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before, but it’s perhaps this very familiarity that allows it to be the relative success it ends up being. In the end, Father Goose is not anything other than a buoyant adventure comedy with two great central performances and a solid premise – it’s not original, but it’s a lot of fun, which is essentially everything this film strove to be, and it delivers on every promise.