Overlooked Movies: Father Goose

Leslie Caron and Cary Grant.  That should be enough right there to get you to watch this movie.  Grant plays against type as a scruffy, drunken beach bum during WWII, the Big One.  He's stranded on an uninhabitaed island by Trevor Howard, who's put him there to watch for Japanese planes and given him the code name of Mother Goose.  Howard puts a hole in Grant's boat to be sure he stays there.  There's whiskey, though, so Grant's not entirely unhappy.  

Still, he's grateful for the chance to pick up his replacement, and he takes off in a dinghy to a neighboring island to pick the guy up.  When he arrives at the island, he finds that the replacement has been killed and that Leslie Caron is there.  Would you be disappointed?  Well, Grant is, but he finally agrees to take Caron with him to his own island. That's when she springs something else on him: seven little girls.  It takes more persuasion, but Grant gives in.

It turns out that Caron is a neat and tidy person, very much opposed to scruffy old guys who don't clean up their dwellings or their persons. Grant's kicked out of his house and his whiskey is confiscated.  He and Caron start insulting each other at every opportunity.

Need I say more?  You can guess what happens, I know, but not how it happens.  Besides, the trip to the ending is what matters, and it's a lot of fun.  Or it was for me.  Sure, it's sentimental, but it's also very funny.  Grant is a great comedic actor (and so, it turns out, is Trevor Howard), and Leslie Caron is wonderful.  If you need cheering up, this is one to watch.