Father Goose

Cary Grant is in fine form in this hilarious tale of a washed-up college professor turned alcoholic seaman and his troubles with the upstart, infuriatingly beautiful and annoying French teacher, Leslie Caron.

When Mr. Walter Eckland (Grant) "volunteers" to go to a Pacific Island and become a watcher for Japanese planes (Trevor Howard is the British commander who "convinces" Walter Eckland to take the job), he's only in it for the booze. Whenever he reports in a sighting of Japanese planes and the report is confirmed, he will then be able to find one of his beloved bottles of whiskey.

But things turn complicated fast when Walter is sent to rescue French teacher Catherine Freneau, charmingly played by Leslie Caron, and her group of charges - all girls - when their plane crash-lands on another island.

Eckland's world takes a teetering tumble as the girls invade his house and his life. Constantly bumping heads with Ms. Freneau, Walter has more estrogen surrounding him than he can handle and begs the British commander to get the females off his island. Unfortunately, there's no one available who can come make a rescue attempt, so the two wildly-mismatched adults have to learn to get along until help shows up.

Set during World War II in the Pacific, this isn't so much a war movie as a comedy of errors. But there are moments where the war intrudes - when a Japanese ship sends a patrol on the island to look for turtles so the Japanese captain can have "turtle soup" and Eckland and the girls are nearly discovered; when a Japanese plane spots them and tries to take them all out; and the spectacular ending, when Eckland is pursued by a Japanese gunboat.

Father Goose is a fun, rollicking ride with lots of one-liners and zinging dialogue between Grant and Caron, not to mention hilarious situations that show Caron and Grant at their comedic best.