Dad's Movies: Father Goose

 And now, it's Father Goose (1964)

I grew up in a pro-Cary Grant home so this movie was on rotation but I'd managed to avoid watching the whole thing until now. 

The whole thing is pretty light with cute interactions between Grant, Caron, and the kids but I wasn't sure I bought the romantic chemistry between Caron and Grant. Sure, there's a huge age difference but this IS Cary Grant we're talking about so if anyone can make that work, it's him. In this case it was kind of lukewarm. The situation (and this is kind of a situation comedy) is fun and I got a kick out of all the back-forth between Grant's character and Trevor Howard's Royal Navy commander. 

The show could have used some tightening up but it gets the job done. This was one of Grant's last films and while this one is fine, it's perhaps a bit of a shame he didn't do something more interesting.  

Dad's Movies: The Fallen Idol

 Today, I get into The Fallen Idol (1948)

One of three classics that Reed made with author Graham Greene at the time, the other two being The Third Man and Odd Man Out. This is the one of the three I hadn't gotten around to watching and while it doesn't loom as large as the others, it's really good.

"Idol" isn't much of a suspense story but more about telling a story about how a child learns about the adult world of secrets, lies, and murky morality. 

The production, dialogue, and cast are all great as I expected with Richardson giving a very nuanced performance. I'm generally of a mind that child actors are overall much better today than the old days but this kid is actually good here. The kid can be annoying, especially in the opening scenes, but he's also playing the part fairly realistically as he's supposed to be a spoiled entitled son of an ambassador. 

There are some future bigger names in British cinema who make appearances here like Jack Hawkins and future Bond director Guy Hamilton is in the credits (he was an assistant director in the industry for some time). 

The score is very good, if a bit on the busy side, and pretty appropriate for the era.

Dad's Movies: Von Ryan's Express

Today, I take on Von Ryan's Express (1965).

A popcorn movie from the 1960s that borrows a stack of entertaining WW2 movie cliche's from "The Great Escape", "Bridge on the River Kwai", and the far superior 1964 movie, "The Train". 

Trevor Howard has little to do but hang out and give a few speeches as it's really Sinatra's show. The rest of the cast does as well as it can with the cardboard characters. Sinatra seems a bit bored and, ahem, frankly too old for the part of an action hero (he was 50 at the time).  It's just assumed that his character inspires the men without the screenplay or acting doing the heavy lifting to bring the audience along for the ride (oops, sorry). 

The effects are decent and there is lots of good looking location work. The show improves once we get to the train heist part of the movie. The score isn't one of Goldsmith's best with a fair amount of jokey musical cues (slide whistles and trombones, anyone?) .

I'm guessing Dad saw this when it came out and got a kick out of it as WW2 entertainment fluff. Deep, it ain't, baby.