Smooth Sailor

Father Goose. The man looks as seamy as an old sea bag. His chin sprouts a day's growth of stubble. Tattered shirttails flap outside his trousers, and he tops the ensemble with either a disreputable yachting cap or a sweat-stained fedora. Coltish Leslie Caron sums him up succinctly as "a rude, foulmouthed, drunken, filthy beast."

The filthy beast is Gary Grant, somewhat whimsically cast as a Pacific island beach bum. World War II has begun, and Grant greets it with the disdain he might ordinarily show for a stale canape. Nevertheless, Australian Navy Commander Trevor Howard tricks him into a position as a plane spotter (code designation: Mother Goose) on a remote islet near New Guinea. Soon he has to rescue Caron and her seven giggling schoolgirl charges, who have fled the French consulate school at Rabaul.

After a promising beginning, Father Goose hits the shoals and settles down as a slick but superficial imitation of The African Queen. Its darling juveniles strain their precocity to freshen up the familiar fireworks between a proper young lady and an improper gent. The war itself looks like one of the livelier attractions at Disneyland. Grant and Caron endure pretty little hardships, finally try to get married by a chaplain over short-wave radio during a Japanese strafing attack.

The film's main interest lies in the novelty of a grubby Grant. He is miscast as a Bogart, but he makes a sprightly stab at crudity. When his dinghy starts to capsize with a full cargo of sweet young things, one tiny mutineer bites him, and he throws a capful of water in her face. When Caron slaps him, he lets her have it too. When Trevor Howard informs him that the island has a hidden treasure-trove of good Scotch whisky, Grant starts pawing the turf like Pavlov's dog. His engaging brand of rough-house finally proves a point that was never seriously in doubt in the first place. Scrub the style and polish off Cary Grant, and what do you find? The real polish underneath.

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