Father Was a Fullback

Maureen O'Hara would have made any man a perfect wife. And she was -- we are talking strictly on screen here -- a good mother too.

This has a little to do with football and mostly to do with the growing pains of an adolescent girl. The actress who plays her did go on to TV. Here she is pretty unappealing. Her younger sister is Natalie Wood. I don't think I ever liked Wood in a movie made when she was an adult but she was a bewitching child actress. She sparkles here.

Fred McMurray does a decent job. Never a favorite of mine, he too had a major career in television.

What drew me to this was Thelma Ritter, always a delight. She plays the family's live-in maid. A lot of movies have maids, usually back-talking ones. Would a football coach at a state college, with a terrible team, have been able to afford what seems such a luxury now? It doesn't seem likely. But her presence is most welcome.

I am so due to watch this film since I really enjoyed it the last time I saw it, which was almost 10 tears ago. I wouldn't think a cornball movie like this, one a lot of people today would think is stupid, would be enjoyable....but it was.

Here's another classic movie in which I enjoyed the corny expressions of the day. Usually I hear those most notably in the early 1930s films but there is lot of it here, too, many of them coming from little Natalie Wood.

Betty Lynn, playing older sister "Connie" to young "Ellen" (Wood), also is good in her kooky role. Fred MacMurray and Maureen O'Hara play the parents, "George and Elizabeth Cooper." This really isn't a football story, despite the title. It's a screwball family-type comedy, many of which I never cared for me, but this has good charm and humor. MacMurray is his normal likable self, as when he played in the early Disney films such as "The Absent Minded Professor."

Since MacMurray plays a football coach, there is some gridiron storyline in here, and it's unique because of the different-kind of ending regarding his team.

This movie has a neat twist at the end of it, too. Not well-known, I suspect, this is a true "sleeper," a fun family movie another era long gone.

A college football coach goes through his roughest season both on the field and off in this light comedy. Fred MacMurray plays the kindly coach who has lost touch with his oldest daughter, Betty Lynn, and lost favor with the head of the alumni, Rudy Vallee. His wife, Maureen O'Hara playing much older than her actual age of 29 at the time, stands by his side as he stumbles through the rough times. Jim Backus is fun as their next-door neighbor, and Thelma Ritter adds some punch as their maid who always has money on the team that MacMurray's school is playing. Lynn is good as the teen caught up in angst and a young Natalie Wood plays his precocious youngest daughter very nicely. Overall, it's an amiable film, but underwhelming.

Maltin's movie guide gives this TCF production two-and-half stars which means some staff member didn't wake up in time to turn on the TV. Because this is a sparkling little comedy with inventive lines, lively performances, and first-rate direction. (For example, note director John M. Stahl's clever touch with the love-seat cushion.) Of course, the family-- right out of Wholesome Living, 1940's Style-- is both dated and idealized.

Nonetheless,, the plot hasn't dated at all. Mac Murray's a harried football coach about to lose his job because of a losing season, at the same time his oldest daughter is trying to survive adolescence. The comedy grows out of his sputtering attempts to cope. Four outstanding screenwriters are credited with the chuckle-a-minute script which surprises me. I would think such a concentration as this would cancel out, but happily, it doesn't

Of course, Natalie Wood steals the show as the wise-cracking little sister. Was there ever a child actor more gifted and without annoying affect than she. (Her wrenching performance in The Green Promise {1949} remains an unsurpassed classic.) Wide-eyed Betty Lynn too is outstanding as the angst-ridden, dateless teenager. And, of course, there's the incomparable Thelma Ritter perfecting her stock-in-trade as a mordant housekeeper never stuck for a fractured comment. As good as Mac Murray, Sullivan, and the old pro's are, it's really this supporting cast that makes the movie scintillate.

I expect a programmer like this passed quickly onto the shelves, without appreciation of the minor gem that it is. I'm glad there's an internet opportunity for circulating the recognition these entertainment efforts deserve-- even though the Coopers' are now a long way from the typical American family. And shame on you, Leonard Maltin. Next time, set your alarm.

"Father Was a Fullback" is loaded with talented actors of the mid-20th century. The story is a good look at the culture of the time from a few points. Teenagers began to be more heard and families seemed to be conflicted over the changing relationships that emerged in the years after the war (WW II). College football had a completely different look from the sideline benches, with the alumni, and in other ways.

This isn't about anything heavy or startling, and modern audiences may not find it that interesting. Even for someone who lived - that long ago, the plot of this film is just so-so. The best thing about it is the cast. Fred MacMurray and Maureen O'Hara, as George and Elizabeth Cooper, were stars who would continue in that lofty realm for at least two more decades. But this film also has some supporting players who would become household names in the years ahead. Among these are Thelma Ritter as Geraldine and Jim Backus as "Sully" (Professor Sullivan). And, this is just the 11th film of 11-year-old Natalie Wood. She would be one of the few child stars to become a major star as an adult before her mysterious ocean drowning in 1981 at age 43.

There may have been a clever thought behind the title, but it escapes one today. Cooper is a college football coach who's in dire need of a fullback. The film may seem very slow to many. But, for those interested in what life was like back then, it should provide mild entertainment.