Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This Michael Curtis directed film is kind of strangely titled. You could call it going out of the way for trouble. It has a lot of good things.The cast is one of those. Wayne is a down and out football coach whose career has had scandal at every step. Sherry Jackson is a delight as his daughter whom he has custody of though mom is taking him to court. Donna Reed is suitably ruthless and vulnerable as the probation officer who is trying to take the daughter.Charles Coburn is the Rector of St Anthony's college which is on a shoe string in financial trouble and in danger of being closed. Coburn is very good in the role as an old rector who maybe should retire. The film pulls at the heart strings and even though the script is a little faulty, the chemistry between the characters in the cast bring it off quite well. I don't think Wayne even throws a punch.

Picture a "Cary Grant" style script but take it from the French Riviera and put it in urban New York! The "Grant" staple of high intrigue, beautiful scenery, and opulent subject matter is replaced with dirty streets, pool parlors, and a crooked football team but the dialogue and pacing are still there. Now throw in John Wayne is the seedy football coach who has been thrown out of the "legitamate" football leagues, Charles Coburn is the desperate head priest of a failing college, and Donna Reed is a tunnel visioned "do-gooder" cop. Reed wants to protect Wayne's daughter Sherry Jackson from his unhealthy influence and is sympathetic to Marie Windsor's (ex-wife from hell) claim that her daughter (Jackson) needs to be with her (even though she had abandoned Jackson as an infant when she ran off with another man). Wayne feels he's done nothing wrong but sees that antagonizing Reed is a mistake and takes the job of head coach at Coburn's St. Anthony's college as "cover" to clean up his image. Wayne realizes that if he wheels and deals under the table he can achieve Coburn's goal of making St. Anthony's a winning team and make a fortune for himself and his cohorts (including Chuck Conners in an early role). Wayne pulls in favors, blackmails everyone who doesn't play along, and deceives his benefactors to get a major schedule and almost succeeds. The conclusion of the film is thoroughly satisfying with Richard Garrick as the judge presiding over the case. Wayne takes over in true streetwise "Grant" style and is hilarious to the point that Reed asks the judge "Can I get a word in?" and Garrick resigns himself to say, "Ask him, I lost control of this trial a long time ago". The opposing attorney makes the comment "I could have been trying a murder case this week" and Garrick says, "Hang in there, you might still be". When Reed is asked by the opposing attorney if she loves Wayne, Wayne jumps up and tells the judge, "Remind the witness she's under oath!" Charles Coburn makes a wonderful speech at the end and reminds us of how good an actor he was. This is not John Ford's movie, this is Michael Curtiz' movie and it makes me wonder how much more Wayne had to offer in this genre (we would get a hint of it in "McLintock" and "North to Alaska"). The supporting cast is superb with the likes of Tom Tully and Dabbs Greer. Everyone does a great job and I place this at the top of my John Wayne list of films. Don't miss it.

Following the triumphant release and run of John Ford's THE QUIET MAN (Argosy Productions/Republic Pictures, 1952), there was a lot more types of roles available to John Wayne. It appears that to the Hollywood Hierarchy, who sort of had 'Duke' pigeon holed or typecast, if you will, John Wayne should be either a Cowboy or a Marine D.I., or something as manly. The concept of having him portraying some "reg'lar feller' or a family guy was just not possible.But then we had THE QUIET MAN, a role that would require the main character to hit all the emotions. It was a Comedy in the classic sense, as in the Shakespearean sense. And yet it had plenty of serious and definitely moments. There are even some superbly melancholy moments that were as big a tear jerker as any.So, anxious to have a John Wayne film, and one that would showcase this now extended emotional range 'Duke'. Warner Brothers came up with this family tear-jerker. It was the stuff that the Critics should like and the Public would love.(The operative here being 'should'!) In a nut shell, former Football Coach-turned Bookie, Steve Williams(John Wayne)has had custody of his daughter, Carol(Sherry Jackson) ever since the break-up of a loveless marriage with his 'ex',Anne Williams McCormick(Marie Windsor). Steve and Carol have a fine relationship, and he loves his daughter more than anything in the world.Now all of a sudden, Steve's home/family situation comes under the scrutiny of the City's Child Welfare Agency. He finds himself right in the cross-hairs of one Miss Anne Singleton(Donna Reed), who has gotten the assignment to either give her imprimatur to their Domestic arrangement, or to vote to chloroform it.At about that same time, Father William Matthew Burke(Charles Coburn), President of small St. Anthony's College is faced with a dilemma. The constraints of this modern, private Education and even m,ore so, the cost, are working to bring St. Anthony's to its end.Never say die, Fr. Burke is constantly in prayer and actively looking for a solution. When he looks into the Holy Bible to find inspiration, he quite by chance stumbles onto a passage that advised the reader to "get fat and kick!" That was enough, the fiery old Priest heads out to find a Coach to organize a squad and establish a Football Program at St. Anthony's.After a less than spectacular meeting, Steve reluctantly accepts the coaching job, it being a case of one hand washing the other. They move into some run down living quarters and Carol starts school at another school.Father Burke and Carol become very close, each learning a lot fro the other. She gets use of a fine private Library(Fr. Burke's)and he learns some of the intricacies of having a successful College Football program, like Scheduling.The complications that follow this in this story are well executed by the Director Michael Curtiz and company, even if some of them may seem to be a little old, tired and even obvious.We do find out just why that the Williams family broke up and why after 10 or 12 years that the New York City Children's Welfare Agency is suddenly so interested in Steve's fitness as a Father with custody.We are left with a sort of open ended conclusion, but heavily leaning toward Carol and Steve's remaining together. That would happen as long as certain things with a certain female went just right! And now, let's salute this fine supporting cast consisting of, but not limited to: Tom Tully, Marie Windsor, Tom Helmore, Dabbs Grear,Leif Ericson, Lester Matthews,Douglas Spencer, Chuck Connors, Frank Ferguson, Murray Alper and even James Dean(would you believe as an uncredited extra!) The film is warm, heart wrenching, very funny and sort of "seedy", to a small degree.And incidentally, St. Anthony is our Catholic Patron Saint of "The Lost!"

I checked this out during a recent John Wayne retrospective on American Movie Classics because it sounded so different from the Duke's usual "w/w" fare (war & westerns). Here he plays Steve Williams, a disgraced professional football coach enlisted to build a revenue-producing team that will save a down-at-the-heels Catholic college from being forced to close. In the process he has to fight for custody of his daughter from a spiteful and vengeful ex-wife. Wayne plays this role beautifully; his performance makes us aware of the fine actor he made of himself as he worked his way up over the years from those low-budget westerns, learning all along the way. Donna Reed puts in a turn as a social worker, and Charles Coburn is in his usual fine fettle as Father Burke, rector of the failing college. Wayne/William's daughter is played very well by a young lady named Sherry Jackson, and there are many familiar faces among the character actors in the cast. Chuck Connors makes one of his earliest screen appearances here.The pacing is good, and the story keeps us involved. These are all interesting people, and we want to find out what happens to them. The script is intelligent, gritty, and extremely witty in many places. Also notable is a very on-the-money portrayal of the corrupting influence of big-time athletics at the college level, as Wayne/Williams pulls many shady tricks to field a team that can stand up to the ridiculously ambitious schedule that Father Burke manages to finagle. The commentary is even more relevant today, fifty years later, as college athletics have spun almost completely out of control.One of the nicest things about the movie is the way in which, surprisingly, it does not opt for the easy-way-out happy ending that we all think we see coming as soon as Donna Reed as the social worker comes on the scene. The film is brave enough to leave things a bit unresolved.Altogether an off-beat, intriguing, well-made, well-written, well-acted and thoroughly enjoyable little "sleeper" that is well worth your while.