Father Was A Fullback (1949)

A football coach (Fred MacMurray) at a small local college is in danger of losing his job because of the disastrous team losses. Meanwhile, on the home front he must deal with family issues including a teenage daughter (Betty Lynn, THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW) with an inferiority complex when it comes to the male sex. The title is a misnomer, the film isn't really about football at all. It's the kind of domestic comedy churned out with regularity by Hollywood until TV sitcoms like FATHER KNOWS BEST and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER took the genre over. As such, it's surprisingly amusing and well done. MacMurray is quite amiable in what looks like a run through for the countless Disney roles he would do in the 60s as well as his own TV sitcom, MY THREE SONS. Similarly, Maureen O'Hara (only 29 here but already playing the mother of a grown daughter) is doing the kind of age appropriate roles she would take on in the early 60s like THE PARENT TRAP and MR. HOBBS TAKES A VACATION. Directed by John M. Stahl (LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN). With Thelma Ritter as the requisite wisecracking family maid, Natalie Wood (adorable as the younger precocious daughter), Jim Backus, Rudy Vallee and Richard Tyler.