Father Goose (1964)

Set during WWII, an American beachcomber (Cary Grant) is coerced by a Commander (Trevor Howard) in the Royal Australian Navy into becoming a coast watcher for enemy aircraft on a small island. Things get complicated when he rescues a Frenchwoman (Leslie Caron) and seven schoolgirls from a Japanese held island. Based on the short story A PLACE FOR DRAGONS by Sanford Barnett and directed by Ralph Nelson (LILIES OF THE FIELD). Who wants to see Cary Grant (the most elegant of screen actors) as an unshaven booze guzzling misanthrope? That's a rhetorical question! Obviously a lot of people because the movie was a big hit and won an Oscar for its screenplay. Which puts me in the minority. I found the movie too cute for words (that's not meant as compliment) and by the numbers and I didn't enjoy watching an unkempt Grant. Still, he is Cary Grant and Leslie Caron makes for a lovely foil for his antagonism so it's not difficult to sit through. If Fred MacMurray (more appropriately cast than Grant) and Vera Miles had played the leads, it would fit in perfectly with those live action Disney family comedies.