Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Football coach George Cooper has as many problems managing his football team as he has at home dealing with his daughters, Ellen and Connie.

Director:

John M. Stahl

Writers:

Clifford Goldsmith (story), Aleen Leslie (screenplay),

Stars:

Fred MacMurray, Maureen O'Hara, Betty Lynn

Cast

Cast overview:
Fred MacMurray	...	George Cooper
Maureen O'Hara	...	Elizabeth Cooper
Betty Lynn	...	Connie Cooper
Rudy Vallee	...	Mr. Jessup
Thelma Ritter	...	Geraldine
Natalie Wood	...	Ellen Cooper
Jim Backus	...	Professor Sullivan (as James G. Backus)
Richard Tyler	...	Joe Birch
Buddy Martin	...	Cheerleader
Frank Mills	...	Assistant Football Coach
Mickey McCardle	...	Jones
John McKee	...	Cy
Louise Lorimer	...	Mrs. Jones
Ruth Clifford	...	Neighbor

Storyline

Coach George Copper's college football team is losing game after game, much to the dismay of stiff-and-stuffy but influential alumni Roger Jessup, and also having trouble at home with his oldest daughter, Connie. The team keeps losing and Coach Cooper is about to lose his job as his efforts to win the last game of the season, against the team's Big Rival, end in disaster. But, unknown to he and his wife, Elizabeth, Connie has sold an article, called "I Was a Bubble Dancer" to a 'True-Confession" magazine, and the girl-who-couldn't-get-a-date becomes suddenly popular and, because of her, the high-school football star from another town decides to play his college-ball for Coach Cooper. Jessup is forced to keep Cooper on as the school's football coach.

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Plot Keywords:

losing | football coach | true confession | bubble dancer | alumni | 

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Taglines:

I wanted to live DANGEROUSLY so I married a football coach (who lost every game)

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Genres:

Comedy | Sport

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 December 1949 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Papai Era Um Craque

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 20, 1950 with Maureen O'Hara, Betty Lynn and Jim Backus reprising their film roles.

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Quotes

Elizabeth Cooper: Not going, he a professor, teaches English literature
Ellen Cooper: No, I mean going
George 'Coop' Cooper: Helen, That's ridiculous, go and get clean up
Ellen Cooper: Daphne heard him gurgling on the phone like a worn out wolf about being a freshman in college
Elizabeth Cooper: Oh What an Idea
[looks at George, stunned]
Elizabeth Cooper: George Cooper!
Ellen Cooper: And he was pitching woos to a girl, Daphne thinks maybe she ought to tell her mother
Elizabeth Cooper: George you didn't
George 'Coop' Cooper: Father little helper
[...]

User Reviews

A Underrated Funny Family Movie

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.