Father Was a Fullback

19491949
PassedPassed
1h 24m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

456

YOUR RATING

Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, Betty Lynn, and Fred MacMurray in Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Comedy Sport

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

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

456

YOUR RATING

Director
- John M. Stahl
Writers
- Clifford Goldsmith(story)
- Aleen Leslie(screenplay)
- Casey Robinson(screenplay)
Stars

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Photos16

Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, and Fred MacMurray in Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Betty Lynn and Fred MacMurray in Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Fred MacMurray in Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Maureen O'Hara and Fred MacMurray in Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Maureen O'Hara and Betty Lynn in Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Maureen O'Hara and Natalie Wood in Father Was a Fullback (1949)

Trivia
Maureen O' Hara was only 6 years older than Betty Lynn who played her daughter in the film.

Quotes
Elizabeth Cooper: Not going, he's a professor, teaches English literature
Ellen Cooper: No, I mean going
George 'Coop' Cooper: Ellen, That's ridiculous, go and get cleaned 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's little helper
Elizabeth Cooper: oh you couldn't
George 'Coop' Cooper: But Liz, you said yourself that she needed, my intentions were
Elizabeth Cooper: My poor darling up there with goosebumps about some boy who not even going to happen

Connections
Referenced in Hollywood Hist-o-Rama: Fred MacMurray (1961)

User reviews12

Review

Featured review

5/10

Pleasant Family Comedy, Just Before TV -- Which It Resembles

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.

helpful•4