Moderately interesting sitcom, includes some top-rated players........Poor Coach Cooper(Fred MacMurray). His State College football team can't seem to buy a win this season. In fact, they have been shutout in every game except one. Even their final game, against Tulane, is a disappointment, as Cooper's ballyhooed secret weapon, a star track runner, meant to outrun the opposition for a TD, fizzles when he knocks himself out, hitting his head on the board above the entrance to the dugout, where he has been kept.......Unlike statements by some reviewers, this is neither Cooper's first year as coach at State College nor is it typical of his coaching record there. In fact, just 2 years ago, he coached the team to its first ever undefeated season! So, has the old boy lost his magic, or has recruitment been subpar recently? Coach Cooper claims the latter, and unfairly blames The Alumni Association, first in the person of the president(Rudy Valley, as Mr. Jessup), then the whole organization ,in an after-dinner speech at the annual meeting........ Irony of ironies, Cooper is handed a guarantee of signing the most coveted high school player in the nation, in local high schooler Hercules Smith(Richard Tyler), who has begun dating Cooper's troubled daughter :Connie(Betty Lynn), and wants to enroll where she will, right at State College. The 2 had met previously, when Connie complained she was a flop with boys. Cooper had his neighbor, Professor Sullivan(Jim Backus) call up Connie, pretending to be a boy, Joe Birch, who wanted to date her. Then, Sullivan had to find a real boy, to act as Joe Birch. He bribed the gas jockey to play the part, not knowing that he was Hercules Smith!(and neither does the audience). Well, this deception becomes a disaster when, after Hercules gets things started in the Cooper's house, several more supposed Joe Birches show up, championed by different people. Surprisingly, the original Joe Birch again showed up at the Cooper's home just before the game with Tulane. wanting to see Connie, and take her to the game. He had read her recent magazine article "I was a Child Bubble-dancer" and was impressed(hmm. A likely reason!). In fact, seems Connie is now said to be the most popular girl in town, because of this article! At first, rejected by the family, Connie eventually accepts, still not knowing that he is a football standout. When they return, Connie introduces him as Hercules Smith, and Coach Cooper is ecstatic......... 11y.o. Natalie Wood plays Connie's kid sister, who is just beginning to take on teen interests at the end.. She serves as a fun diversion, and ends the film as a new version of the former insecure, boy crazy, Connie, to her parent's exasperation.........Thelma Ritter is, surprise, the Cooper's live-in maid, who occasionally puts in her 2 cents worth. Maureen O'Hara plays Mrs. Cooper, who voices her opinion on matters relating to Connie. Really, she's wasted here. MacMurray seems a tad on the laconic side in his coaching persona during a game.
Review of Father Was a Fullback
