FATHER WAS A FULLBACK

DIRECTED BY JOHN M. STHAL
PRODUCED BY FRED KOHLMAR
MUSIC BY CRYIL J. MOCKRIDGE
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

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Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
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.
Written by Les Adams

Full Cast
Fred MacMurray .... George Cooper/"Coop"
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)
Robert Adler .... Grandstand Bit Part (uncredited)
Don Barclay .... Grandstand 'Coach' (uncredited)
Gilbert Barnett .... Stinky Parker (uncredited)
Rodney Bell .... Grandstand 'Coach' (uncredited)
Tom Bernard .... Delivery Boy (uncredited)
Harry Carter .... Grandstand Bit Part (uncredited)
Ruth Clifford .... Neighbor (uncredited)
Heinie Conklin .... Ed (uncredited)
Fred Dale .... Cheerleader (uncredited)
Gwenn Fields .... Daphne (uncredited)
Bess Flowers .... Football Fan (uncredited)
Charles Flynn .... Policeman (uncredited)
Tom Hanlon .... Radio Announcer (uncredited)
Sam Harris .... Alumnus at Dinner (uncredited)
Joe Haworth .... Skip, Reporter in Locker Room (uncredited)
Don Hicks .... Bill (uncredited)
Pat Kane .... Bellnop (uncredited)
Louise Lorimer .... Mrs. Jones (uncredited)
Lee MacGregor .... Cheerleader (uncredited)
Mike Mahoney .... Sailor (uncredited)
Buddy Martin .... Cheerleader (uncredited)
Mickey McCardle .... Jones (uncredited)
John McKee .... Cy (uncredited)
Frank Mills .... Assistant Football Coach (uncredited)
Forbes Murray .... College President (uncredited)
Robert Patten .... Manager (uncredited)
Bill Radovich .... Football Player (uncredited)
William Self .... Willie Davis (uncredited)
Richard Tyler .... Hercules Smith aka Joe Birch (uncredited)
Wilson Wood .... Grandstand 'Coach' (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Clifford Goldsmith
Aleen Leslie
Mary Loos
Casey Robinson
Richard Sale

Cinematography
Lloyd Ahern

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.

"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on November 16, 1950 with Fred MacMurray reprising his film role.

Memorable Quotes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041350/quotes)

Father was a Fullback is a 1949 black-and-white Twentieth Century Fox film
based on a comedy by Clifford Goldsmith.
The film is about a college American football coach and his woes.
The film stars Fred MacMurray, Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, and Betty Lynn.

This film, primarily a vehicle for Fred MacMurray,
with great co-star Maureen
It also featured a young Natalie Wood.

Author: pcronin from Chicago
George Cooper(Fred MacMurray)is the losingest coach State U has ever known. A well meaning square fresh from Elm Tree High, his team has potential but is yet to win a game in this his first season, which will make or break him. Comic relief comes in the form of his family's maid who knows to always bet against his team, and two daughters: Natalie Wood as a scruffy tomboy spouting poetic slang in which I must say is her best role, and Betty Lynn(who in real life is actually only eight years younger than Maureen O'Hara)as an angst-ridden hormonal teen with no writers block nor lack of pubescent imagination when she secretly sends in a unique offing to "True Romance" magazine. Her true calling apparently does not help matters any, except when it turns out that Joe Burch, the ploy her parents use to bring her out of her shell, turns out to be a high school football hero all the colleges have been bartering for. He had been intending to go to the leading team school, but in the end decided State U, "to be near Connie...she's the first thing I liked more than a football...." Hurrah! The team now has an official starting star for next season, and George's coaching contract will be renewed. A Happy End.

Just two years earlier, Maureen O'Hara and Natalie were paired in Miracle on 34th Street. It seems Father was a Fullbackis only available on VHS, but reading your review makes me really want to see it!

Mrs. C :angel1:

This is another movie I really enjoyed. Fred MacMurray was like the Absent-Minded Professor, with his actions. He seem to always be just behind in getting ahead, and Maureen played the devoted wife and discipline mother to perfection. Betty Lynn (Thelma Lou in the Andy Griffin show a.k.a. Barney's girlfriend) was the daughter in crises and little Natalie Wood was the smart mouth baby girl.

This is not a well known movie, but it was delightful. I wish it was on DVD, but I do have it on VHS. Maybe soon it will be.

Cheers :cool:

:wink_smile:

Maureen found the little Natalie Wood in this film without big conceit (according to Maureen) ...

a small video (http://www.archive-host.com/video.php?id=2a590c03243f7c8e52eb39241973815f285f9 5a8.mp4)

Good reading

:wink_smile:

............................... The pictures from the film ..............

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