FATHER WAS A FULLBACK

US, 1949, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Fred Mac Murray, Maureen O’ Hara, Natalie Wood, Thelma Ritter, Rudy Vallee, Jim Backus.
Directed by John M. Stahl.

This comedy very clearly has its origins in so much of the material on American television. It has the basic situation comedy material: family, American sports, college problems, family problems, romance. The film also shows the "wholesome" background of such American comedy - although the film has, to quote its own words, sexual innuendo! Fred Mac Murray has been expert at this kind of material over decades and Maureen O' Hara - consider 'Sitting Pretty', 'The 'Miracle on 34th Street' - is also at home in this world. Natalie Wood, aged about ten, shows that she was a very precocious and strong-minded young actress. Thelma Ritter has some good humorous lines.

1. The continued appeal of such domestic comedy from the United States? The themes of Americana?

2. The appeal of the stars, their styles? The forties' presentation of American families, small towns. colleges. sport, romance, values? How did this influence the later television series?

3. The portrait of the American family: domestic happiness with its problems, the ironic humour with the problems? Dad and his work, Mum and her managing the household, the children and their precociousness? The way the family copes? Money problems, solutions?

4. The picture of college, American football?

5. The old alumni and the snobbery, the ambitions for the football team, pressures? As embodied in Mr Jessup?

6. The personalities of George and Liz? Fred Mac Murray and his paternal style? Maureen O' Hara as the charming mother? Their relationship with each other, mutual encouragement, the problems of Connie's dating, the suspected pregnancy etc?

7. Connie as the forties teenager with her adolescent problems, taking herself seriously, the problems of the date, the various Joe Birches arriving, her transition to story writer and the ascetical life, the humour of her story resolving all the problems?

8. Ellen and the precocious young girl - and the satire on the attitudes of the older girl? Geraldine and the wise-cracking servant and her influence in the family? Julie as the benign neighbour, his role in the phone call to Connie and the complications?

10. The humour of the Joe Birch story and the various contenders? The irony of Hercules being the hero? The influence of the story and the phone calls for Connie?

11. The football games, the lack of success, the build-up to the climax and Hercules saving the day? How attractive are the basic American values presented in such films? How have they changed over the decades, remained the same?