For a guy who was very much a part of the University of Southern California football team, John Wayne did not do too many films involving sports. In one film College Coach if you look fast you can see the Duke in a film called College Coach that starred Pat O'Brien and Dick Powell.
The usual problems of college athletics are here, problems we make for ourselves with this foolish definition of amateur and professional athlete. Trouble Along the Way also adds to the mix some of Wayne's domestic problems. He's a single parent raising a young girl in not the greatest atmosphere in the world. He's got an ex-wife, Marie Windsor who wants custody now, and a social worker, Donna Reed who has trouble keeping her personal and professional lives separate.
As in They Were Expendable, Wayne and Reed, have good chemistry. But Wayne's scenes with little Sherry Jackson are something special. They avoid the usual sentimentality, but you will react to them.
Charles Coburn plays the father/rector of small Catholic college St. Anthony's which is on it's financial uppers. He gets the idea that a standout football team as a gate attraction will bring his college out of debt. He hires Wayne, a down on his luck football coach to achieve that end. Wayne does it in the tried and true way that schools always do. It gives Coburn an ethical problem.
Films from as far back as College Coach to the fine James Caan film, The Program have dealt with these issues. Twenty years from now, other films will do the same.
But this is a nice family picture for John Wayne. He gets to go back to one of his first loves and probably the Duke was happy to be in modern dress for a change.
James Dean is supposed to be one of the students. See if you can spot him.
