Un homme pas comme les autres

This is one John Wayne movie with which I was not familiar and with which his biography barely deals. While often stock & predictable, it is truly a heart-warming movie which nevertheless contains a rather frank expose and indictment of the "professionalism" present in college football. When one considers that when the movie was made, college football was MUCH bigger than professional football, it is amazing that the movie is so realistic in this regard.

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.

One of the unknown minor masterpieces of Curtiz, and a very fine, well modulated performance by John Wayne.Its probably the best-and the frankest-film about college football ever put on the screen.Its rich in human interest and well acted by all the principals.

I checked this out during a recent John Wayne retrospective on American Movie Classics because it sounded so different from the Duke's usual "w/w" fare (war & westerns). Here he plays Steve Williams, a disgraced professional football coach enlisted to build a revenue-producing team that will save a down-at-the-heels Catholic college from being forced to close. In the process he has to fight for custody of his daughter from a spiteful and vengeful ex-wife.

Wayne plays this role beautifully; his performance makes us aware of the fine actor he made of himself as he worked his way up over the years from those low-budget westerns, learning all along the way. Donna Reed puts in a turn as a social worker, and Charles Coburn is in his usual fine fettle as Father Burke, rector of the failing college. Wayne/William's daughter is played very well by a young lady named Sherry Jackson, and there are many familiar faces among the character actors in the cast. Chuck Connors makes one of his earliest screen appearances here.

The pacing is good, and the story keeps us involved. These are all interesting people, and we want to find out what happens to them. The script is intelligent, gritty, and extremely witty in many places. Also notable is a very on-the-money portrayal of the corrupting influence of big-time athletics at the college level, as Wayne/Williams pulls many shady tricks to field a team that can stand up to the ridiculously ambitious schedule that Father Burke manages to finagle. The commentary is even more relevant today, fifty years later, as college athletics have spun almost completely out of control.

One of the nicest things about the movie is the way in which, surprisingly, it does not opt for the easy-way-out happy ending that we all think we see coming as soon as Donna Reed as the social worker comes on the scene. The film is brave enough to leave things a bit unresolved.

Altogether an off-beat, intriguing, well-made, well-written, well-acted and thoroughly enjoyable little "sleeper" that is well worth your while.

An enjoyable little film. What was surprising was how funny John Wayne is here. I am not a big fan of his films but I wish he had more films like these out of his cop/cowboy/soldier stereotypes. Perhaps because he was a football player he was comfortable in the role of football