Trouble Along the Way (1953)

. . . HONDO for SHANE and RIO BRAVO for HIGH NOON, John Wayne horns in on GOING MY WAY and THE BELLS OF ST. MARY territory with his TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY. Wayne's "Steve" not only runs the risk of being the fall guy for the closing of a Catholic college here, but he's also in danger of losing custody of his only child (11-year-old daughter "Carol") because their home is a pig sty, he enables Carol's chronic truancy, and he regularly exposes his daughter to his second-hand smoke. (SPOILERS ALERT:) The fact that Steve does not have custody of Carol as this flick closes implies that there will be less TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY in his future. Throughout his film career, Wayne seemed more comfortable playing the "funny uncle" than an actual doting dad. His avuncular "Ethan" in THE SEARCHERS would try to shoot niece Natalie Wood several times (and succeeded in scalping her husband). As the title character in DONOVAN'S REEF, he "adopts" a war buddy's three kids--but just for a few days. This sort of "Funsies" ownership of children is taken to a sorry extreme by Wayne's rancher character in THE COWBOYS, who presses about a dozen young boys into virtual slave labor, says they're "ALL MY SONS," and gets one of them killed! Since TROUBLE's Carol already is 11-years-old, her silver lining is that she'll be out of the Child Welfare System in less than seven years.

A bankrupt Catholic college hires struggling football coach Steve Williams (John Wayne) to help turn things around but he uses methods that are frowned upon. Meanwhile, Steve is going through a nasty custody battle, so the court sends an uptight social worker (Donna Reed) to assess what kind of father he is. Not surprisingly, the two develop feelings for each other.Wonderful change of pace for John Wayne. He didn't do many movies like this but he's really good in the part. Beautiful Donna Reed is excellent and has nice chemistry with Duke. Great supporting cast includes Charles Coburn, Tom Tully, Leif Erickson, Dabbs Greer, and Marie Windsor. Adorable Sherry Jackson plays Duke's daughter. Fine direction from Michael Curtiz. A sweet, heart-warming, dramatic film with some comic touches. One of the best and most underrated movies Duke did in his long career.

This is a big departure for John Wayne, as this is a sort of family film. No dead Commies, Indians or Western bandits in the film at all. Instead, Wayne plays a college football coach who has a history of doing ANYTHING he needs to do to win. However, this time a small Catholic college has hired him. The school has almost no money and in fact is on the verge of being closed. So, how does Wayne take their horrible program to champions in practically no time? To make all this more complicated, Wayne is involved in a custody dispute with a a vindictive ex-wife who seems to have no maternal instincts whatsoever. Social Worker, Donna Reed, has been sent to investigate Wayne's parenting of his 11 year-old and the Duke handles this intrusion into his life pretty much like you'd expect--he has complete contempt for the process. So, the film is basically Wayne trying to create a winning team AND keep full custody of his daughter.In an interesting idea, the glue that holds this film together is Charles Coburn's character, a kindly Catholic priest who is in charge of the college. He's perfectly suited to the role and he offers a contrast to Wayne and his "win at all costs" notions.Overall, the film is well worth seeing because it is so different and tough to predict. Also, Wayne, Coburn and Reed all work well together--much of this is due to their talents, but the writers also did a nice job as well. However, one problem some might have with the film is that by the end of the film, everything is NOT all wrapped up neatly. Instead, the ball is rolling towards completion, but there are still many unanswered questions, such as will he keep custody and will Wayne and Reed become romantic. I didn't mind this lack of clarity and thought the film was a nice change of pace. Deep? No, but interesting and a good time-passer.

We associate John Wayne with westerns, yet he did play other parts and genres quite well. The overlooked Trouble Along the Way is worthy of a second look. The plot of a single father, who has basically fallen from grace, raising his daughter in an unconventional way, is not new. The twist is when Alice (Donna Reed) the court appointed social worker comes on the scene. She complicates and pretty much messes up Steve's (John Wayne)relationship with his daughter Carol (Terry Jackson). There is some football in its earliest years, a struggling Catholic college, a bitter ex-wife looking for revenge,and most of all there is amazing amount of witty dialog throughout. A fine family film, one of Wayne's best, actually. Terry Jackson shines as his daughter, and it isn't surprising that she went on to play Danny Thomas's daughter in the popular series Make Room for Daddy later on. One would expect a typical, happily-ever-after ending--yet readers get a surprisingly refreshing ending, in that we don't know how it will actually all turn out--kind of like real life. Check this movie out if you are a Duke fan and want to see him without a horse in the scene.