Trouble Along the Way (1953)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

. . . 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.

Westerns have never been a favourite genre of mine unless one is really exceptional or unique. So it should come as no surprise what ends up becoming my favourite John Wayne movie was his foray into Cary Grant-esque style comedy, something much more up my alley. The Duke isn't a favourite actor of mine yet I've always found to be strangely charismatic and engaging; although coming from Ireland, John Wayne is the one classic actor most people have not only heard off but have seen a movie from. Trouble Along The Way shows he was capable of a larger range than he's given credit for although judging from the movie's success audiences much preferred seeing him doing his usual stick of westerns and war movies. It's apparent the studio must have put a lot into this movie hoping for it to be a big success, employing a top director and top cast, plus it feels like this role was written for Wayne. Despite the film being a chance of pace for him, the role still feels like a very John Wayne character; very American, very macho and very much an individualist. The movie's plot revolves around two things I'm not a fan off, sports and religion. I am informed the subplot involving the economics of college football (not to be confused with the sport of soccer, which in Europe is also called football, go figure) is more relevant today in a world where the financing of college athletics has gone out of control than it was in 1953. As for religion, although I am an atheist and staunchly anti-religious I can still enjoy movies about religion. Trouble Along The Way manages to express religious themes but never feels like I'm being preached towards. The movie even takes advantage of its religious based plot with some great religious jokes ("Couldn't have booked one protestant school for a breather").Charles Coburn's role as Father Burke is an archetypal representation of Catholic clergy in old Hollywood films as an entirely trustworthy figure of respect such as Spencer Tracy in Boy's Town and Pat O'Brien in Angels With Dirty Faces. This being an attempt to appease the legion of decency; have a film condemned by the legion and you lose out on box office intake. I've always found this representation of clergy in classic Hollywood films fascinating as it provides a complete contrast to the media reports of today of priests molesting young boys. Trouble Along The Way provides Coburn with one of his best roles and a showcase as to why he's one of Hollywood's finest character actors.You can believe Wayne's daughter played by Sherry Jackson really would be the daughter of a John Wayne character. Most movie kids get on my nerves, so whenever one does manage to impress me I have to give a special shout out. I just wish Donna Reed could have had more screen time. In fact my reason for watching this film was my enjoying of the other Wayne-Reed pairing They Were Expendable. Her character could easily have been a real "love to hate" role as a heartless social worker but brings sympathy to the role partially due to the character's surprising back story.The other thing I must address which makes me wonder if John Wayne had much input into the film's production is the speech Charles Coburn gives at the end of the film in which he discusses Steve's unethical practices when assembling a football team in which Coburn states "He did it in his way, perhaps the only way". Accompany this with the statement Steve makes when he's been caught out that "I don't regret what I did" makes me ask the question is this in any way referencing (and possibly defending) Wayne's then recent involvement in the Hollywood Blacklist, or am I just looking into it too much?From the outset I was expecting Trouble Along The Way to be some light, enjoyable fare; but to my surprise it proved to be a film with deep and complex story and characters. At nearly two hours it may seem lengthy for a comedy but the length is justified as there is so much going in the plot but never feels overbearing. The film is brave enough to leave questions unanswered. It's not a depressing ending but unlike other light-hearted Hollywood films of the time it doesn't wrap everything in a neat bow. At the end of film the main characters have to learn to let go of something important in their lives. It's disheartening seeing Sherry being taken away from her loving father to live with her mother and having to drop her tomboyish lifestyle in order to be integrate with other kids her age, but I guess the movie is just telling us that life is tough and you don't always get what you want.

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.

This is a light hearted uplifting tale directed by the talented Michael Curtiz. John Wayne plays a divorced man trying to keep custody of his young daughter(Sherry Jackson)and at the same time regain his self- respect by coaching football at a small, money strapped Catholic college.This sentimental yarn has an all star supporting cast that includes: Charles Coburn, Donna Reed, Leif Erickson, Dabbs Greer and Chuck Conners.