The Courtship of Eddies Father (film)

Plot summary

Young Eddie Corbett (Ron Howard) tries his best to be a matchmaker for his widowed father, Tom (Glenn Ford). At first, sexy Dollye Daly (Stella Stevens) seems promising, but she ends up falling in love with and marrying Tom's friend and radio colleague, Norman Jones (Jerry Van Dyke).

Tom becomes attracted to a sophisticated socialite, Rita Behrens (Dina Merrill). They begin considering marriage, but Eddie takes an immediate dislike to Rita and she does not know how to deal with Eddie (nor does she particularly want to learn). In the end, Tom chooses his son over her.

Through all this, the Corbetts are supported by their new housekeeper, Mrs. Livingston (Roberta Sherwood), and by their divorced next-door neighbor, Elizabeth Marten (Shirley Jones). It takes a crisis for Tom to realize what has been under his nose all the time.

Cast

Production

Film rights to the novel were bought by MGM prior to publication for $100,000 in 1961. The Chicago Tribune called the novel "deeply moving, and at the same time, very funny."

Producer Joe Pasternak assigned John Gay to write the script and hired Glenn Ford to star. Shirley Jones accepted her role in part because she did not have to sing.

Roberta Sherwood, a nightclub singer and TV entertainer, made her film debut.

Pasternak says he interviewed hundreds of children to play Eddie but as soon as he talked to Ron Howard "I knew he was right."

The bowling alley sequence was filmed at the now-defunct Paradise Bowl, located at 9116 South Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles (two miles north of LAX).