Didn't even know there was a movie before the TV version of The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Hubby & I caught this a couple weekends ago on TV - loved it! Sometimes these old movies are the best things to watch on TV. Amazing how you pay over $100 a month for TV and then find a gem like this because there is nothing else on. Ron Howard is as cute as can be - looked up info later on this movie, can't believe he was 8 years old. Shirley Jones is wonderful in this - I miss these kind of movies. So much crap out there today, fun to find something like this on TV to view! Always love it when the nice girl gets the guy! Thank goodness for TCM and AMC - we are always discovering "new to us" movies out there!

It's certainly charming, but it's also just a tad too sweet. Vincente Minnelli's direction is possibly his glossiest...there's not an inkling of reality allowed to seep in...Glenn Ford's wife dies and he and son Ronny Howard a left at sea trying to make it without a woman in their lives. WHO will they get to take her place? Neighbor Shirley Jones seems an ideal fit as does potential beauty pageant entrant Stella Stevens...not so much fashion maven Dina Merrill. The three leading ladies are all fine, but Ford is just awful...he's way too cold for this material. Howard is just as bad (clearly taking cues from someone off camera) and particularly grating when he's supposed to be distressed (running a fever, melting down after discovering one of his goldfish has died). Ford and Howard are supposed to be emotional zombies, but their acting just clashes with the overall light feel of the rest of the movie. And what genius decided to cast Jerry Van Dyke(!) as Ford's comic foil (a caddish DJ at the radio station Ford works at)? When compared to brother Dick, it's clear that Jerry came from the shallow end of the comic gene pool.

Glenn Ford did two films with director Vincente Minnelli, the incredibly bad sound remake of The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse and this very good family film about a widower and his young son trying to get on with life after the wife and mother has passed away.The Courtship of Eddie's Father in addition to being made into a long running television series with Bill Bixby, Miyoshi Umeki, and Brandon Cruz, still holds up very well after 44 years.What makes the film is the very real chemistry between Glenn Ford and Ron Howard who was on hiatus from the Andy Griffith show to make this film. The Courtship of Eddie's Father is about two very real individuals trying to work through the hurt that's surrounding a very big hole in their lives. Ford plays the manager of a radio station and Jerry Van Dyke has a nice role as Ford's best friend and one of the disc jockeys. Roberta Sherwood has the part of the housekeeper who's trying to learn Spanish, the part that Miyoshi Umeki did for television. As you can imagine it was rewritten somewhat.There are three women interested in Ford at one time or another. Shirley Jones is the best friend of the deceased, living in the apartment across the way. Dina Merrill is the society lady that she is in real life. And Stella Stevens is the beauty queen from Montana who's got some hidden talents. One guess who Ford looks like he'll wind up with in the end. Give you a hint, it's the one Ron Howard wishes it is. After the disaster of The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, Minnelli owed Glenn Ford a good picture and he certainly delivered.

My wife and I watched this film last night on TCM (all hail) and we both enjoyed it. I get so tired of hearing comments about this and other films being "dated". What do you expect? I consider what other people call "dated" as direct links into what society was like at the time the film(s) was(were) written, kind of a celluloid sociology course. Lighten up! A movie that is forty-three years old isn't going to be a modern example of people, places, and things. Sheesh! Anyway, what I'll take from this film is that Ronny Howard WAS the finest child actor in films and television. Consider that, in 1963, at 9 years old, he was already doing the Opie-thing for 3 years. In this film, he acts nothing like Opie, he turns into a whole different child: Eddie Corbitt. The under-used Shirley Jones (big crush) was marvelous again, and Glenn Ford was supremely good at his self-styled "non-acting". Stella Stevens's drum solo scene is an excellent highlight. Also, did anyone recognize Clint Howard as a toddler at Eddie's birthday party scene? Or Rance Howard as a camp counselor?