Classic Film Friday: The Courtship of Eddie's Father

This is a movie about love and death and a little boy's curiosity about both. Glenn Ford plays Tom, Eddie's (Ron Howard) father. He is going through his wife's death, while trying to bring up his son and meanwhile his son is thinking of how he can make his dad happy. He thinks maybe a girl friend is what he needs. And so, we're off to the races...

Three women present themselves in different ways. There's Dollye Daly (Stella Stevens)who is a sexy red head, Rita Behrens (Dina Merrill) who is a sophisticate and involved in fashion, and finally Elizabeth Marten (Shirley Jones) she lives next door, is divorced, and was friends with Tom's wife.

If I had to pick, I would have went with the sexy red head, but that would have been a completely different movie, so Dollye is quickly married off to Tom's friend Norman Jones (Jerry Van Dyke). So it's really between 2 women. Rita is everything a man could want, dancing, drinking, high times. Elizabeth is a great friend, and is always there. I somewhat went through a battle like this about 10 years ago. Except in my case, I wound up divorced and with neither woman. That's life though, and besides, maybe I had to go through that so that I could find a woman who has it all.

But Tom must make some tough decision, should he put everything on the backburner that he wants to make his son happy, or not? Maybe the woman who has always been there really is the woman he is supposed to be with. You have to watch and find out. :o)