It’s Father’s Day again and TCM has a wide selection of movies with the general theme of fatherhood. Enjoy them all. As for me, when I think of great, or bad, fathers in movies, I tend to go with the movies that don’t market themselves as being movies about fatherhood. For instance, last year for Father’s Day I put up this post on Claude Rains as the best dad ever in The Wolf Man. This year I’d like to explore some of the fathers who drift in and out of the movies, or maybe aren’t present at all but through the main character we can perhaps glean something of the father/child relationship.
The first one that comes to mind is the brief appearance by Jim Kane, played by Harry Shannon, in Citizen Kane. He and his wife, played by Agnes Moorehead, came into a large sum of money. Well, actually, just his wife and she has decided it’s best for their son, young Charles, to be raised in high society where he can be well educated and be given all the proper advantages. Jim disagrees but after some initial grumbling, and physical threats, pretty much bows out. And that’s it. We see no more of him nor hear of him. During one quiet moment later with Susan, Kane mentions his mother but his father is a non-entity.
In his one brief scene, Shannon does a great job of giving the audience everything it needs to know about Jim Kane. From his dialogue, where he claims he should get part of the land, now that it’s worth something, we can get all kinds of information on him. He doesn’t do much, we can gather, except gripe and complain and hit people, principally his wife and son. In sending Charles away, he escapes the fate of living with an abusive father but he also loses the opportunity to be raised by a loving, nurturing mother. I imagine during the course of his young life he occasionally visited or was visited by the two of them and I further imagine his father did nothing but grumble about what a lazy rich kid his son now was. There might be another movie, the one we didn’t see, about Charlie Kane’s relationship with his dad.
In It’s a Wonderful Life, we also see only a few moments of George Bailey’s dad on the screen but he makes a much better impression. Early on, a young George Bailey goes to ask his father’s advice as his father’s is embattled in a showdown over the savings and loan. George defends his dad and clearly admires him. Later, there’s a nice moment at home, in the kitchen, before George goes out to a dance. Of course, George’s dad dies that night and George’s life changes forever. But everything he does from that moment on was clearly influenced by his father. We don’t get a lot about George Bailey’s dad, but I suspect we don’t have to. I think we’re seeing him anytime we look at George.
Two of my favorite fathers in movie history that don’t get a lot of screen time are William Daniels and Murray Hamilton, fathers respectively to Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross in The Graduate. Now these are two almost incidental fathers who I find more entertaining than almost any father who has his own movie in a movie about being a father. Both are sixties era men, post war American males living the American dream. They have cushy non-descript jobs, great homes, pools, lovely wives, and absolutely no clue as to what in the hell is happening all around them. Anne Bancroft’s Mrs. Robinson plays Murray Hamilton for a fool from the second you see them interact. When he comes home after she just tried to seduce Hoffman, she nods ascent to his boring observations (“Doesn’t Ben look like the kind of guy that has to beat the women off?” “Yes, he does.”). Then, when Mr. Robinson confronts Ben in his apartment about his affair with his wife, Hamilton plays the scene so perfectly, alternating between hurt feelings, vulnerability, dismay over his failed marriage, and the instinct to protect his daughter, that I wish he’d been nominated for an Oscar. He turns Mr. Robinson into one of the most fascinating dads in the movies. He’s been hurt and had his whole cushy world crumble around him but still makes his stand for his wife and daughter. There’s no scene that shows us how bad the relationship between the two fathers gets after all the revelations but I’m sure it’s not pretty. Back when they were both still alive, I would have loved to see a movie with Daniels and Hamilton specifically about these two guys and their shallow, confused lives.
Then there’s the reckless but adventurous fathers that have only a bit part but a lasting impact. Ever since the first time I saw The Black Stallion, I have wanted to know more about Alec’s father, played by Hoyt Axton. First, they’re together on a ship off the coast of North Africa. Why? Well, in the book, he’s returning from India where he has family. There’s no mention of that in the movie though and Alec’s dad spends all of his time gambling. He wins at it, too, and gives Alec a pocket knife and a small statue of Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander the Great. Later that night, the ship wrecks (it’s never stated what exactly happens) and Alec runs to the deck to find his father who tells him to go back to the cabin as he, the dad, need to help out. Then Alec is washed overboard and we never see his dad again. What’s fascinating to me is that, book story aside, in the movie, Alec’s dad seems like the rolling stone type, always looking for a new adventure, always shooting the breeze, always willing to go in on a game of poker. It’s fascinating because when Alec finally gets back home, it’s a very typical, dull, suburban home. Teri Garr, as his mother, seems absolutely plain in every respect. How did Hoyt end up with her, and vice versa? And what were they doing on that ship? And what did he do for a living? I want to know so someone needs to do a prequel, pronto.
Finally, there’s Dabney Coleman in On Golden Pond. First let me say that Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn are both excellent. Really, truly, they are. But now that I’ve said that let me say with confidence that my favorite character in the whole movie is Dabney Coleman, who appears for all of five minutes as the new husband of Jane Fonda. He brings a young son (Doug McKeon) to the marriage and we never get to see them interact, as they drop him off with the Thayers (Fonda and Hepburn) so they can go have a honeymoon. But we do get to see him interact with Mr. Thayer and the encounter is so awkward and forced, and Coleman’s character seems so uncomfortable in his own skin, that I think I’d much rather have seen a movie where he’s raising his son. Surely that would be filled with enough awkward coming of age discussions to really make the effort worthwhile.
The movies are filled with prominent dads. From Father of the Bride to The Godfather, from Life with Father to the Star Wars Trilogy, prominent dads are a part of cinematic storytelling. Even Indiana Jones’ dad had a big role in one of his movies. But the movies are also filled with incidental dads, the kind you’re aware of but get only a taste of who they really are. I can’t be the only one interested in incidental dads. If you have a favorite, list him below in the comments. And if you’re a dad yourself, Happy Father’s Day! Now go watch a movie with your kids.