''John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!'' is a 1965 American comedy film based on the novel by William Peter Blatty published in 1963. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson. The film was shot in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

. In the film, an American military aviator crashlands in a fictional

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

country. He is held captive, but the country's leader is informed of his past career as a star of

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

. He arranges an exhibition football match between his country's university team and the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

, using the captive aviator for leverage.

Plot

The comic spoof of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

was inspired by a May 1960 incident involving American

Francis Gary Powers Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 in ...

, a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

operative whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking an international diplomatic incident. Writer William Peter Blatty's tale concerns John "Wrong-Way" Goldfarb, a former college football star who once ran 95 yards for a touchdown in the wrong direction. Now a U-2 pilot, his plane malfunctions and crashes in the mythical Arab kingdom of Fawzia. The country's leader threatens to turn him over to the Soviets unless he agrees to coach a football team. Jenny Ericson, the magazine journalist who made Goldfarb famous, is on an undercover assignment as a member of the King's harem, and when she discovers she was wrong in thinking the King is no longer romantically interested in his wives, she seeks help from Goldfarb. The King blackmails the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

into arranging an exhibition football game between the

and his own team from Fawz University. Jenny becomes a

cheerleader Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

and then the

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

who scores the winning touchdown for Fawz University.

Cast

Original novel

Blatty was inspired to write the story by Gary Francis Powers. It was originally written as a screenplay. Blatty pitched the project to Steve Parker and Parker's wife Shirley MacLaine who agreed to be attached. However no studios would finance. "Everyone was afraid we'd hurt people's feelings", said Blatty. Blatty briefly had "an arrangement" with

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

but they decided not to finance as well, after the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...

refused permission to use the university's name. At Parker's suggestion, Blatty reworked it as a novel, which was published by Doubleday in 1963 (). The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "a thigh slapper". The ''New York Times'' called it "a wildly comic exercise by a talented humourist." It sold 8,500 copies in hard back and 200,000 copies in paperback. Blatty said "It took ''Tom Jones'' and ''Dr Strangelove'' to break the fear of satire, which had been around for about 400 years. Now everyone's on the bandwagon. But for us it was a tough two year battle to get this film made."

Production

In September 1963,

Hedda Hopper Hedda Hopper (born Elda Furry; May 2, 1885February 1, 1966) was an American gossip columnist and actress. At the height of her influence in the 1940s, her readership was 35 million. A strong supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committ ...

reported Arthur Jacbos and J. Lee Thompson were reading the book. Jacobs and Thompson had made ''What a Way to Go'' with Shirley MacLaine at 20th Century Fox, which had been a hit. Fox agreed to finance ''Goldfarb''. The film was budgeted at $4.5 million and, like ''What a Way to Go'', was mostly shot on the Fox backlot. There was location filming in the

in May.

Montgomery Clift Edward Montgomery Clift (; October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to ''The New York Times''. He is best remembered ...

was reportedly offered a lead role and turned it down, even though he was not being offered much work at the time, because he disliked the script. Thompson had been unable to find a male star, and eventually went with Richard Crenna, then best known for his work on ''The Real McCoys''. Fox took an option on his services for three more movies. Hedda Hopper saw a preview in November 1964 and called it a "waste of money and actors." She later wrote Thompson "went hog wild" on the film. Representatives from Notre Dame also saw a preview on 17 November. This was to have major ramifications for the movie.

Lawsuit

Fox expected the film to open on Christmas Day 1964, however in early December the University of Notre Dame filed a suit against Fox and the publishers of the book to stop the movie and recall the novel saying both did "immeasurable damage" to the school's reputation, particularly the final football sequence. The university sought no monetary damages, just that the film not be released. Fox said the film "is obviously a good natured lampoon of contemporary American life... It is unfortunate that Notre Dame is trying to transform a zany fantasy into a realistic drama." Blatty said "I feel curiouser and curiouser that a great university like Notre Dame should stoop to – if you pardon the expression – to doing battle with a farcical piece of fiction." The University said it had denied Fox permission to use their name but Fox denied it had ever asked for permission. On December 17 a judge ruled the film could not be shown in New York state claiming the novel and film "knowingly and illegally" exploited the name, symbols and institution of the football team and university. The judge also ordered that the book be recalled. Fox tried to get a stay of the injunction but was unsuccessful – they offered the 200 theatres that was going to show ''John Goldfarb'' another film ''The Pleasure Seekers''. The ruling was highly controversial and the ACLU became involved. Fox appealed the decision and the case was heard again in January. The following month the five-judge appellate court unanimously reversed the original judge's decision – Fox had won. The case went to the Court of Appeals who upheld Fox's victory 4–2, enabling the studio to release the film. The studio rushed the movie into release in March and Notre Dame decided not to try suing in another jurisdiction.

Reception

Box office

According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $6,200,000 in rentals to break even and made $3,880,000, meaning it made a loss. Later, Henny and Jim Backus wrote a travel book called ''What Are You Doing After the Orgy?'', the title taken from one of his lines in the film.

References

External links

* * {{J. Lee Thompson 1963 American novels 1965 films American sports comedy films 1960s sports comedy films CinemaScope films American comedy novels Films based on American novels 20th Century Fox films Films scored by John Williams Films directed by J. Lee Thompson Films shot in California Films shot in Nevada American novels adapted into films Novels by William Peter Blatty Arab-American novels Novels set in the Middle East Doubleday (publisher) books 1965 comedy films Films produced by J. Lee Thompson Cold War aviation films Films set in the Arabian Peninsula Films set in a fictional country Films about aviators American football films Notre Dame Fighting Irish 1960s English-language films 1960s American films