Product Details

• Actors: John Wayne, Donna Reed, Charles Coburn, Tom Tully, Sherry Jackson
• Directors: Michael Curtiz
• Writers: Melville Shavelson, Douglas Morrow, Jack Rose, James Edward Grant, Robert Hardy Andrews
• Producers: Melville Shavelson
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: May 8, 2001
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302344905
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,402 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Trouble Along the Way, a John Wayne movie even John Wayne fans have tended to skip, is an intriguingly complicated entertainment that gets more interesting from reel to reel. The premise scarcely sounds like prime Duke material: Former big-time football coach with an ugly divorce behind him and a little daughter to look out for takes a job at a venerable Catholic college in danger of being shut down. The title nudgingly recalls the sentimental classic Going My Way, with school administrator Charles Coburn replacing Barry Fitzgerald in the doddering-but-sly priest role and Wayne as a nonclerical (and non-singing) substitute for Bing Crosby. In addition to the diocesan politics dooming the College of St. Anthony's, the plot is complicated by ex-wife Marie Windsor's vicious efforts to regain custody of daughter Sherry Jackson; that sparks a spiky ambivalence between social worker Donna Reed and disreputable papa Wayne, who pretty much lives out of a bar where he runs his latterday business--as a bookie.

The script was the work of future Bob Hope writers Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose, and between them and director Michael Curtiz--nearing the end of his long tenure at Warner Bros.--they scuff up Wayne's heroic image in interesting ways. To turn St. Anthony's into a winning football team overnight, Wayne indulges in some outright larceny and extortion; there's even a sly throwaway joke likening his profit-sharing plan for his co-conspirators to a form of "socialism." Instead of the anticipated big-game climax with the St. Anthony's underdogs victorious, the movie veers toward a finale in which several "happy endings" are put on hold till some point in the future. For his part, Wayne gets to deliver more syncopated dialogue than usual, and seems both refreshed and startled by the experience. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

Sentimental story of football coach whose wife left him and child, and whose hard-taught team wins big game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good and Underrated, November 16, 2001

By 

Brian Hamm (United States of America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trouble Along the Way [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie features John Wayne not as a cowboy but as a football coach. It is not one of his most famous ones probably because it is not the genre of what most fans think of when they think of John Wayne, comedy. It is a good movie though. When I first watched it I was amazed. Everyone (from Wayne to the actress that plays his daughter) does an excellent job. John Wayne's first role was in a silent in which he played a football player, and he also played football at USC for a couple of years with Ward Bond. So it is a subject he knows well. Overall, it gives light to a new side of the Duke, the comical side (which isn't bad). It isn't one of the best, I grant you, but it is great because it shows Duke's acting talents with a great script and cast.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where is Sherry Jackson Anyway, May 31, 2006

By 

Allan Maurer "NCflix" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trouble Along the Way [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Trouble Along the Way," is one of my favorite "little" movies -- films I loved growing up in the 1950s, often for quite personal reasons, ranging from Tony Curtis in "The Great Imposter," to this gem.

Sherry Jackson, who plays Football coach Wayne's precocious daughter, also starred in the Danny Thomas show on TV and all grown up as one sexy android on Star Trek. She turned out so beautiful that I don't think she got as much of a chance to act as one might have wished. She's wonderful in this and I get a crush on her in a paternal sort of way everytime I watch it, and I can't say the same about that Star Trek role, ah hem.

Donna Reed as Wayne's love interest never looked more beautiful nor exuded more charm with the possible exception of her turn in "It's a Wonderful Life."

Charles Colburn as the old priest at suffering St. Anthony's is utterly convincing and entertaining every second he's on screen.

When I first saw this in the 50s, I liked Wayne in it very much because my father looked a bit like him, probably more in my imagination than reality. Still, as another reviewer notes, this film holds up remarkably well and I still enjoy it every time I see it.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where's the DVD?, July 29, 2005

By 

Red Dragon (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trouble Along the Way [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I won't bore you with story details as this film has already been reviewed. Being in my mid-50's I have seen everything the Duke has done and this wonderful, light romantic comedy has been a favorite of mine for years. A divorced father raising a daughter on his own...it went against the Hollywood stereotypical ideal of family. I continue to watch this film on my off-air copy. I only wish it would come out on DVD. Let's face it, if Wayne's early Lone Star westerns can get the DVD treatment, surely this little gem deserves the same. If you've never seen "Trouble Along the Way", sit and enjoy!