Movies: “John Goldfarb, Please Come Home”

Mar. 19, 1965 - “John Goldfarb, Please Come Home” will finally be exposed to public scrutiny next Wednesday, after a three-month legal hassle between 20th Century-Fox and the University of Notre Dame.

In a rush move following yesterday’s decision by the New York Court of Appeals, Fox executives booked the film into Loew’s Capitol and 20 other “showcase” theaters in the New York area. The Court upheld a decision by the Appellate Division that the film may now be exhibited.

Notre Dame had attempted to prevent the release of the comedy on the ground that it satirized the university’s football team without permission. The university had obtained an injunction that canceled the film’s scheduled opening at some 400 theaters around the country on Christmas Day.

John Dickey of Sullivan & Cromwell, the law firm representing Notre Dame, said today that the university had not yet decided what action to take, but that “all things are being considered.” The university could attempt to obtain a stay from still another court.

Fox and the theaters are rushing ahead on the assumption that the opening will be permitted. The film has been scheduled to replace a horror melodrama, “Die! Die! My Darling,” at the showcase theaters. It is being booked into as many theaters as possible around the country for openings next week or soon after. The decision required a last-minute change in advertising plans, but Fox has had prints and advertising copy prepared since December. 

Notre Dame’s suit brought national publicity to the film, a Shirley MacLaine comedy dealing with a mythical Middle Eastern nation that challenges the Notre Dame football team in a game and wins. In the initial case, the university’s lawyers argued that if they lost and the film were shown, the case would have attracted far more attention to the movie than it would normally have received.

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