Ferien für Verliebte

Clifton webb, jane wyman are the deans, who send their daughter meg (jill saint john) off to south america on holiday. When she decides to stay for a while, they drop everything and troop off to sao paolo. They meet senor barroso (paul henreid), who is so much older than meg, so mom and dad already don't approve. The strengths: there are some clever lines in here, in between all the misunderstandings. Sooo many double entendres! It's kind of fun and exotic to zip off to south america, although the actors may never have actually left the studio. There's a real fun version of chattanooga choo choo about halfway through. And flamenco dancers. The weaknesses: much of the sound quality is just terrible. Many loud echoes. And some of the lines are delivered with odd timing or a cardboard delivery. There's an odd chemistry between the actors for most of the film. We can tell the film code was long gone by this time... gary crosby plays a sex starved military guy chasing the younger sister. Who enjoys being grabbed and kissed by a soldier she just met. And the soldier isn't very polite to the parents, when he asks if he can marry the daughter. Military guys are typically very respectful to parents and superiors. Directed by henry levin. Based on the play by ronald alexander. It's just okay. Not my favorite film. So much fighting. A visit to sao paolo should be fun and happy! Webb only made one more film after this, and died a couple years later.

In Holiday For Lovers Clifton Webb plays a psychiatrist who practices in Boston and is married to Jane Wyman and is trying to raise two daughters played by Jill St. John and Carol Lynley. Jill is studying architecture in Sao Paulo with renowned leader of the field Paul Henreid. A letter from her makes her parents rather suspicious that architecture is not all that Henreid has in mind. So all three decide to take an immediate vacation in South America. All without ever leaving the 20th Century back lot.

The problem isn't Henreid who just sees St. John as a talented student, but Henreid's son Nico Minardos who is a Brazilian beatnik and really does not want to work. Both Webb and Henreid have real concerns.

In addition Carol Lynley is swept off her feet by Air Force enlistee Gary Crosby. They have a whirlwind courtship of their own while Webb, Wyman, and Henreid are dealing the other children.

Webb and Wyman really don't have great chemistry as a married couple, their scenes seem forced. Doing better in that department are Wally Brown and Henny Backus playing a pair of crass American tourists who get Webb and his family in some interesting trouble with customs officials in Lima, Peru.

The South American holiday does feature some nice second unit cinematography which serve as rather obvious backgrounds that the studio bound cast steps in front of. Nobody got a trip to Sao Paulo, Rio De Janiero or Lima out of this except cameramen. This was because Clifton Webb's career as a star was winding down, his rather unique appeal was waning by 1959. He would do one more film and that one, Satan Never Sleeps would make this rather average family comedy look like Citizen Kane.

While I love Clifton Webb, he's one of my favorite actors. However, this movie was just okay. The remake, "Take Her, She's Mine" with James Stewart and Sandra Dee was considerably more entertaining.

In "Take Her, She's Mine" James Stewart's character keeps getting mistaken for the "actor" James Stewart. This is also one of the first movies that Sandra Dee transformed from the "cute, sweet little Gidget" type girl to "showing" that she was a fully grown woman.

There are also appearances by very young Bob Denver (Gilligan from Gilligan's Island), Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle from the Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.), and James Brolin (Marcus Welby, M.D., The Amityville Horror - 1979 version, and Westworld.)

College lass from Boston takes a summer tour of Brazil to study art, decides to stay on in São Paulo where she has become the latest protégé of a debonair older man, a famous architect and sculptor known for his nudes; Dad, Mom, and Sis fly out, too, once they get the news. Extremely weak travelogue-cum-romantic comedy from Fox, featuring the requisite sight-seeing bits and landmark stops yet far too much back-projection and set-bound stints. At first, the parents (Jane Wyman and fussy Clifton Webb) appear to be excited about spending some time together down South America way--but after their happy, smiling daughter meets them at the airport, all Pop does is grouse (he seems jealous of the student-teacher relationship between Jill St. John and Paul Henreid, a sidebar which may have been worth exploring under different circumstances). The cinematography is mediocre, making everyone look short and stumpy (even leggy St. John), and the romantic shenanigans which ensue are not breezy or funny enough to pump much life into this narrative, which covers all-too familiar territory. ** from ****

Just to correct a previous comment, "Holiday for Lovers" was not remade as "Take Her, She's Mine." Although thematically similar, these two stories come from different source material, although both started out as Broadway plays.

The play "Holiday for Lovers" was written by Ronald Alexander, who also wrote "Time Out for Ginger", which was made into a Patty Duke movie, "Billie." "Holiday for Lovers" ran for 100 performances at the Longacre Theater from Feb. 14, 1957 to May 11, 1957. The biggest name star in the cast was Don Ameche playing the father. The setting of the play was hotels in New York, Paris, Seville, and Rome. One can only speculate why the film version re-set the story in South America. Given the year, 1959, it might have been at the urging of some agency of the U.S. Governent to support the "Good Neighbor Policy," which was meant to keep Communism out of Latin America.

The play "Take Her, She's Mine" was written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron, inspired by the adventures of their then-22 year old daughter, Nora Ephron. The play ran for 404 performances at the Biltmore Theater from Dec. 21, 1961 to Dec. 8, 1962. The play was set in Southern California and New England. Among the luminaries in the cast were Art Carney and Phyllis Thaxter, playing the parents; Elizabeth Ashley, playing the older daughter (for which role she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play); and Richard Jordan. Karen Black was an understudy in this production!