Vacanze per amanti

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!

A psychologist and his wife's oldest daughter Meg goes on a school trip to South America.

"She is going there to study the continent of the future, not to become a beachcomber."-Robert Dean

"South America is so far away and she is such a nice girl"-Mary Dean

Meg leaves the tour after enjoying Sao Paolo, Brasil. She sends a telegram to her folks that she will be staying an additional six weeks studying under the famous Eduardo Burroso.

"Well if she gets to stay down there on her own, I don't think it's fair I have to be in do early Saturday night."-Betsy

"Bessy would you please go downstairs and warm up the milk before you reassure your father into a nervous breakdown."-Mary Dean

There is so much comedy in this sweet film. When the family finds out that Meg is staying in Brasil, the father books tickets for the rest of the family to join her. When they arrive they are met by Meg and Senor Burroso...and given the news that Meg had been honored with an art scholarship for a year in Brasil, a very personal Burroso scholarship.

Meg is staying in The Women's Residence Club, but Burroso sets her family up in one of his new high rise apartments. Her dad is a little concerned as Eduardo is his age.

An unexpected plane stop on their sightseeing tour ends up in the most hilarious encounter with an American Air Force soldier from Georgia.

Jane Wyman is gorgeous in this film and plays a wonderful mom. The actor playing the concerned father is smart and hits just the right notes. And the sights of South America! This is a gorgeous postcard to all of the sights in Brasil, including Rio during carnival. Then there is an excursion to Lima, Peru for the bull fights...musical performances and flamenco!

"As soon as we get back to the hotel I'm going to write Ernest Hemingway quite a letter, quite a letter!"-Robert Dean.

"Are you implying that I am being overprotective about them? Emotional? Surely you know me better than that?"-Robert Dean.

"You can't go around spanking everyone just because they don't want to get married."-Betsy.

This was fun and funny...during quarantine it was also a lovely trip to South America!

This one won't be for everyone but I enjoyed the gentle, quiet side of it as well as its comedy. There are parts that move slowly and parts that may not make sense to some in a modern audience. I watched them as a slice of life, and for the most part I liked them.

This is a fun little film featuring Clifton Webb and Jane Wyman as parents who chase their 2 daughters through South America as the young women find love. Webb is wonderful as always and his drunk scene is a classic. Wyman isn't given much to do but calm her exasperated spouse but Carol Lynley is impressive as the younger daughter (although her choice of chubby Gary Crosby as lover is a bit hard to understand). Jill St John is awfully wet as the older daughter - you could never believe she was an accomplished sculptor. But as her lover Nico Minardos is very funny and very sexy - as a "Brazilian beatnik". Paul Henreid is suave as his father.

There are some funny scenes - the strip search is good - and dialogue and there is great music, including a fabulous flamenco dance sequence with Jose Greco. But why oh why didn't they take the actors on location? The production is a high budget cinemascope movie so why not spend that little bit more? Instead we get lots of second unit travelogue type footage of Sao Paulo, Rio, Lima and Trinidad and the actors standing in front of obvious rear projections. This almost ruins the film.

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.