Bom Mesmo é Amar

In an effort to keep daughter Tuesday Weld away from bad boy Frankie Avalon, Bob Hope takes a job in Sweden. This is just another of the egregiously unfunny movies Hope was making in the 1960s. The film has one distinguishing feature: it manages to cast Weld and make her completely unappealing! Surprisingly cast to begin with, Weld has little to do but roll her eyes or wince at Hope's unfunny wisecracks. Perhaps Annette Funicello or Deborah Walley would have been a better choice for Weld's role. She's far too intelligent to have us believe she'd be smitten with the empty headed Avalon. The presence of classy Dina Merrill, as Hope's love interest, is a plus even if her Swedish accent is a bit half-hearted. Directed, in the style of the average 60s sitcom, by the undistinguished Fred DeCordova.

In rattling off one lame joke after another, persevering like a stevedore in the face of his time slipping away, cocky crooked grin intact, Hope approaches depths of surrealism that should've impressed Bunuel. When he tells Dina Merrill that he's never met an interior decorator with her exterior, and she reacts with a dewy smile, it's like cutting the eyeball in Un Chien Andalou. Meanwhile Frankie Avalon struts around like he's the Tom Cruise of his generation. Check out Frankie's astonishing, hip-gyrating 'I'll Take Sweden Ya Ya Ya' number and you'll swear someone slipped mescaline into your coffee. This is one of the all time great camp classics, awaiting its proper appreciation.

As far as comedies that deal with young people's attitudes towards sex go; "I'll Take Sweden", dumb as it may be, has loads more charm than the largely gross comedies that are dished up to audiences today.

Bob Hope, (with badly died dark hair) ever the professional, copes well with the sometimes unfunny lines given to him. There's super elegant Dina Merrill; Frankie Avalon brimming with youthful ebullience and Tuesday Weld, simultaneously demure and sexy, as always.

Despite the often ridiculous depiction of the social mores of the time, somehow the movie remains immensely watchable largely because of the cast, who all had careers of some interest. From this fun but undoubted mediocrity, Hope's movies went downhill steadily and embarrassingly. Merrill went into television with unspectacular results. Avalon didn't quite survive the beach movies which made him so popular at the time. Weld had the good sense to break the mold into which the system had cast her, moving on to many fine performances, if not quite becoming the star that at the time would have seemed she was destined to become.

For those interested in the actors involved, there's something to enjoy in this innocuous yet not obnoxious 95 minutes.

For a Hope fan like me, the flick was a disappointment. Don't look for his comically flustered style til the last part, when he runs amusingly through the many stranger-filled hotel bedrooms -- and just what is it those bedroom couples are doing? It's then that the movie really gels.

That's not to overlook the opening scene where gyrating teens of the mid-1960's could light up a city, while Hope's strait-laced father looks on disapprovingly. So how's he going to keep daughter Weld from marrying into Avalon's reckless crew. By moving to sophisticated Sweden, of course. Trouble is, as Dad finds out, Sweden's even looser sexually than back in the good old USA. Good thing Sweden's Dina Merrill is there to help ease his protective tension. But what about the stiffly handsome Slate whose got his Swedish eye on Weld. So what's Dad to do.

Basically the movie's about sexual innuendo at a time when American mores were changing from the conformist 1950's. (A couple more years and the free-wheeling Hippie movement would appear.) So in that cultural sense the movie appears unfortunately dated with its cutting-edge emphasis of the time. I'm surmising, but I suspect Hope was hoping to connect with the younger generation, given the flick's key aspects. Too bad his brand of delightful humor wasn't better served.

Anyway, for Hope fans, hang on til the last part when the tempo picks up. In the meantime, there's cutie Weld to entertain the eyes of hormonal guys like me.

I haven't been able to watch more than a couple of minutes of this gem, but I will for one reason and one reason alone. Mr. Joel Coen (or was it Ethan), from such hits as Crimewave (writer, 1985) and The Evil Dead (assistant editor, 1983), said he (they) liked it. That's all it takes for me to look at a film with a new perspective and appreciation. I would highly recommend you do the same. Also, I heard Mr. Jiminy Glick reference the film when Conan was his guest. I like that. That suits me just fine. I wouldn't watch a film only because Jiminy drops the name, but it certainly doesn't hurt the cause. And one last note, do yourself a favor and watch Mr. Preston Sturges' tale of a wanderer, harried for days on end, entitled "Sullivan's Travels" (1941). You shall find both everlasting salvation and unending ecstasy.