Ah si papa savait ça !

A 1963 comedy starring James Stewart & Sandra Dee. Being put through the wringer by a civic board, Stewart recounts how he ended up there when daughter Dee went to college & became the apple of many a man's eye. At first getting a musical berth at a proto-hippie coffee joint, she soon flexes her artistic muscle (evidenced by her painting canvases at home wearing a 2 piece bikini where an ogling man nearly nearly crashes his car!) prompting her & her French beau to go to France (since she's won an art scholarship). Throughout poor Stewart, a lawyer, gets a front row vista to the culture wars as he gets arrested during a college sit-in, can't get a stiff drink at the coffee bar & having Dee's Parisian female roommates attack him when he honestly asked if they were hookers. Dee gets a wedding proposal from her man w/a date to meet his parents at a masquerade party but things don't go smoothly since her man's parents are snobs. Will the wedding go off w/o a hitch? Typical of Stewart's 60's comedy output which found him more stunned at the state of the world to reflect what was going on in burgeoning youth movement of the time w/Dee cute as a button (& a fellow New Jerseyian, go Bayonne!) trying to keep her dad's sanity in check. Also starring Audrey Meadows (wasted frankly!) as Stewart's wife, Bob Denver (billed as Robert!) playing a future version of his Maynard G. Krebs persona from Dobie Gillis, Robert Morley as a fellow traveler Stewart encounters in Paree & John McGiver as the head of the board impugning Stewart's character. Interesting fact the script was based on a play written by Henry & Phoebe Ephron, writer Nora's parents, who based the daughter's character on her.

It's been commented on by many critics that James Stewart has been the actor most partnered with top directors. His films with Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and Frank Capra have been studied over and over again. But it would surprise many to learn that after the eight he did with Anthony Mann, the second place finisher is Henry Koster with five films with James Stewart.

The five films are Harvey, No Highway, Mr. Hobbs Goes On a Vacation, Dear Brigitte and Take Her She's Mine. And then they further subdivide as Stewart plays three types of character. He's the absent minded professor in No Highway and Dear Brigitte and the harassed father of girls in Mr. Hobbs and Take Her She's Mine. Both of which he plays to perfection. And of course there is Harvey in a class all by itself.

Father is the last to know that his daughter has grown up to be a "dish." But that is in fact what Sandra Dee has done. Apparently just hanging around has put all the boys' hormones into an exponential overdrive. Poor Stewart is walking innocently into all kinds of grief trying to protect Dee's virtue. The California based Stewart's concern has taken him to New England and then to Paris.

Some pretty funny things happen to poor Jimmy. But I think you'll like best the way his costume falls apart on a chartered boat in the Seine due to some bad advice that he gets from a fellow hotel guest Robert Morley. Still cracks me up 43 years after first seeing it.

Audrey Meadows plays the patient wife and mother to Stewart and Dee borrowing a little from Alice Kramden. And I think today's audience will appreciate seeing Bob Denver essentially reprising his role as a Maynard G. Krebs type beatnik. Look for James Brolin in a tiny role as one of the hormonally charged college kids.

Koster and Stewart work well together. Maybe at some point his partnership with Stewart will get some study as well.

A naive teen provides plenty of excitement for her well intentioned Dad, who tries keeping her on an even keel. Fun for die hard fans of Jimmy Stewart, like me. Originally, a play which starred Art Carney and Elizabeth Ashley, who won a Tony for her performance.

During a three year stretch, James Stewart made three comedies--three films that just didn't seem to suit his talents all that well. The problem with MR. HOBBES TAKES A VACATION, DEAR BRIGETTE and TAKE HER SHE'S MINE is that they all try too hard to be kooky. There is no subtlety about them and Stewart essentially plays the same befuddled role three different times. While none of these films are terrible, compared to his other wonderful films, they just seem to come up very short.

TAKE HER SHE'S MINE begins with Stewart explaining to the local council about all the publicity he's recently received. So, in a long, long series of flashbacks, Stewart explains away potentially damaging news reports as just misunderstandings--all which incidentally occurred while he was following his daughter (Sandra Dee) at college because he was worried she would become a "loose woman". Again and again, he assumes she is much more of a libertine than she is, yet he ends up getting arrested on morals charges himself.

While the idea of a worrying father having trouble letting go of his daughter is a clever idea, the execution and style leaves so much to be desired. Instead of great insight into a father's worries or simply making a clever film, too ofter the film degenerates towards kookiness and cheap laughs. In many ways, this movie looks and feels much more like a sitcom minus the annoying laugh-track.

The bottom line is that Stewart was an amazing actor whose films are quite often brilliant and sublime. Sadly, not everything he made was gold and it's hard to imagine that just after making THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, he made these silly pieces of fluff. Watchable yet dopey.

Frank and Anne Michaelson's eldest daughter Mollie is going away to college...and unfortunately she is what's known as a dish! Frank, played by James Stewart, gets himself in all sorts of trouble trying to protect his daughter, played by the lovely Sandra Dee,...he ends up in jail at a protest and in his underwear at a costume party all of which is being criticized by the board of directors where he works who are calling for his replacement.

There are some wonderful cameos...Bob Denver (of Gilligan fame) plays a coffeehouse musician who has to explain to Frank that his daughter is not stripping, and Robert Morley who plays Mr. Pope-Jones, a commiserating fellow father of daughters...who he can't seem to remember the names of!

My favorite scene was actually when Frank and Anne are having a discussion about who taught them the birds and the bees...after they receive a letter or telegram from their daughter mentioning the word virgin! Great comedy there.

"If I could start over, I'd have boys!"-Frank

Poor Frank realizes in the end...that his second daughter is also coming of age!

This was a light comedy that explores that special father daughter relationship from the father's perspective. I would recommend this to Dad's in particular and anyone looking for a light comedy.