Bon Voyage! (1962)

Overrated

Just what I expected

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Stuck for something to watch while we had a few glasses of wine, we chose to stream this from Amazon. After all, it was one of those 'put-upon father with teenage kids and a far wiser wife' type of films. And Fred McMurray is a pleasant and reliable actor and it's a Disney production, so what could go wrong? Plenty. The first half of the film drags terribly, with the gags firing on only a couple of cylinders and there is a desperate need for some vim and vigour. Compared to James Stewart's wonderful 'Mr Hobbs takes a Vacation' (made in the same year) this film falls flat in most areas, and even the usually excellent Sherman brothers music is uncharacteristically dull. There's a curious scene in which Dad finds himself alone in a street-side cafe and is approached by a pretty woman who seems to be an er.. 'escort'. It lasts only a couple of minutes and does not connect to anything else in the film, except a little later we see the same woman trying to chat up the elder son. With an already long running time of 2hrs 12 minutes, this scene could have easily been cut with no effect on the movie. The best thing I can say is that Fred McMurray does his best and Jane Wyman (not my favourite actress) looks quite nice, as does the sunlit scenery.

This Disney comedy gets off to a roaring start when plumbing contractor Fred MacMurray, his wife Jane Wyman and their three kids try to get to a Battery dock to catch a cruise ship to France and are escorted by a very friendly and overly chatty New York cab driver. Like Spencer Tracy in "Father of the Bride", provider MacMurray is the most overlooked member of the family, unappreciated by his two sons and daughter and overshadowed by the compassionate mom, Wyman, who sometimes seems to take him for granted. He is forced to put up with Wyman's family and friends from Boston at a send-off party who don't understand why someone like Wyman would go off an marry some plummer from the mid-west. Then, on the ship, he finds himself overwhelmed by his youngest son when everybody goes off to do their own thing. He realizes that as the older children find themselves involved in their own young romantic problems, they prefer the tenderness of Wyman's motherly advice to his more direct approach in dealing with them. Daughter Deborah Walley falls in love with the neglected heir to a fortune who is the product of a broken home and prepares to have her heart broken while son Tommy Kirk makes plays for very single young woman he meets. Then, when they get to Paris, embarrassment after embarrassment befalls MacMurray, first being lost in the sewers (and seemingly never getting to the Louve), then dealing with a caddish Hungarian who makes a pass at Wyman. It all falls apart at a party that Walley's boyfriend's mother (Jessie Royce Landis) gives where MacMurray gets drunk on a liquorish liqueur, then creates a major disturbance in Monte Carlo that could result in an international incident.From the Absent Minded Professor to Son of Flubber to Father of Trouble, MacMurray was Disney's "every-man", expected to keep the family together without actually really having any say. That's the lovely Wyman's job, and she is the perfect wife and mom in every manner. MacMurray utilizes his massive talents of light-hearted comedy to keep your interest, but the episodic situations and predictable outcomes make this situation comedy like Disney movie an overlong precursor to "The Facts of Life Go to Paris". Disney seems to be taking over here where MGM had stopped after the last of the Andy Hardy movies were made several years before. Disney does raise a bit of an eyebrow by briefly introducing a character who is obviously a prostitute and a family of opportunistic Parisans who set their money-hungry eyes on the not quite so rich Americans. But when you put it altogether, what it seemingly comes down to was Disney was telling us that while it's nice to venture, there's no place like home, and the backyard you live in is the best place to hang your hat.

Bon Voyage Let's See. On board for 'Bon voyage' is my mother's favorite actor 'Fred MacMurray'. There is actress and Ronald Regan's ex 'Jane Wyman'. Disney maverick's 'Tommy Kirk' and 'Kevin Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran' are on board as well. And then there is Deborah Walley, who I never heard of before, but she seems like she's a good actress.OK, there is the wholesome Disney atmosphere, some wacky situations, one involving Fred getting lost in the sewers of Paris and other wacky things including Fred almost getting arrested from causing a scene at a restaurant. He has some other wacky conversations with some relatives who have never meet him, but think it's horrible that Jane Whyman's character has marred of all things 'A plumber'. He slyly reveals that he is the plumber much to their shocked snobbery surprise. Overall there is the interesting sitcom concept and premise of a family taking a vacation in Europe.This concept was used in 'National Lampoon's European Vacation' and produced a rather funny film. The concept used in this film produced a rather dull and boring movie. Despite the cleaner friendly film, it isn't a Disney film worth adding to your collection and I would have to say it isn't worth renting either. NLEV is crude in parts and is not worth letting your kids watch unless you find a way to severely edit out all the inappropriate parts.But 'Bon Voyage' is not the better equivalent. With Fred MacMurray you expect better work. His character is annoying. When a man hits on his wife instead of hitting him, he guzzles down booze and gets upset at his wife because a guy is flirting with her. He does finally sock the guy, so justice wins out in the end, even though you have to wait for it to happen while enduring his whining about it. The melodrama that bubbles up from this film is also annoying and leaves you wondering about the deeper storyline that they never reveal. Even if they did you probably wouldn't care anyway.The Disney magic does not flow upon everything that it does. This is not the worst film ever made or the worst film Disney ever made, it's just a rather boring dull film. So I say Bon Voyage 'Bon Voyage ( and don't come back)

Excruciatingly long and tedious comedy-drama from Walt Disney concerning "typical" Midwestern family on vacation in Europe. There's the worrisome father (Fred MacMurray, acting befuddled, like Jimmy Stewart); the giddy mom (Jane Wyman, dignified but dulled-out); the cold-fish daughter; the too-cool teenage son (in ascots!); and the mischievous little brother (named Skipper!). Directed by Disney mainstay James Neilson, whose pacing was always a little slow, the film is not only out-of-touch, but hammy and unfunny. It would make a torturous double-bill alongside another Disney teens-and-their-parents tale, "Superdad". * from ****