I'll Take Sweden (1965)

Why so much hype?

Fresh and Exciting

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

"Bob Holcomb" (Bob Hope) is an oil company executive who comes home and finds out that his teenage daughter "JoJo" (Tuesday Weld) is throwing a party with all of her friends and essentially wrecking the house in the process. If that wasn't bad enough she tells him that she has fallen in love and introduces him to a young man by the name of "Kenny Klinger" (Frankie Avalon) who she wants to marry. Bob realizes at once that Kenny is a bit too wild and immature for his daughter so in order to create some distance between the two of them he decides to accept an assignment to Sweden and take her with him. But things don't work out exactly as he plans because once there she finds a Swedish boyfriend named "Erik Carlson" (Jeremy Slate) who is much more sexually sophisticated and aggressive than Kenny ever was. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film shares a similarity to the "beach movies" produced in the early 60's which typically evolved around young men and women dancing to rock-and-roll music and getting romantically acquainted while having to overcome a host of weird obstacles along the way. This film is no exception and carries with it the same light humor and dated quality. True to form, Bob Hope throws some good one-liners here and there which certainly helps a comedy of this type. Likewise, the presence of an attractive actress like Tuesday Weld doesn't hurt this film in anyway either. Even so, neither of them could offset the uneven production quality or the rather predictable plot and because of that I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

Apart from the 'Road' movies, I never realized how many bad films Bob Hope appeared in. I can't imagine what might have possessed him to take on projects like "Call Me Bwana" (1963) or "How to Commit Marriage" (1969), yet here's another one from the Sixties that just tries one's patience and attention span. Hope's one-liners fall short of the humor mark, and there's some real groan inducing dialog written for some of the other principals. How about this one coming from Frankie Avalon's character Kenny Klinger to Swedish date Marti (Rosemarie Frankland), commenting on his fractured romance with JoJo (Tuesday Weld) - "She's a pint, you're a full quart". Good grief.In an apparent attempt to bridge the generational divide and prevent his daughter from 'taking a stab at holy deadlock' (another nifty Avalon line), Bob Holcomb (Hope) offers to represent his company in Sweden and takes JoJo along for the assignment. The plan backfires when Erik Carlson (Jeremy Slate) shows up as Bob's European assistant and part time travel guide. A committed single on the prowl, Erik spends most of his time trying to entice JoJo into pre-marital bliss. The story then relies on some contrived situations and coincidences designed to help JoJo see the error of her ways and back into the arms of her former boyfriend.Had Dina Merrill not been cast here as Bob Holcomb's love interest to add some class to the story I hazard to think what might have come of the whole thing. I'd be interested for example, in what Frankie Avalon makes of his performance here with the hindsight of half a century. Most of his scenes struck me as rather embarrassing, especially the ones where he shimmies and shakes to his own vocals. As if that weren't enough, check out his arrival in Sweden wearing a yellow shirt and pink jacket - sheer 'L-7' all the way.

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.