Andy Howlett 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.

morrison-dylan-fan Taking a look at the UK Netflix,I discovered a Disney /Fred MacMurray film that I've not heard about before.With there only being a few hours to go before the movie was to be removed from the site,I decided that it was the perfect time to say bon voyage!The plot:After delays from family and work,Harry & Katie Willard decide to go on their long-planned honeymoon to Paris,and to take their children Elliott/Amy and Skipper with them.Deciding to go via cruise ship to France,Katie and Harry soon find their dream honeymoon to take a wrong turn,as the "difference of opinion" that they have with their children start to appear upon the horizon.View on the film:For the adaptation of Marrijane Hayes & Joseph Hayes book,writer Bill Walsh attempts to give the title a light and breezy atmosphere.As Walsh starts building up the care-free moon,the 130 minute running time (!) blocks the lightness from the movie like a giant wall,as Katie & Harry's troubles with their children go round in repetitive circles which become increasingly worn down.Whilst the stretched Flubber running time keeps the movie grounded,Walsh does off a number of sweet funny set-pieces,which goes from the Willard's taking a tour of the Paris sewers ,to Harry getting in a fight with Rudolph the Red Nosed Hungarian. Filmed on location in France, director James Neilson displays the Paris location in elegant wide shots and casts the film in light blues and yellows which match the honeymoon romance that the couple are trying to create.Taking on roles that James Cagney and Greer Garson had turned down, the tension that Jane Wyman & Fred MacMurray had with co-star Tommy Kirk being gay steams across the screen,as Katie and Harry appear very keen to say Bon voyage to their little darlings.

mark.waltz 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.

Itsamoomoo This turned out to be a good movie. Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman finally take the European trip they've always dreamed of, including taking their three children along. Tommy Kirk and Doborah Walley are their teen-aged children and bring along their romantic escapades. On location shooting make for a better than average Disney film. Saw this on the Disney channel.