Red-Barracuda
Summer Holiday is an early example of the pop musical. It was a vehicle for Cliff Richard, who was at this stage a British rock 'n' roll superstar. He also had a squeaky clean image and Summer Holiday certainly does nothing to alter this view. It's about four friends who go on a continental European trip in a London double-decker bus they have converted into a mobile home. They pick up some girls along the way and a series of japes follows soon after.The story-line is pretty negligible and is a distant second to the scenic locations and songs. Of the latter, there are a few memorable ones but they're mostly not very good really, although the tune played by The Shadows in the nightclub was actually pretty great. Aside from this the movie is primarily made up of light-hearted comedy, with a little bit of romance thrown in for good measure. I guess you could describe it all as charming but I personally thought it to be a little too excessively twee for my tastes and found the comedy a bit wearing after a bit. But it's sort of hard to truly dislike and is kind of okay for what it is.
Spikeopath
Summer Holiday is directed by Peter Yates who also co-writes the story and screenplay with Ronald Cass. It stars Cliff Richard, Lauri Peters, Melvyn Hayes and Una Stubbs. Story sees Richard and three pals take a red London double decker bus into Europe for their summer holiday. On the way their adventure will see them pick up some girls and an assortment of characters. Fun, frolics and songs follow.Light on plot but big on heart, Summer Holiday is well dated and cheesy but still carries with it enough charm to entertain the undemanding musical fan. Some lively sequences dot themselves throughout, but it's with the foot tapping tunes that the picture remains most memorable. Stand outs include the title track, Batchelor Boy and The Next Time, while the presence of The Shadows is also a bonus. It's unlikely to make big fans of first timers who didn't have it as part of their childhood, but for many the nostalgia factor more than compensates for its 101 formula. And of course for fans of the ever amiable Cliff Richard, film remains essential. 6.5/10
Neil Welch
Summer Holiday has the distinction of being the first film I saw on TV which I had previously seen during its first run at the cinema. That little black and white TV picture wasn't half as good as the big widescreen colourful film at the cinema.But the film was always fun. Naive fun, to be sure, but fun nevertheless. An undemanding plot carries just enough dramatic tension to hold together the travelogue across Europe, the leads perform adequately, and the songs contain several classics (The Next Time is one of the all-time great ballads, and the Parthenon setting does it spectacular justice).Cliff's movies were, for the most part, entertaining, and an important part of a career where he has always tended to keep moving. A shame that his most recent move has been providing free holiday accommodation for Teflon Tony and Cruella.
Theo Robertson
Since this movie revolves around a plot of four mechanics hiring a London red bus and taking it to Athens in Greece that`s probably why the BBC broadcast it on the afternoon of the 13th of August so that it coincides with the opening ceremony of the Olympic games As for the movie itself it`s very dated with exceeedingly cheesey values that were probably laughable in 1963 never mind 2004 so I guess if it works on any level it`s best viewed as a nostalgia piece for a time that never existed in the first place . A trio of teenage girls share a trip across Europe with four young lads ! Well with Cliff Richard and Melvyn Hayes aboard there`s not much chance of the girls returning home pushing a pram is there ? This innocence gives the movie a charm that soon outlives its welcome but it would be entirely cynical for me to point all this out , it`s a star vehicle ( Geddit ? ) for Sir Cliff Richard possibly the most sincere and genuine singer of the modern pop era who holds a record that will probably never be broken of hitting the number 1 spot in the British charts in the 1950s , 1960s , 1970s , 1980s , and 1990s , that`s five different decades pop pickers
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