Bon Voyage!

I guess a trip to France is as good a reason as any to be in a film and Walt Disney took a whole bunch of American players over to France to film a rather innocuous and over long comedy Bon Voyage. Everybody here has done much better work.

The Willard Family of Terre Haute consisting of parents Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman and kids Deborah Walley, Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran all head to Paris on a long anticipated vacation. Each of them has some issues to deal with.

MacMurray just can't seem to do what he wants to do, some family crisis is always interrupting. Walley has fallen for American playboy Michael Callan who is dying to get out from under his rich dowager mother Jessie Royce-Landis. Wyman has attracted the attention of a gigolo in Ivan Desnys. Kirk is having the old badger game run on him by Georgette Anys, the mother of a girl he met on the Riviera beach. Only Kevin Corcoran seems to have no problems, but he gets separated from MacMurray in a tour of the Paris sewer system. That by the way provides the best laughs in Bon Voyage.

Given the Disney parameters Bon Voyage had certain restrictions placed on it that the more successful National Lampoon's European vacation didn't have. That was a far better film and the Griswolds will linger in your memory way after the Willards have gone.

In a recent biography of Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk did not have fond memories of the film. His sexuality had come to light at the studio and Jane Wyman treated him horribly. As for Fred MacMurray he and Fred had a decent relationship from previous films, but it was never quite the same after that. In addition Kirk felt his character was something of a doofus and I'm inclined to agree with him.

Even with the European locations Bon Voyage is probably the weakest of all the films Fred MacMurray did for Disney.

Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran. 3 classic Disney stars that you can't go wrong with. But somehow this just missed. A good concept but just didn't have laughs. Its more about annoying love spats. I've been watching all of the late 50s and into the 60s live action Disney movies. Some of them are awesome. Some of them are good but a little slow and then by the time you get to the end, the music and the story have you captured. Others yet left a little to be desired but are still good family fare. This one, well it just doesn't make the cut. Well, if you are like me and want to watch every Disney live action movie from the time period, its OK, its not that bad, scenes in France will keep you interested.

Wow, this movie is boring. I think it's supposed to be a comedy, but I didn't really find it very funny. It's not one thing or another. It's not really terrible, but then it's not really good either. The scenes when they walk around Paris are better than most of the film, for at least you get to see some of the scenery, but that doesn't really make up for the bland, boring movie that this is. I think the concept is okay and they had a real opportunity to make a decent film, but somehow they just couldn't. I don't think it would have been quite so bad if it hadn't been so long. They could have easily have made a decent film by just cutting about an hour of the movie's runtime. It's not offensive or horrible in any way, however, and it wouldn't hurt to have it on in the background.

"Bon Voyage" is a very good Disney movie from the studio's heyday of family films - that is, films centered around families. It's a comedy that also includes subtle lessons about life. These may not be such heralded motives or themes in the Hollywood of the 21st century, or even of large audience interests in modern times. But in the mid-20th century - especially the two decades plus, after World War II, they were good themes and very popular. This film finished 13th place in box office sales for the year. So, audiences of that time - and, most critics, enjoyed this movie.

The movie screenplay was written by Joseph Hayes. It is based on the 1956 novel of the same title that he co-wrote with his wife, Merrijane. Hayes is remembered for a number of novels and screenplays. His most notable work was his 1954 book, "The Desperate Hours," from which he then wrote a 1955 Broadway play that won the Tony as the best play of the year. That was followed immediately by a screenplay for the blockbuster film that starred Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, and Martha Scott. Although more celebrated for his mystery and thriller stories, Hayes also wrote some comedy and drama.

Among the cast of this film set on a ship crossing the Atlantic and then, in Paris and the French Rivera, are some actors dubbed as Disney legends - notably, Fred MacMurray as Harry Willard and Tommy Kirk as his son, Elliott. They and Deborah Walley as daughter Amy give the best performances with the bulk of the screen time. The rest of the cast are good, including Jane Wyman as Mrs. Katie Willard, Michael Callan as Nick O'Mara, who pursues Amy from ship to shore, and Kevin Corcoran as the youngest Willard, Skipper.

Not many movies have been made about families on vacation. There was a small surge of such films in the mid-20th century, mostly comedies. This is one of the better films, along with "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation" of the same year that starred James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara. Other movies, "National Lampoon's European Vacation" of 1985 and later films since then have lots of comedy in the antics of the cast, but very little interplay about family life.

The usual family humor is present here, where the older teens think their parents are old-fashioned, out of touch, or not to be believed or followed. After some antics and mishaps, Harry talks reasonably with Elliott and Amy. And the kids find out that dad may be wise after all. That kind of family interplay is most often left out of modern movies in favor of all-out efforts for humor. The result is often a picture of dumb parents, a dodo dad, and families in which kids have little or no respect for parents. I can't believe that modern vacationing families might really be like that.

Anyway, this is a very good film that is quite funny in places and thought-provoking at times. Here are some favorite lines.

Harry Willard, "Where the devil did she meet that fella?" Katie Willard, "Probably in the elevator." Harry, "How could she possibly meet someone during a ten-second elevator ride? I've been riding elevators all my life. I never meet anyone."

Katie, "He looks rather nice." Harry, "That's probably what he does - hang around elevators all the time. They have a name for his kind - elevator lurkers." Katie, "Oh, don't be silly, Harry. He's one of the passengers."

Harry, "What's wrong son? You can tell me." Elliott, "Dad, let's not do the man-to-man talk bit now, okay? I couldn't take it."

Harry, "I wish you'd stop talking like I'm from Mars or something. What don't I understand?"

Elliott, "I'm not interested in other girls. I'm deeply, beautifully in love with a very fine person. Together we might've had a chance for happiness. Together, we. .." Harry, "Wait a minute, Elliott. Are you talking about that scrawny Hamilton kid back home - the one with the floppy bangs that calls me 'chum'?" Elliott, "Dad, if we can't discuss Ruth with the respect to which she is entitled, I'd rather we didn't discuss it at all."

Harry, to youngest son, Skipper, "Whaddaya think of that fella, O'Mara?" Skipper, "Search me! He's no different from the other creeps Amy goes with back home."

Harry, "There's just something about that Nick O'Mara that raises my hackles. He admits he went to Yale." Katie, "Now, Harry." Harry, "I know - some of the sweetest boys you know went to Yale."

Harry, "And I thought the only thing we had to worry about on this trip was to make sure everybody drank bottled water."

Harry, "Look, son, let's get something straight right here. We ARE tourists. We're not playboys, or business tycoons, or international spies, or anything like that. We're just plain tourists from Terre Haute, Indiana. Now, for a start, it might help if we stop showboating all over the place and pretending something we're note. Then, maybe tourist won't be such a dirty word anymore."

Katie, "Harry, you surprise me. You're more devious than I gave you credit for. " Harry, "Well., I have given the matter some thought." Katie, "All right, you Happy Machiavelli, where's your first move?"

Amy Willard, "Give yourself some credit, daddy. You raised a girl with some gumption."

Amy, "Oh, don't worry about me, Pop. I'm going out with my two brothers. You take care of your own problem."

BON VOYAGE (1962) is a curious, mildly entertaining live-action Disney artifact about a typical American family's long awaited trip to France, and an odd attempt at semi-sophisticated comedy from a studio not exactly known for the genre.

In the mom-and-pop leads are the Disney period Fred MacMurray, a long way from DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and the ex-Mrs. Reagan, Jane Wyman, whose dignity manages to hold up better than Fred's. As the two sons we have Disney protégés Kevin "Moochie" Corcoran in a relatively tolerable appearance, and Disney maverick, Tommy Kirk, in a buzz cut that does nothing for him.

For the young love interest daughter Deborah Walley and cynical playboy Michael Callen (Riff in the original stage cast of WEST SIDE STORY) are re-teamed after 1961's GIDGET GOES HAWAIIAN. As Callen's expatriate mother Jessie Royce Landis does her best to bring a touch of giddy sophistication to her Paris soirée sequence.

Around this time they used to say Disney got their live-action performers on the way up (Julie Andrews) or the way down (most of the cast here). It's also somewhat difficult to gage the target audience - adults, teens, family? - because there's not much here to hold a child's interest.

Certainly interesting is the authentic (if brief) footage of vintage ocean liners and their NYC piers (including a comically confused boarding and departure sequence), and location shots of an early '60s Paris.

Most curious sequence: MacMurray meeting what is subtly coded as a Paris street walker, played by the authentically French and rather grave Françoise Prévost, who seems to have inexplicably wandered in from a Godard film. Later she also picks up Kirk, an encounter dad is quick to defuse.

So it's no spoiler to mention that American Family Values triumph at the end in spite of a climactic trip to the decadent French Riviera. On the plus side the film presents a generally positive, even admiring view of French life and culture.

And Bunuel and Dali would surely love the extended sequence in which Fred MacMurray's wiggling finger protrudes from a street level Paris sewer lid.