Week-End with Father

Often-told tale of a single father meeting and falling in love with a single mother, planning to wed despite the fact their mutual children do not get along. Van Heflin and Patricia Neal are certainly well-matched in the leads, and Heflin in particular gives a sharply-observed performance, but contrivances take over Joseph Hoffman's script and the whole pre-sitcom venture soon runs aground. Nice opening, several very good scenes, but ultimately nothing special. Aimed at wholesome family audiences of the 1950s (who may have felt TV's "The Brady Bunch" some 18 years later was but a retread), this passes muster as nostalgia, but it isn't a memorable vehicle for either star. ** from ****

"Week-End with Father" is very much in the same tradition as the film "Yours, Mine and Ours" as well as the show "The Brady Bunch"...especially the earlier episodes where the two families learn to care for each other.

Brad Stubbs (Van Heflin) and Jean Bowen (Patricia Neal) are both widowed with two children each. They meet just after dropping off their kids at summer camp...and soon they fall in love. But, when they come to pick up the kids and inform them that they're now about to become a blended family, things naturally don't go well. Is the upcoming marriage doomed....especially with Brad's AND Jean's exs being around as well and the kids hating their future parent?

I think the subject matter of this film could have been handled much better had the film relied less on sit-com style humor and instead dealt more with the realistic problems such a situation might entail. Additionally, having the parents both spring this on the kids like they did seemed really stupid...no wonder there were problems! Overall, while I like Van Heflin, the film is just a dopey time-passer and it could have been a lot more.

By the way, in an interesting bit of casting the two little girls are played by real life sisters, Gigi and Janine Perreau.

New York's Grand Central Station is full of children going away to summer camp. Among those present are widower Van Heflin (as Brad Stubbs) with his two girls, and widow Patricia Neal (as Jean Bowen) with her two boys. The previously unacquainted adults meet at the station while sending their twosomes away from home for the first time. You should have no trouble figuring out the basic storyline. The girls are real-life sisters Gigi Perreau (as Anne Stubbs) and Janine Perreau (as Patty Stubbs). The boys are Jimmy Hunt (as Garrett "Gary" Bowen) and Tommy Rettig (as David "Shorty" Bowen)...

During the "father-son" athletic competition, young Hunt sustained an injury and "little brother" Rettig found his role expanded. In some scenes, Hunt can be seen with his left arm held still or concealed...

This sort of story reached its madcap peak with "Yours, Mine and Ours" (1968). The adult romance is unexciting, but there is fun watching their rivals. Television star Virginia Field (as Phyllis Reynolds) also wants to wed Mr. Heflin, and muscular camp counselor Richard Denning (as Don Adams) desires Ms. Neal. As the co-stars hired "help", Frances E. Williams and Elvia Allman are amusing. Heflin and the children benefit particularly well from Douglas Sirk's capable direction. Playing a ten-year-old with nail polish and a toothy boyfriend, Gary Pagett (as Eddie), young Gigi is especially enchanting.

****** Week-End with Father (12/51) Douglas Sirk ~ Van Heflin, Patricia Neal, Gigi Perreau, Tommy Rettig

One of the best things about this movie is the girl who plays Van Heflin's oldest daughter in the film. She asks her father's girlfriend for a tube of lipstick, and he's shocked. The little girl has already told her father that she has a boyfriend, and now this. She plainly explains to dad that she's going to give it to a TV star that has come up to the camping resort so the star can write her autograph. The father sits back relieved, as his girlfriend (Patricia Neal) gives him a sympathetic look. The little girl skips away, but not before informing her father that the color of the lipstick is not her shade, anyway.

Richard Denning also has a good role as a health nut who has designs on Patricia Neal's character. She has two sons, neither of which wants their mother to marry Denning and be subjected to a life of tofu and bean sprouts. This is a good family film for all.

Perhaps the only Sirk movie which was aimed at the children's market ; the grown -up children would play an important part in his canon ;and they would often become selfish and even cruel when they grew up;in "all that Heaven allows" , they buy Jane Wyman a TV set so she will have the whole world in her hand and not marry the undistinguished uneducated gardener; in "there's always tomorrow" and "All I desire",children epitomize "adult moral" and keep their elders on the straight and narrow;"they keep the adults in the cages which society has prepared for them"(Sirk);in "imitation of life" a daughter disowns her mom because she wants to pass off as white and it leads to tragedy.

Already, in "week-end" ,children impose their vision , models provided by the society: the girls dream of movie stardom ,so a glamorous TV star is more attractive than a simple mother of two ; as for the boys ,virility is represented by beefcake counselor Don : what can oafish Van Heflin do against this dynamic superman? In spite of his unbearable self-assurance ,one can note that Don is ahead of his time,as far as health food is concerned : the future would prove him right.

Sirk's movie is thoroughly enjoyable and more meaningful than it may appear at first sight: when Brad boasts about his prowess as a boy scout, the boy removes the markers ;it becomes symbolic: their would be future parents take the wrong way ,whereas they think they are on the right way,they do not have to heed their own children's call .

The more Brad tries to resemble his children's model,the more he fails : during the sports contest , Van helflin loses on all accounts ;the girls discover that their icon is in love with herself , only interested in the autographs she signs and in her stardom ;she's a career-woman where children have no room.

And do not miss the ironical final slap at the so-called he-man.