I'll Take Sweden

In an effort to keep daughter Tuesday Weld away from bad boy Frankie Avalon, Bob Hope takes a job in Sweden. This is just another of the egregiously unfunny movies Hope was making in the 1960s. The film has one distinguishing feature: it manages to cast Weld and make her completely unappealing! Surprisingly cast to begin with, Weld has little to do but roll her eyes or wince at Hope's unfunny wisecracks. Perhaps Annette Funicello or Deborah Walley would have been a better choice for Weld's role. She's far too intelligent to have us believe she'd be smitten with the empty headed Avalon. The presence of classy Dina Merrill, as Hope's love interest, is a plus even if her Swedish accent is a bit half-hearted. Directed, in the style of the average 60s sitcom, by the undistinguished Fred DeCordova.

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.

For a Hope fan like me, the flick was a disappointment. Don't look for his comically flustered style til the last part, when he runs amusingly through the many stranger-filled hotel bedrooms -- and just what is it those bedroom couples are doing? It's then that the movie really gels.

That's not to overlook the opening scene where gyrating teens of the mid-1960's could light up a city, while Hope's strait-laced father looks on disapprovingly. So how's he going to keep daughter Weld from marrying into Avalon's reckless crew. By moving to sophisticated Sweden, of course. Trouble is, as Dad finds out, Sweden's even looser sexually than back in the good old USA. Good thing Sweden's Dina Merrill is there to help ease his protective tension. But what about the stiffly handsome Slate whose got his Swedish eye on Weld. So what's Dad to do.

Basically the movie's about sexual innuendo at a time when American mores were changing from the conformist 1950's. (A couple more years and the free-wheeling Hippie movement would appear.) So in that cultural sense the movie appears unfortunately dated with its cutting-edge emphasis of the time. I'm surmising, but I suspect Hope was hoping to connect with the younger generation, given the flick's key aspects. Too bad his brand of delightful humor wasn't better served.

Anyway, for Hope fans, hang on til the last part when the tempo picks up. In the meantime, there's cutie Weld to entertain the eyes of hormonal guys like me.

"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.

Everyone should watch this film, not because it is funny (it isn't), but as a guide to show you what lengths studios & stars will go to cover up a stars physical flaw.

Whenever Bob Hope is on screen not wearing a hat, there is an annoying shadow on top of his head. At first I thought this was just a case of a bad director shooting the shadow of a boom mike, but as this is present throughout the whole film, and the shadow is only on Hope's head, I figured out that is was their way of hiding the fact that Bob Hope was balding. I was fascinated by this, so much in fact, that I eventually tuned out the movie (a pretty easy feat), and just starting watching the shadow on Bob Hope's head.