The pitfalls of taking a family vacation are depicted in this 1962 comedy with James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara.
The couple trade plans for a vacation in France to a beach house in the west. Everything seems to go wrong from the start. The plumbing stinks and the house is described as being one worse than Dragonwyck.
Both grown daughters show up only to bicker with their husbands.
John McGiver is perfectly cast as an eccentric guest who rather leads a dull life watching birds. Marie Wilson again shows her comedic gift as a dumb blond when she is locked in the bathroom with the Stewart character.
Then there is the teenage daughter who is ashamed of her braces until she finds and falls for Fabian at a dance.
The best part of the movie is that Stewart keeps emphasizing the importance of the family structure. The film goes down as it becomes an inane task of predictable situations and outcomes.
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