Well, what married man can't relate to the travails and perils of a family vacation. This picture brought to mind my own family getaways, making me wonder how I didn't break my arm trying to swat the kids fighting in the back seat of the car with the other hand precariously balanced on the steering wheel. Only the Traveling Wilburys managed to ease the trip, as everyone seemed to get into their song called 'End of the Line' with the repeated refrain, 'Well it's alright'. When that one came on, it was like a half time break from all the arguing and 'he started it' beeswax.
With the opening credits, I was intrigued by the mention of Minerva Urecal in the cast. I picture her as a creepy housekeeper from a wide variety of genre films of the Forties, so what does she show up as here? A creepy housekeeper for the Hobbs family with the unlikely name of Brenda. I wish she had more of a role in the story, she could have been put in charge of that little rugrat in the story that kept calling Roger Hobbs (Stewart) 'boompa'. I was surprised Hobbs didn't give him a boompa right up side the head, the kid deserved it.
And speaking of unruly kids, this might be one of the first movies to begin addressing the issue of 'never say no' to them, the fallout of which we're living with today in the form of 'safe spaces' on college campuses and amnesty from the unimaginable horrors of real life. It makes me wonder how my generation managed to grow up normal. But I guess normal is kind of relative, as long as you have the right kind of relatives.
Which apparently, the Hobbses did not. For a family picture, son-in-law Stan (Josh Peine) took it on the lam pretty quickly after arriving at the beach house. I didn't register much of a connection between married daughter Janie (Lili Gentle) and her husband Byron (John Saxon) either, so the family bonding duties fell to Roger and son Danny (Michael Burns), which was actually kind of touching following the frightening lost at sea sequence.
And who should show up for the teenage gals in the audience but era heart throb Fabian as the hip teen Joe Carmody. You know it's funny, I was a teenager in the mid-Sixties myself, and never ran across Fabian in any venue until well past his prime. I have no idea how that could be but that's the story. I had to laugh when he gave the Bobby Darin album to Katey (Lauri Peters) as a going away present; couldn't the film makers have thrown him a bone and come up with a Fabian record?
With the benefit of age and hindsight, this picture has a lot to offer for us older movie viewers, but the best was near the end of the story when Stan, who got a job and reconciled with his wife, used the word 'stoned' to describe the episode with Mr. Turner (John McGiver) over the bathroom fiasco. As best as my memory can serve, 1962 might have been right at the cusp of that word transitioning to refer to pot smokers. Who knows what it might mean in another decade or so?
With the opening credits, I was intrigued by the mention of Minerva Urecal in the cast. I picture her as a creepy housekeeper from a wide variety of genre films of the Forties, so what does she show up as here? A creepy housekeeper for the Hobbs family with the unlikely name of Brenda. I wish she had more of a role in the story, she could have been put in charge of that little rugrat in the story that kept calling Roger Hobbs (Stewart) 'boompa'. I was surprised Hobbs didn't give him a boompa right up side the head, the kid deserved it.
And speaking of unruly kids, this might be one of the first movies to begin addressing the issue of 'never say no' to them, the fallout of which we're living with today in the form of 'safe spaces' on college campuses and amnesty from the unimaginable horrors of real life. It makes me wonder how my generation managed to grow up normal. But I guess normal is kind of relative, as long as you have the right kind of relatives.
Which apparently, the Hobbses did not. For a family picture, son-in-law Stan (Josh Peine) took it on the lam pretty quickly after arriving at the beach house. I didn't register much of a connection between married daughter Janie (Lili Gentle) and her husband Byron (John Saxon) either, so the family bonding duties fell to Roger and son Danny (Michael Burns), which was actually kind of touching following the frightening lost at sea sequence.
And who should show up for the teenage gals in the audience but era heart throb Fabian as the hip teen Joe Carmody. You know it's funny, I was a teenager in the mid-Sixties myself, and never ran across Fabian in any venue until well past his prime. I have no idea how that could be but that's the story. I had to laugh when he gave the Bobby Darin album to Katey (Lauri Peters) as a going away present; couldn't the film makers have thrown him a bone and come up with a Fabian record?
With the benefit of age and hindsight, this picture has a lot to offer for us older movie viewers, but the best was near the end of the story when Stan, who got a job and reconciled with his wife, used the word 'stoned' to describe the episode with Mr. Turner (John McGiver) over the bathroom fiasco. As best as my memory can serve, 1962 might have been right at the cusp of that word transitioning to refer to pot smokers. Who knows what it might mean in another decade or so?