James Stewart prolonged his career as a star with some amiable family comedies – after Mad Men it’s fun to revisit these tales of commuting businessmen with their stresses, beautiful housewives and bratty boomer children. But it’s got a universal theme – parents going on holidays with kids, struggling to connect with them – and a good script from Nunnally Johnson. The plot is a series of sequences, with Stewart trying to do the right thing by his kids: worrying about his 14 year old daughter (Laurie Peters) with braces get a dance, taking his young son on a boat trip that goes wrong, sucking up to his son in law's prospective boss, dealing with another irritating son in law (John Saxon). He also has some adult plots: being jealous of a man paying attention to his wife (Maureen O'Hara), and having a stacked blonde pay attention to him.
Some funny lines and a surprising amount of honesty - I'm surprised Steve Martin hasn't remade this. Fabian is billed third after Stewart and O'Hara but doesn't have a massive role - it's not a bad part, as a guy Stewart bribes to dance with his daughter but who ends up liking her. (She's only 14 - he's a little old for her and it's very easy to make fun of this plot). He sings a duet with Peters who can actually sing. Solid performances from everyone else - O'Hara doesn't have much to do, it's really Stewart's film.
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