20th Century Fox had a big hit with Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation and Take Her She's Mine so tried to get lightning to strike for a third time with another family comedy courtesy of Henry Koster and James Stewart. It didn't do as well - something I think partly explained via the premise. While there's universality in the premise of a family going on holiday, or worried that your daughter is getting too racy at college, there's not so much with your young son turning out to be a maths genius. That's the guts of the plot - they pad it out with some extra, dull conflict with arts professor Stewart being concerned that the humanities is being swamped by sciences, and the kid having a crush on Brigitte Bardot.
Fabian is second billed but his role is very small - the boyfriend of Stewart's daughter, whiny Cindy Carol (a one time Gidget), who gets Stewart Jnr (Billy Mumy) to bet at the track.... only he acts as a conduit for another guy so he actually doesn't even have ownership over that plot. His performance is professional and perfectly fine - more so than Carol, or Glynis Johns, whose Englishness jars in an admittedly thankless role (mostly going "there there" to Stewart and making food).
Billy Mumy is outstanding as the kid - this is the second biggest role. (I got the feeling scenes were dropped/cut in favour of Stewart-Mumy stuff eg there's a bit where the two of them go to buy a dress which feels padded.) Brigitte Bardot is winning her her cameo, and John Williams and Alice Pearce offer some good support.
But it's an unpleasant movie at heart - I didn't like Stewart's constant wailing about the importance of poetry, and being annoyed at his son's gift (which he exploits for his own ends), and the sexism (the female characters are all drags except Bardot). Structurally it felt wonky with the John Williams plot shoved in at the end, and Fabian's character under-utilised. There is bright colour and it's easy to watch but not up to Mr Hobbs.
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