All action/adventure stars seem to want to try comedy - this was Jeff Chandler's first and only attempt at this genre and it's not too bad. He's helped in that Chandler doesn't have to carry the weight of the comedy for the most part - he's a straight man. The plot is pushed by Tim Hovey, a little kid who makes up stories about having an explorer father at boarding school and and picks Chandler to meet the bill.
Hovey is a cute little kid who was under contract to Universal and who had appeared in The Private War of Major Benson; he had a sort of Brandon de Wilde in Shane vibe and is endearing.
Story wise the big problem with the film for me is that Chandler works with Day and just happens to visit the same town where Day's kid lives. This whole thing wasn't really necessary - they could've had them meet as strangers. And the film doesn't hot house their romance anyway. (Which I kind've liked).
I felt the film could've done with a villain - there is the bratty kid who wants to expose Hovey but he disappears after the first act. A love rival for Chandler and/or Day would've been good. David Janssen pops up as Chandler's assistant who thinks he's fathered a child and you think he's going to do more but he doesn't. The character of the wise old painter is annoying. Why have him in the film if his only function is to make Chandler realise there's more to life than work - Hovey does that. They should've had him visit town to meet his fiancee or something.
But I'm sniping. This is actually a sweet film with a decent motto - about the importance of not over working. The success of Mad Men make it fun to see Chandler as an art designer and Day as a top executive.Day is punished a little bit for daring to have a career, but I did like the compromise ending where Chandler and she both agreed to work for a bit to set things up for them and Hovey (they dump the kid at boarding school at the end - it's not that feel good). There's a lot of charm. The kids are decent.
Chandler does some slapstick in the middle act when he's pretending to be a bushman. He's not great but he's not horrible. Laraine Day acts like a sensible middle aged movie star. I wonder why they cast her in this? She wasn't getting many lead roles around this time. She is well suited. Maybe she was cheap.
Aussie audiences will get a kick out of Cecil Kellaway in the cast and the scene where Hovey pretends his dad has been exploring in Australia, seeing kookaburras - leading to a running gag where Hovey and his mates imitate a kookaburra call.
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