Bon Voyage! (1962 film)

Last updated
Bon Voyage!
Bon Voyage - 1963 - Poster.png
Theatrical release poster
Directed by James Neilson
Screenplay by Bill Walsh
Based onBon Voyage!
by Joseph & Merrjane Hayes
Produced by Walt Disney
Starring
Cinematography William Snyder
Edited by Cotton Warburton
Music by Paul Smith
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
Release date
  • May 17, 1962 (1962-05-17)
Running time
130 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3 million [1]
Box office$5 million (rentals) [2]

Bon Voyage! is a 1962 American comedy film directed by James Neilson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It stars Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman, Deborah Walley, Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran as the Willard family on a European holiday.

Contents

The character actor James Millhollin appears in the film as the ship's librarian. [3]

Plot

Harry Willard finally makes good his promise to take his bride of 20 years on a long-delayed trip by ship to Europe. They are accompanied by their 19-year-old son (Elliott), 18-year-old daughter (Amy), and 11-year-old son (Skipper). From the time they arrive at the dock, an unending series of comedy adventures and romantic encounters ensue until, exhausted but happy, they leave with memories that will stay with them all for years to come.

Cast

Production

Development

The film was based on a 1956 novel by Joseph and Merrijane Hayes. Joseph Hayes had written The Desperate Hours and Bon Voyage was his second book; he and his wife wrote it after taking a trip across the Atlantic. [4]

Film rights were bought by Universal before the book had even been published for $125,000 and that the film was to be produced by Ross Hunter and written by the Hayes'. [5] Esther Williams was originally announced as star. [6] Then, James Cagney was going to play the lead. [7] Filming dates were pushed back when Bing Crosby was linked to the project. [8]

In early 1960, Disney optioned the novel. Disney said it was likely Ken Annakin would direct with Karl Malden, James MacArthur and Janet Munro to star. [9] Later, Robert Stevenson was announced as director. [10] [11]

Disney said: "It's far out for us, but still Disney. I'm really a gag man and missed the kind of pictures Frank Capra and Harold Lloyd used to make. Since nobody else wanted to do them, I decided to make them myself." [12]

Eventually, Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman, and Tommy Kirk were confirmed as the three leads, [13] but casting the daughter proved more difficult. Disney commented: "You must build a picture. You don't write it all – only part of it. And it's the light and comic picture that's toughest of all to build." [14]

Michael Callan was cast from the play of West Side Story . [15] Deborah Walley was cast on the basis of her performance in Gidget Goes Hawaiian . [16]

Shooting

Filming began on 15 August 1961. [17] It took place partly on location on a genuine ocean cruiser travelling across the Atlantic and in France. Walt Disney accompanied the film on location. [1] Tommy Kirk recalled it as a troublesome production:

We all got sick in France. Everybody got this awful dysentery; everybody was sick as dogs for a couple of weeks. And we still had to shoot; I remember that. Frankly, I couldn’t stand James Neilson, the director; I thought he was a real jerk. He had all the tact of a toilet seat; 1 just couldn't stand him. [18]

Tommy Kirk did not get along with Jane Wyman:

I thought Jane Wyman was a hard, cold woman and I got to hate her by the time I was through with Bon Voyage. Of course, she didn't like me either, so I guess it came natural. I think she had some suspicion that I was gay and all I can say is that, if she didn't like me for that, she doesn't like a lot of people. [19]

Kirk says the film was the only time he had a fight with Fred MacMurray.

There was an actor on the movie, named Elliot Reid, who was always doing Groucho Marx impressions, and I said a Groucho line, kidding Fred: “Oh, no, you've got the close-up and I get the back of my head." And he took it wrong and he turned around and turned red in the face, and he just shook from head to toe, and he put his finger in my face and gave me the worst bawling out I’ve ever had in my life. You know, whoa! [18]

The title song was written by Disney staff songwriters, Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman.

Reception

Box office

Bon Voyage! grossed $9,082,042 in the United States [20] and earned $5 million in theatrical rentals. [2] According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was considered a "money maker" at the British box office in 1962. [21]

Critical

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: "Everything possibly unearthable in the way of an obvious cliché involving the hick behavior of American tourists abroad seems to have been dug out from somewhere by the screen-playwright, Bill Walsh, and made to fit into this enactment of a family's vacation odyssey." [22]

Variety stated: "Walt Disney dishes up another comedy blockbuster in this rollicking tour de force of an American family seeing Europe for the first time." [23] Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times declared it "the half-year's funniest farce". [24]

Brendan Gill of The New Yorker wrote that Disney "always manages to put a pleasing, no-expense-spared shine on his goods, but in this case the goods go back at least as far as Mark Twain and his 'Innocents Abroad', and maybe to Sterne and his 'Sentimental Journey'." [25]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The film, though unmistakably from the Disney stable, has little of the affectionately zany humor that so unexpectedly enlivened The Parent Trap and The Absent-Minded Professor ." [26]

Awards

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: [27]

Related Research Articles

<i>With a Song in My Heart</i> (film) 1952 film by Walter Lang

With a Song in My Heart is a 1952 American biographical musical drama film that tells the story of actress and singer Jane Froman, who was crippled by an airplane crash on February 22, 1943, when the Boeing 314 Pan American Clipper flying boat she was on suffered a crash landing in the Tagus River near Lisbon, Portugal. She entertained the troops in World War II despite having to walk with crutches. The film stars Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner, Helen Westcott, and Una Merkel. Froman herself supplied Hayward's singing voice.

Annette Joanne Funicello was an American actress and singer. She began her professional career at age 12, becoming one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. In her teenage years, Funicello had a successful career as a pop singer recording under the name "Annette". Her most notable singles are "O Dio Mio", "First Name Initial", "Tall Paul", and "Pineapple Princess". During the mid-1960s, she established herself as a film actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party" genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon.

<i>The Shaggy Dog</i> (1959 film) American film directed by Charles Barton

The Shaggy Dog is a 1959 American fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1923 novel The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten. Directed by Charles Barton from a screenplay by Lillie Hayward and Bill Walsh, the film stars Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk, Jean Hagen, Kevin Corcoran, Tim Considine, Roberta Shore, and Annette Funicello. The film follows a teenage boy named Wilby Daniels who, by the power of an enchanted ring of the Borgias, is transformed into a shaggy Old English Sheepdog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Kirk</span> American actor (1941–2021)

Thomas Lee Kirk was an American actor, best known for his performances in films made by Walt Disney Studios such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, The Absent-Minded Professor, and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, as well as the beach party films of the mid-1960s. He frequently appeared as a love interest for Annette Funicello or as part of a family with Kevin Corcoran as his younger brother and Fred MacMurray as his father.

William Crozier Walsh was a film producer, screenwriter and comics writer who primarily worked on live-action films for Walt Disney Productions. He was born in New York City. For his work on Mary Poppins, he shared Academy Award nominations for Best Picture with Walt Disney, and for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium with Don DaGradi. He also wrote the Mickey Mouse comic strip for more than two decades.

<i>Babes in Toyland</i> (1961 film) 1961 Disney film by Jack Donohue

Babes in Toyland is a 1961 American Christmas musical film directed by Jack Donohue and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It stars Ray Bolger as Barnaby, Tommy Sands as Tom Piper, Annette Funicello as Mary Contrary, and Ed Wynn as the Toymaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Walley</span> American actress (1941–2001)

Deborah Walley was an American actress noted for playing the title role in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and appearing in several beach party films.

<i>Savage Sam</i> (film) 1963 film by Norman Tokar

Savage Sam is a 1963 American Western film sequel to Old Yeller based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Fred Gipson. Norman Tokar directed the live-action film, which was released by Walt Disney Productions on June 1, 1963. It did not enjoy the success of the original.

<i>The Trouble with Angels</i> (film) 1966 film by Ida Lupino

The Trouble with Angels is a 1966 American comedy film about the adventures of two girls in an all-girls Catholic school run by nuns. The film was the final theatrical feature to be directed by Ida Lupino and stars Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell, and June Harding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Callan</span> American actor (1935–2022)

Michael Callan, sometimes known as Mickey Collins, was an American actor best known for originating the role of Riff in West Side Story on Broadway, and for his film roles for Columbia Pictures, notably Gidget Goes Hawaiian, The Interns and Cat Ballou.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Munro</span> British actress (1934–1972)

Janet Munro was a British actress. She won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the film Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) and received a BAFTA Film Award nomination for her performance in the film Life for Ruth (1962).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Corcoran</span> American actor and film director (1949–2015)

Kevin Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran was an American child actor, director and producer. He appeared in numerous Disney projects between 1957 and 1963, leading him to be honored as a Disney Legend in 2006. His nickname, Moochie, established him as an irrepressible character in film.

<i>Son of Flubber</i> 1963 film by Robert Stevenson

Son of Flubber is a 1963 American science fiction comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. It is the sequel to The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and the first sequel to a Disney film. Fred MacMurray reprises his role from the previous film as Ned Brainard, a scientist who has perfected a high-bouncing substance, Flubber, that can levitate an automobile and cause athletes to bounce into the sky. In addition to MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Ed Wynn, Elliott Reid, and Tommy Kirk also co-star, reprising their roles from the previous film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diane McBain</span> American actress (1941–2022)

Diane Jean McBain was an American actress who, as a Warner Brothers contract player, reached a brief peak of popularity during the early 1960s. She was best known for playing an adventurous socialite in the 1960–1962 television series Surfside 6 and as one of Elvis Presley's leading ladies in 1966's Spinout.

<i>The Truth About Spring</i> 1965 film by Richard Thorpe

The Truth about Spring is a 1965 American-British Technicolor adventure film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Hayley Mills, John Mills and James MacArthur. It is a romantic comedy adventure. It was released by Universal. According to Filmink "it tried to be a Disney-style adventure-romance, complete with another Disney alumni as lead and location filming (Spain), but did not work."

<i>Third Man on the Mountain</i> 1959 film

Third Man on the Mountain is a 1959 American family adventure film by Walt Disney Productions, directed by Ken Annakin and starring Michael Rennie, James MacArthur and Janet Munro. Set during the golden age of alpinism, its plot concerns a young Swiss man who conquers the mountain that killed his father. It is based on Banner in the Sky, a James Ramsey Ullman 1955 novel about the first ascent of the Citadel, and was televised under this name.

<i>In Search of the Castaways</i> (film) 1962 film by Robert Stevenson

In Search of the Castaways is a 1962 American adventure film starring Maurice Chevalier and Hayley Mills in a tale about a worldwide search for a shipwrecked sea captain. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Robert Stevenson from a screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley, based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.

<i>Bachelor in Paradise</i> (film) 1961 film

Bachelor in Paradise is a 1961 American Metrocolor, CinemaScope romantic comedy film starring Bob Hope and Lana Turner. Directed by Jack Arnold, it was written by Valentine Davies and Hal Kanter, based on a story by Vera Caspary.

The Horsemasters was a 2-part episode of the Disneyland TV show from 1961 which screened theatrically in some countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Escapade in Florence</span> 2nd and 3rd episodes of the 9th season of The Magical World of Disney

"Escapade in Florence" is a two-part episode of The Magical World of Disney television show which was released theatrically in some countries. Walt Disney described it as a "two-part teenage comedy adventure" which was "international in flavor". The show first aired on September 30 and October 7, 1962, and was repeated in June 1963 and June 1969.

References

  1. 1 2 EUGENE ARCHER (Aug 20, 1961). "DISNEY & FAMILY ROLL ON THE HIGH SEAS". New York Times. p. X5.
  2. 1 2 Top 20 Films of 1962 by Domestic Revenue
  3. ↑ "James Millhollin". Internet Movie Database . Retrieved September 8, 2011.
  4. ↑ Hansen, Harry (Oct 2, 1955). "Writing Demon, Deep in a Flood Story, Then Along Came Diane to Upset His Plans". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. c9.
  5. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (Oct 9, 1956). "'Bon Voyage' Announced as Major Buy; 'Holiday in Monaco' Wald Film". Los Angeles Times. p. C11.
  6. ↑ Hopper, Hedda (Jan 18, 1957). "Looking at Hollywood: Esther Williams Gets Role of Mother of 5 in Next Film". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. a7.
  7. ↑ THOMAS M. PRYOR (July 15, 1957). "CAGNEY TO HEAD 'BON VOYAGE' CAST: Actor Signs for Third Film at Universal--Columbia Plans 'Wackiest Ship' Ladd Firm Buys Story". New York Times. p. 15.
  8. ↑ THOMAS M. PRYOR (Oct 22, 1958). "STRANGE VICTORY BROUGHT BY LLESSER: Story by Rose Franken and Husband to Be Filmed -- Kovacs Signs Contract". New York Times. p. 40.
  9. ↑ A. H. WEILER. (Jan 10, 1960). "BY WAY OF REPORT: Disney Plans 'Voyage' -- Other Movie Items". New York Times. p. X7.
  10. ↑ A. H. WEILER. (Mar 5, 1961). "VIEW FROM A LOCAL VANTAGE POINT: On the Harvey, Disney Production Schedule -- Freedom Subject". New York Times. p. X7.
  11. ↑ A. H. WEILER. (Dec 25, 1960). "GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Or, the Annual Survey of a Few Fine Plans That Failed to Materialize". New York Times. p. X9.
  12. ↑ Hopper, Hedda (Apr 20, 1962). "Looking at Hollywood: Disney Out of Step? Not at Box Office". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. b14.
  13. ↑ Vagg, Stephen (9 September 2019). "The Cinema of Tommy Kirk". Diabolique Magazine.
  14. ↑ John C. Waugh. The (Mar 14, 1961). "A Legendary Tale Spinner Looks Ahead--British TV Adjusts a Balance: Disney Boosting Live-Action Films". Christian Science Monitor. p. 6.
  15. ↑ Hopper, Hedda (June 19, 1961). "Looking at Hollywood: Hedda Has High Praise for 'Guns of Navarone'". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. b2.
  16. ↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (Aug 10, 1961). "'Gidgets' Deborah Signed by Disney: Oboler Adding Two to Five; 'World by Night' Fascinating". Los Angeles Times. p. B13.
  17. ↑ HEDDA HOPPER'S STAFF (Apr 29, 1961). "Looking at Hollywood: Disney Film of Sea Chase to Start Soon". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 15.
  18. 1 2 Valley, Richard (1993). "Just an Average Joe (Hardy): An Interview with Tommy Kirk". Scarlet Street (10): 60–69 at p 66. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  19. ↑ Minton, Kevin, "Sex, Lies, and Disney Tape: Walt's Fallen Star", Filmfax Issue 38, April 1993 p 71
  20. ↑ Box Office Information for Bon Voyage! The Numbers. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  21. ↑ Billings, Josh (13 December 1962). "Three British Films Head the General Releases". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 7. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  22. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (May 18, 1962). "Screen: 'Bon Voyage!' at Music Hall". The New York Times . 34.
  23. ↑ "Film Reviews: Bon Voyage". Variety . May 9, 1962. 6.
  24. ↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (June 24, 1962). "Frontrunners in '62 Movie Sweepstakes". Los Angeles Times . Calendar, p. 7.
  25. ↑ Gill, Brendan (May 26, 1962). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker . 133-134.
  26. ↑ "Bon Voyage". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 29 (343): 111. August 1962.
  27. ↑ "The 35th Academy Awards (1963) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.