National Lampoon's European Vacation | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster by Boris Vallejo | |
Directed by | Amy Heckerling |
Screenplay by | Robert Klane |
Based on | Characters by John Hughes |
Produced by | Matty Simmons |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Paynter |
Edited by | Pembroke J. Herring |
Music by | Charles Fox |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $17 million [2] |
Box office | $49.3 million [3] |
National Lampoon's European Vacation is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Robert Klane based on characters created by John Hughes. The second film in National Lampoon's Vacation film series, it stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, Victor Lanoux, and Eric Idle with special appearances by John Astin, Paul Bartel, Maureen Lipman, Willy Millowitsch, Mel Smith, and Moon Zappa. It tells the story of the Griswold family when they win an all-expense-paid trip to Europe as chaos of all sorts occur.
The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a financial success.
The Griswold family competes in a game show called Pig in a Poke and win an all-expense-paid trip to Europe, and in a whirlwind tour of Western Europe, chaos sorts ensues.
They stay in a sordid London hotel with a sloppy, tattooed Cockney desk clerk. While in their English rental car, a yellow Austin Maxi, Clark's tendency to drive on the wrong side of the road causes frequent accidents. Later, Clark drives the family around the busy Lambeth Bridge roundabout for hours, unable to maneuver out of the chaotic traffic. At Stonehenge, he accidentally backs the car into an ancient stone monolith, toppling all the stones like dominoes.
In Paris, the family's camcorder is stolen by a passerby whom Clark had asked to take a picture of the family. Clark is also mocked by a French waiter for his terrible French, although he does not realize it. The family wears stenciled berets, causing Rusty to be teased by young women at the Eiffel Tower observation deck. Clark offers to get rid of the beret for Rusty, but when he throws it away, another visitor's dachshund mistakes it for a frisbee and jumps off the tower after it, landing safely in a nearby fountain. Later, Clark and Ellen visit a bawdy Paris can-can dance show, finding Rusty there with a prostitute.
Next in a West German village, the Griswolds burst in on a bewildered elderly couple, whom they mistakenly think are relatives due to mistaking the address, but the couple provides them dinner and lodging anyway, each family not able to understand the other's language. Clark turns a lively Bavarian folk dance stage performance into an all-out street brawl, after which, while fleeing, he hastily knocks down several street vendors' stands and gets their Citroën DS stuck in a narrow medieval archway.
In Rome, the Griswolds rent a car at a travel office, but unknown to them, the men in charge are thieves holding the real manager captive. The lead thief gives them a car with the manager in the trunk, claiming he lost the trunk keys. The next day, Ellen is shocked to discover that private, sexy videos of her from the family's stolen camcorder have been used in a billboard advertising porn, leaving her humiliated. After screaming at Clark (who had told her he had erased the video), Ellen storms off to their hotel, where she encounters the thief who rented them the car. She confesses her troubles, still unaware that he is a criminal. The man then tries to get the car keys, which are in her purse, but fails. When the police arrive at the hotel, he kidnaps Ellen and takes her away in the Volkswagen Beetle. Clark chases the thief all over Rome until he ends it up in a fountain. The police arrest the thief.
On the flight home, Clark tries to find a WC but falls into the pilot's cockpit and accidentally forces the plane to drop altitude, knocking the Statue of Liberty's torch upside down as Rusty declares, "Yep, the Griswolds are back."
The Griswolds:
Characters in America:
Characters in England:
Characters in France:
Characters in Germany:
Characters in Italy:
John Hughes received nominal credit for writing and story, due to the use of characters and ideas from the first Vacation film, but was not directly involved with European Vacation. [5] Hughes would later state that Warner Bros. had begged him for a sequel to Vacation but he declined at the time. He would eventually agree to return to the franchise by adapting one of his other National Lampoon stories, "Christmas '59," into National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation in 1989. [6]
Producer Matty Simmons initially told Dana Barron she would be returning to the role of Audrey. But after Anthony Michael Hall declined to reprise his role and was opting to star in Weird Science , Heckerling requested both children be recast. [7]
Famous landmarks and sights appearing as the family tours England, France, West Germany, and Italy include: [8]
Other locations used in the film include:
Scenes supposedly taking place in West Germany were actually shot in a German-speaking part of Italy (Brixen).
The musical score for National Lampoon's European Vacation was composed by Charles Fox, who replaced Ralph Burns of the first film. Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road" was once again featured as the film's theme song, with many other contemporary songs included throughout the film.
National Lampoon's European Vacation opened July 26, 1985 in 1,546 North American theaters and grossed $12,329,627 its opening weekend, ranking number one at the box office. [9] After its initial run, the film grossed a total of $49,364,621 domestically.
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives National Lampoon's European Vacation a score of 37% based on reviews from 30 critics, with an average of 5.1 out of 10. The critical consensus reads; "European Vacation charts a course through a succession of pretty destinations, but the journey itself lacks the laughs that made the original outing so memorable." [10] On Metacritic, it has a score of 47 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [11]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times thought positively of the film stating, "While it's very much a retread, it succeeds in following up the first film's humor with more in a similar vein." She added, "The film's best visual humor arises from the mere juxtaposition of European settings with the funny hats, T-shirts and soda cans with which the Griswolds announce their presence." [12] Entertainment magazine Variety gave the film a negative review explaining, "As the family of characters cartwheel through London, Paris, Italy and Germany - with the French deliciously taking it on the chin for their arrogance and rudeness - director Amy Heckerling gets carried away with physical humor while letting her American tourists grow tiresome and predictable. Structurally, the film unfolds like a series of travel brochures." [13]
John Wilden Hughes Jr. was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He began his career in 1970 as an author of humorous essays and stories for the National Lampoon magazine. He went on in Hollywood to write, produce and sometimes direct some of the most successful live-action comedy films of the 1980s and 1990s. He directed such films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, and Uncle Buck; and wrote the films National Lampoon's Vacation, Mr. Mom, Pretty in Pink, The Great Outdoors, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Dutch, and Beethoven.
Anthony Michael Hall is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the teen-centered John Hughes films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science.
Willy Millowitsch was a German stage and TV actor and the director of the Volkstheater Millowitsch in Cologne.
National Lampoon's Vacation, sometimes referred to as simply Vacation, is a 1983 American road trip black comedy directed by Harold Ramis starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut with special appearances by Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, Miriam Flynn, James Keach, Eugene Levy, and Frank McRae.
Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress who starred as Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon's Vacation films (1983–2015). She has appeared in over 60 films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role as Patsy Cline in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and for an Emmy Award for her role as Stella Kowalski in the TV film A Streetcar Named Desire (1984). D'Angelo's other film roles include Sheila Franklin in Hair (1979) and Doris Vinyard in American History X (1998).
Amy Heckerling is an American writer, producer, and director. Heckerling started out her career after graduating from New York University. Her career started from independent films to directing major studio films.
A pig in a poke is a thing that is bought without first being inspected, and thus of unknown authenticity or quality. The idiom is attested in 1555:
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American Christmas comedy film and the third installment in National Lampoon magazine's Vacation film series. Christmas Vacation was directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik, written and co-produced by John Hughes, and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Randy Quaid with supporting roles by Miriam Flynn, William Hickey, Mae Questel, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E.G. Marshall, Doris Roberts, Juliette Lewis, and Johnny Galecki.
Dana Hill was an American actress and voice artist. She was known for playing Audrey Griswold in National Lampoon's European Vacation, and also known for her roles in Shoot the Moon and Cross Creek. As a voice actress, she was known for her work as Max Goof in Goof Troop. Hill had diabetes that affected physical growth, which meant that she often played children into adolescence and beyond.
Dana Barron is an American actress who is best known for her role as the original Audrey Griswold in the 1983 film National Lampoon's Vacation which she reprised in 2003's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure for NBC television.
Vegas Vacation is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Stephen Kessler in his feature directorial debut. It is the fourth installment in National Lampoon’s Vacation film series, and was written by Elisa Bell, based on a story by Bell and Bob Ducsay. The film stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Wayne Newton, Ethan Embry, and Wallace Shawn. It tells the story of Clark Griswold taking his family to Las Vegas to renew his vows to Ellen as the series' usual hilarity occurs. The film opened at #4 at the box office and grossed over $36.4 million domestically. Vegas Vacation is the first theatrical Vacation film not to carry the National Lampoon label or a screenwriting credit from John Hughes. Also, this is the only National Lampoon film to be released in the 1990s and the final film released before National Lampoon magazine folded. this was also the last Vacation movie to be released until New Line Cinema, a production company of Warner Bros, produced a reboot that was released 18 years later in 2015.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2 is a 2003 American made-for-television comedy film. It is the only film in the Vacation franchise not to star Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold respectively. It premiered December 20, 2003 on NBC and stars Randy Quaid and Miriam Flynn reprising their roles as Cousin Eddie and Catherine, along with Dana Barron reprising her role as Audrey Griswold. It is a spin-off/sequel to the 1989 film, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Victor Lanoux was a French actor best known to English speaking audiences for his role as Ludovic in Cousin, Cousine.
National Lampoon's Vacation film series is a comedy film series initially based on John Hughes' short story "Vacation '58" that was originally published by National Lampoon magazine. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of five main films, two of which are not sponsored by National Lampoon, and one spin-off. In recent years, the series has been the inspiration for various advertising campaigns featuring some of the original cast members. The series portrays the misadventures of the Griswold family, whose attempts to enjoy vacations and holidays are plagued with continual disasters and strangely embarrassing predicaments.
Hotel Hell Vacation is an American online comedy short film released on February 7, 2010 on HomeAway's website. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprise their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold. It was the first time Clark and Ellen had been seen in a Vacation film since 1997's Vegas Vacation; they later appeared together again in 2015's Vacation. The fourteen-minute short premiered as a series of commercials during the Super Bowl to help promote HomeAway, Inc. Although sanctioned by Warner Bros., this film was not sponsored by National Lampoon, Inc., which initiated the Vacation series.
Jonathan Michael Goldstein is an American filmmaker best known for his work on Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Game Night, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Horrible Bosses.
Pig in a poke is an idiom that refers to a kind of confidence trick.
Vacation is a 2015 American road comedy film written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. It stars Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Beverly D'Angelo, Chris Hemsworth, and Chevy Chase. It is the fifth and final theatrical installment of the Vacation film series, serving as a standalone sequel to Vegas Vacation (1997). It is also the second not to carry the National Lampoon name after Vegas Vacation.
The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by David Rossmer and Steve Rosen. It is based on the characters from the National Lampoon's Vacation film series.