| Bon Voyage! | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | James Neilson |
| Screenplay by | Bill Walsh |
| Based on | Bon Voyage! byJoseph & 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 |
|
Running time | 130 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million[1] |
| Box office | $5 million(rentals)[2] |
Bon Voyage! is a 1962 Americancomedy film directed byJames Neilson and produced byWalt Disney Productions. It starsFred MacMurray,Jane Wyman,Deborah Walley,Tommy Kirk, andKevin Corcoran as the Willard family on a European holiday. Thecharacter actorJames Millhollin appears in the film as the ship's librarian.[3]
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.
The film was based on a 1956 novel byJoseph and Merrijane Hayes. Joseph Hayes had writtenThe Desperate Hours andBon 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 whenBing Crosby was linked to the project.[8]
In early 1960, Disney optioned the novel. Disney said it was likelyKen Annakin would direct withKarl Malden,James MacArthur andJanet 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 picturesFrank Capra andHarold 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 ofWest Side Story.[15]Deborah Walley was cast on the basis of her performance inGidget Goes Hawaiian (in which Callan had also appeared[16] _.[17]
Filming began on 15 August 1961.[18] It took place partly on location on a genuine ocean liner, theSSUnited States,[19] 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.[20]
Tommy Kirk did not get along withJane Wyman:
I thought Jane Wyman was a hard, cold woman and I got to hate her by the time I was through withBon 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.[21]
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 doingGroucho 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![20]
The title song was written byDisney staff songwriters,Robert B. Sherman andRichard M. Sherman.
Bon Voyage! grossed $9,082,042 in the United States[22] and earned $5 million in theatrical rentals.[2] According toKinematograph Weekly the film was considered a "money maker" at the British box office in 1962.[23]
Bosley Crowther ofThe 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."[24]
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."[25] Philip K. Scheuer of theLos Angeles Times declared it "the half-year's funniest farce".[26]
Brendan Gill ofThe 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 asMark Twain and his 'Innocents Abroad', and maybe toSterne and his 'Sentimental Journey'."[27]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The film, though unmistakably from the Disney stable, has little of the affectionately zany humor that so unexpectedly enlivenedThe Parent Trap andThe Absent-Minded Professor."[28]
The film was nominated for twoAcademy Awards:[29]
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