National Lampoon’s European Vacation ** (1985, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Dana Hill) – Classic Movie Review 6,462

Chevvy Chase re-creates his vastly popular star role as Clark Griswold in the wild, daft 1985 comedy sequel film National Lampoon’s European Vacation.

The always likeable, perennially grinning Chevvy Chase re-creates his wildly popular star role as Clark Griswold, who takes his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and family (Jason Lively as Rusty Griswold, Dana Hill as Audrey Griswold) to England, France and Germany in this wild, daft, disaster-strewn farce with more than its fair share of unfunny and oppressive jokes among the funny ones.

National Lampoon’s European Vacation is also held back by game but hammy performances from the over-eager-to-please players, who nevertheless do their absolute best to bale out the simple-minded, hit-and-miss fun. And the result is quite a few notches down the success scale from the original, National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983). But there are quite a lot of laughs, and ex-Monty Python star Eric Idle gets his laughs as a polite British cyclist.

It is directed by Amy Heckerling, one of Hollywood’s few women directors, who ironically was accused of delivering a film full of sexist humour.

Also in the cast are Victor Lanoux, John Astin, Paul Bartel, Mel Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Gwen Nelson, Maureen Lipman, Paul McDowell, Derek Deadman and Ballard Berkeley. Peter Hugo and Jeannette Charles appear as Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, with Julie Wooldridge as Princess Di.

It is co-written by John Hughes (screenplay and story) and Robert Klane (screenplay). Writer John Hughes is fond of sending people on vacation: it starts the plot of both Uncle Buck and Home Alone. The third in the series is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, directed by Jeremiah S Chechik in 1989.

British actress Jeannette Charles (15 October 1927 – 2 June 2024) appears as Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles acted in repertory theatre in her twenties, but her resemblance to the monarch made it difficult to find work, and she left acting to become a secretary. But in 1972, a self-commissioned painting of herself was displayed by the artist at the Royal Academy in London, where it was mistaken for a portrait of the Queen, leading to press attention and offers to portray Her Majesty. She played the Queen in many films, including Secrets of a Superstud (1976), Queen Kong (1976), The Rutles’ movie All You Need Is Cash (1978), National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,462

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The third in the series is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.