Summer Holiday ***½ (1963, Cliff Richard, Lauri Peters, Melvyn Hayes, Teddy Green, Jeremy Bulloch, Una Stubbs, The Shadows, Ron Moody, Lionel Murton, David Kossoff) – Classic Movie Review 3960

‘It’s the craziest Four-Way love affair that ever shook up the folks back home!’

Director Peter Yates’s 1963 traditional British wish-fulfilment fantasy musical Summer Holiday is a lively and engaging vehicle for the 22-year-old Cliff Richard at the height of his popularity. It is pleasant, fast-moving and fun, with catchy songs and amusing simple comedy.

Cliff Richard plays Don, who jumps on an old number 9 Routemaster red double-decker bus with his buddies Cyril, Steve and Edwin (Melvyn Hayes, Teddy Green and Jeremy Bulloch to take a summer holiday from London to Athens. The actors play four London bus mechanics who make an unusual and advantageous deal with London Transport. If they do up a bus and drive it around Europe like a mobile home, they can own and be in charge of a fleet of buses.

Along the bumpy way to Greece, Cliff picks up Sandy, Angie and Mimsie (Una Stubbs, Pamela Hart and Jacqueline Daryl), falls for an absconding young American female singer stowaway, Barbara (Lauri Peters), though he sings he is ‘happy to be a bachelor boy until my dyin’ day’, falls foul of her ambitious, domineering pursuing mother (Madge Ryan), dances and sings with The Shadows, and encounters eccentric acting turns from gleefully overplaying character actors Ron Moody (as French mime Orlando), Lionel Murton (Jerry) and David Kossoff (French magistrate).

The American choreographer Herbert Ross brings the energy and exuberance that the dancing needs, so the numbers are exciting. Who’d have thought director Yates would go onto Bullitt and The Dresser?

The attractive songs include ‘Summer Holiday’ by Bruce Welch and Brian Bennett, ‘The Next Time’ by Philip Springer and Buddy Kaye, ‘Dancing Shoes’ by Bruce Welch and Hank B Marvin and ‘Bachelor Boy’ by Bruce Welch and Cliff Richard.

It is pleasingly escapist and carefree, and for long was iconic in Britain, though now it is pretty much forgotten. The Shadows are Hank B Marvin, Jet Harris, Tony Meehan and Bruce Welch.

Also in the cast are Richard O’Sullivan, Wendy Barrie, Christine Lawson and Nicholas Phipps. The original story and screenplay are written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass.

Lauri Peters was married to Jon Voight (1962 – 1967, divorced) and created the role of Liesl Von Trapp in the original 1959 Broadway cast of The Sound of Music.

Summer Holiday is directed by Peter Yates, runs 108 minutes, is made by Elstree Distributors and Ivy Films, is distributed by Associated British-Pathé, is written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass (original story and screenplay), is shot in Technicolor by John Wilcox, produced by Kenneth Harper, scored by Stanley Black, Ronald Cass and Peter Myers, and designed by Syd Cain, with choreography by Herbert Ross.

The opening sequence is in black and white.

‘The Shadows and their guitars’ are named in the opening credits.

Sweaty Cliff and his buddies wear the same clothes for seven days during the initial bus repairs and remodelling.

Two London double-decker buses were shipped to Greece because it was impossible to drive them across Europe because of low bridges and the terrain. Greek Customs held them up for two days.

RIP lovely Una Stubbs (1 May 1937 – 12 August 2021). Summer Holiday was her first major film role and she was also in Richard’s next film, Wonderful Life (1964). She also appeared in The Bargee, Three Hats for Lisa, Mister Ten Per Cent, Till Death Us Do Part, Penny Gold, Bedtime with Rosie, Angel and Golden Years.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3960

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Lauri Peters was married to Jon Voight (1962 – 1967) and created the role of Liesl Von Trapp in the original 1959 Broadway cast of The Sound of Music.