How I Spent My Summer Vacation (1967)

Don't Believe the Hype

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I see that I'm not alone in offering praise for 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation'.I guess many of us are around the same age - to have grown up watching the early made-for-TV movies; this was one of the first, but there's some great stuff from back then. How about 'The Night Stalker' as one example? But I digress. It's tough to write this, since I don't want to spoil the film for those who haven't seen it. It's why I checked the spoiler box - but I'm going to be deliberately vague, anyhow.Robert Wagner plays a man who keeps getting beat by Peter Lawford; so much so, that his ego is at near collapse. He becomes obsessed with winning - and to this end, UPS THE ANTE and the stakes in the 'game' he is playing with Lawford. Still - he loses again; barely escaping with his life and his sanity.But the ending is pure catharsis; while he never managed to beat Lawford, he finally manages to WIN - and win the biggest 'game' of all! He takes an enormous gamble; it didn't have to work. I guess that's the point, or part of it; would Walter Pidgeon actually stop to LOOK at that roll of film??! Everything depended on that risk. They say that you have to risk more to win more - I guess this is an example.Fine performances from Lawford, Pidgeon, Jill St. John, Wagner, and let us not forget Cochise - enjoyable work from Michael Ansara, though not quite up to his turn as a Klingon on Star Trek.I smile at the end of this film every time I watch it; I smile along with Robert Wagner. I hope you'll smile along with me (and give a little wink, as well).Note that there is a dude at Ioffer who will make you a DVD-R of this flick. The quality is as you would expect; a transfer from a videotape taken from a broadcast on Australian TV. This was not a problem for me - I watched and thoroughly enjoyed this flick.

I saw this when it first run on American television and I have to say there isn't a year that goes by that I don't think of this film and why it hasn't, to my knowledge been shown again on television or released on DVD.So my recollection is one of an impression, of wonderful entertainment that held me in suspense.I remember, all these years later, a line, from Jack Washington (Wagner) to a black marketeer, about purchasing a revolver: "make it accurate, something in a .32 caliber"For whatever reason I recall that.I truly enjoyed this movie and PLEASE release it on DVD. Wagner was stunning, the direction, quite good indeed, and considering it was made for TV I give it the highest of marks.

Robert Wagner is very good portraying directionless young American, living abroad and working as a bartender, who chances to run into Jill St. John, a former girlfriend from college. She invites him to vacation with her family in Monte Carlo, which begins a series of oneupmanship games with Jill's father, a fanatic for competitive sports. Once Wagner realizes the wealthy titan is only vulnerable against one other person, he turns amateur sleuth in the hopes of exposing his host and his weakness. TV-made film with an apparently large budget, imaginative visual tricks and gorgeous locations. Though quite necessarily told in flashback, it is too bad the script and story are so ritzy that they occasionally confound the viewer, with a nervous breakdown/brainwashing midsection which seems an abstraction. Still good, however, and Wagner is more animated than usual (he often looks wounded or confused, which suits his handsome stoicism). Jill St. John is once again a curvy, haughty dish (in a variety of wacky sunglasses) and Peter Lawford is amazingly controlled and enigmatic as Wagner's adversary.

This story was well produced, well cast, well directed, shot on location (good locations), with a solid script, story, direction and a strong memorability quotient. The story is a well conceived plot that builds, from the perspective of a young man (Robert Wagner) who starts off just being along for the ride, following a beautiful girl (Jill St John), onto the yacht of her rich father (Peter Lawford), who turns out to be very competitive, extremely mysterious and involved in something that becomes fascinating to Wagner's character to understand. As curiosity heightens, it becomes obvious what that what kills the cat could also kill a young man. And from there it keeps getting better. Just when you think it will end exactly as you'd thought, it doesn't. Despite all these years, I have never seen this played on cable or Saturday afternoon matinées, yet I still remember the story. It would be nice if someone, somewhere, would pick up this title before it is completely forgotten by those few of us alive long enough to remember having seen it. I seem to remember reading somewhere that even Robert Wagner was distressed that this title is not available on video. True or not, this title is worth consideration. It should be found and remastered for DVD.