Bon Voyage! (1962)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This Disney comedy gets off to a roaring start when plumbing contractor Fred MacMurray, his wife Jane Wyman and their three kids try to get to a Battery dock to catch a cruise ship to France and are escorted by a very friendly and overly chatty New York cab driver. Like Spencer Tracy in "Father of the Bride", provider MacMurray is the most overlooked member of the family, unappreciated by his two sons and daughter and overshadowed by the compassionate mom, Wyman, who sometimes seems to take him for granted. He is forced to put up with Wyman's family and friends from Boston at a send-off party who don't understand why someone like Wyman would go off an marry some plummer from the mid-west. Then, on the ship, he finds himself overwhelmed by his youngest son when everybody goes off to do their own thing. He realizes that as the older children find themselves involved in their own young romantic problems, they prefer the tenderness of Wyman's motherly advice to his more direct approach in dealing with them. Daughter Deborah Walley falls in love with the neglected heir to a fortune who is the product of a broken home and prepares to have her heart broken while son Tommy Kirk makes plays for very single young woman he meets. Then, when they get to Paris, embarrassment after embarrassment befalls MacMurray, first being lost in the sewers (and seemingly never getting to the Louve), then dealing with a caddish Hungarian who makes a pass at Wyman. It all falls apart at a party that Walley's boyfriend's mother (Jessie Royce Landis) gives where MacMurray gets drunk on a liquorish liqueur, then creates a major disturbance in Monte Carlo that could result in an international incident.From the Absent Minded Professor to Son of Flubber to Father of Trouble, MacMurray was Disney's "every-man", expected to keep the family together without actually really having any say. That's the lovely Wyman's job, and she is the perfect wife and mom in every manner. MacMurray utilizes his massive talents of light-hearted comedy to keep your interest, but the episodic situations and predictable outcomes make this situation comedy like Disney movie an overlong precursor to "The Facts of Life Go to Paris". Disney seems to be taking over here where MGM had stopped after the last of the Andy Hardy movies were made several years before. Disney does raise a bit of an eyebrow by briefly introducing a character who is obviously a prostitute and a family of opportunistic Parisans who set their money-hungry eyes on the not quite so rich Americans. But when you put it altogether, what it seemingly comes down to was Disney was telling us that while it's nice to venture, there's no place like home, and the backyard you live in is the best place to hang your hat.

I guess a trip to France is as good a reason as any to be in a film and Walt Disney took a whole bunch of American players over to France to film a rather innocuous and over long comedy Bon Voyage. Everybody here has done much better work.The Willard Family of Terre Haute consisting of parents Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman and kids Deborah Walley, Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran all head to Paris on a long anticipated vacation. Each of them has some issues to deal with.MacMurray just can't seem to do what he wants to do, some family crisis is always interrupting. Walley has fallen for American playboy Michael Callan who is dying to get out from under his rich dowager mother Jessie Royce-Landis. Wyman has attracted the attention of a gigolo in Ivan Desnys. Kirk is having the old badger game run on him by Georgette Anys, the mother of a girl he met on the Riviera beach. Only Kevin Corcoran seems to have no problems, but he gets separated from MacMurray in a tour of the Paris sewer system. That by the way provides the best laughs in Bon Voyage.Given the Disney parameters Bon Voyage had certain restrictions placed on it that the more successful National Lampoon's European vacation didn't have. That was a far better film and the Griswolds will linger in your memory way after the Willards have gone.In a recent biography of Fred MacMurray, Tommy Kirk did not have fond memories of the film. His sexuality had come to light at the studio and Jane Wyman treated him horribly. As for Fred MacMurray he and Fred had a decent relationship from previous films, but it was never quite the same after that. In addition Kirk felt his character was something of a doofus and I'm inclined to agree with him.Even with the European locations Bon Voyage is probably the weakest of all the films Fred MacMurray did for Disney.

Nice Disney family film in the tradition of Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson & LT. Robin Crusoe USN. Stars Fred Mac Murray & Jane Wyman as well as veteran Disney child actors Tommy Kirk & Kevin Cochoran, and the late Deborah Walley. Real star of this film is the old Ocean Liner SS United States. - 1962 was the twilight of the big Transatlantic Ocean Liners and " The Big U" shows herself in all her glory. Shot on location in Paris and the Riviera, it gives us a look back at Paris back in the 60's with all the fads and fashions. A bit dated for today's tots. This film is probably better suited for adults looking for a nostalgic look back.

This turned out to be a good movie. Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman finally take the European trip they've always dreamed of, including taking their three children along. Tommy Kirk and Doborah Walley are their teen-aged children and bring along their romantic escapades. On location shooting make for a better than average Disney film. Saw this on the Disney channel.