Summer Holiday (1963 film)

Summer Holiday
US theatrical poster
Directed by	Peter Yates
Produced by	Kenneth Harper
Written by	Peter Myers Ronald Cass
Starring	Cliff Richard Lauri Peters
Music by	Stanley Black Peter Myers Ronald Cass
Cinematography	John Wilcox
Edited by	Jack Slade
Production company	ABPC
Distributed by	Warner-Pathé (UK) AIP (US)
Release dates	10 January 1963 (World Premiere, London) 18 February 1963 (1963-02-18) (UK) 12 March 1964 (1964-03-12) (US)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Summer Holiday is a British CinemaScope and Technicolor musical film featuring singer Cliff Richard. The film was directed by Peter Yates (his debut), produced by Kenneth Harper. The original screenplay was written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass (who also wrote most of the song numbers and lyrics). The cast included Lauri Peters, Melvyn Hayes, Teddy Green, Jeremy Bulloch, Una Stubbs, Pamela Hart, Jacqueline Daryl, Lionel Murton, Madge Ryan, David Kossoff, Nicholas Phipps, Ron Moody and The Shadows. Herbert Ross choreographed the musical numbers. The film had its World Premiere at the Warner Theatre in London's West End on 10 January 1963.^[1]

Plot

The story concerns Don (Cliff Richard) and his friends (Hayes, Green and Bulloch) who are bus mechanics at the huge London Transport bus overhaul works in Aldenham, Hertfordshire. During a miserably wet British summer lunch break, Don arrives, having persuaded London Transport to lend him and his friends an AEC Regent III "RT" double-decker bus (and not a later Routemaster as often quoted). This they convert into a holiday caravan, which they drive across continental Europe, intending to reach the South of France. However, their eventual destination is Athens, Greece. On the way, they are joined by a girl trio (Stubbs, Hart and Daryl) and a runaway singer (Lauri Peters), initially pretending to be male, pursued by her mother (Ryan) and agent (Murton). The movie was a box-office hit, thus repeating the success of Cliff Richard's earlier film The Young Ones (1961).

Cast

• Cliff Richard as Don
• Lauri Peters as Barbara
• Melvyn Hayes as Cyril
• Una Stubbs as Sandy
• Teddy Green as Steve
• Pamela Hart as Angie
• Jeremy Bulloch as Edwin
• Jacqueline Daryl as Mimsie
• Madge Ryan as Stella
• Lionel Murton as Jerry
• Christine Lawson as Annie
• Ron Moody as Orlando
• David Kossoff as Magistrate
• Wendy Barrie as Shepherdess (as Wendy Barry)
• Nicholas Phipps as Wrightmore
• The Shadows as themselves

Soundtrack

There are 16 song and musical numbers in the film: "Seven Days to a Holiday", "Let Us Take You for a Ride", "Stranger in Town", "Swinging Affair", "Really Waltzing", "Yugoslavian Wedding", "All At Once", "Summer Holiday", "Bachelor Boy", "Dancing Shoes", "Foot Tapper", "Big News", "The Next Time", "Les Girls", "Round and Round" and "Orlando's Mime".

The film's producers felt that female lead in the film, Lauri Peters, was not a strong singer after several test recording sessions and all of her parts, both in the film and on the soundtrack album were dubbed by session vocalist Grazina Frame. Frame had overdubbed female singing voices in Cliff Richard's earlier film The Young Ones.^[2]

Cliff Richard, Melvyn Hayes and the Shadows were recalled to Elstree some weeks after completion of shooting to record Bachelor Boy. This was because the distributors felt the film was too short.

Release

Box Office

The film was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1963.^[3] However it flopped in the US, where it was released two days after JFK was assassinated.

Cultural Impact

The majority of the numbers integrating dance with song and not merely serving as scenes to promote a number of "hit-parade" songs. Ross, an American actor, dancer and choreographer later became a film director in his own right (his works include the musical Goodbye, Mr Chips, 1969, and the dance drama The Turning Point, 1977).

Many singles lifted from the film including, title track "Summer Holiday", as well as "The Next Time", "Bachelor Boy" and "Foot Tapper" all reached Number one in the British charts during the first three months of 1963.

The film suggested to the photographer Daniel Meadows a way in which he might emulate Benjamin Stone and travel around and photograph Britain from 1973 to 1974.^[4]

Both the film and the title song captured something of the popular mood as relatively cheap continental holidays became available in Britain around that time. It was voted the 99th greatest family film in a Channel 4 poll.

Stage adaptations

Summer Holiday was adapted into a stage musical in the mid-1990s starring Darren Day in the role that Cliff Richard played. It premiered for a summer season at The Opera House in Blackpool in 1996, and then later toured nationally, before returning to Blackpool in 1998. The cast for these included Claire Buckfield, Isla Fisher, Hilary O'Neil, Peter Baldwin and René Zagger. It was also recorded and released on video, entitled "Summer Holiday-The Hits", which was all the musical numbers strung together by clips of Darren Day writing postcards to his friends, and describing what was happening in the story as he wrote.

The stage musical differs in a number of respects from the film version. For example, the route to Athens is via Italy in the stage version rather than the original film route via Yugoslavia. The songs also differ, and include a number of songs from Cliff Richard's other early back catalogue, such as "The Young Ones".

The stage musical was revived in 2003, starring Stefan Booth but later starring Darren Day again. This production also included Day's future partner Suzanne Shaw (from the pop group Hear'say) as Bobby and, as Shaw's mother, Aimi MacDonald. The production toured the UK.

References

External links

• Summer Holiday at the Internet Movie Database
• Summer Holiday at AllMovie