NATIONAL LAMPOON’S EUROPEAN VACATION

US, 1985, 95 minutes, Colour.
Chevy Chase, Beverly D' Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, John Astin, Paul Bartel, Eric Idle, Victor Lanoux, Maureen Lipman, Mel Smith, Robbie Coltrane.
Directed by Amy Heckerling.

This is the third in a series of National Lampoon Vacation films, made during the early part of the 1980s, Vacation, Christmas Vacation and now, European Vacation.

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’ Angelo appear as Clark and Ellen Griswald, opening the film by winning a competition, live television, the Griswalds actually being not too smart and when the wife calls out her husband’s name, Clark, it is the correct answer to the quiz!

The characters have been established, Clark being an enthusiast but also in control, urging his family to enjoy what he encourages, Ellen loving and submissive. The 15-year-old son, Rusty (Jason Lively) is a girl mad. Audrey (Dana Hill) has a boyfriend at home and does not want to leave.

There are four destinations with national jokes accordingly: the British are very friendly, even when they suffer in accidents (especially with several with Eric Idle as if he is doing a Monty Python routine). On the other hand, the accommodation in London is very cramped, some bathroom mixups (with Robbie Coltrane) and a lazy concierge played by Mel Smith. Also the jokes about driving on the left-hand side of the road and a fantasy in which the family meet the Queen, Prince Charles and Princess Diana). And, there is comedy about Clark not being able to get out of a roundabout in London and on a visit to Stonehenge backing into one of the rocks and the whole historic site collapsing.

The film was a bit severe on the French and their disdain of Americans and Americans using English. A waiter is completely insulting, according to the subtitles, while the family think that he is being genial. There is a funny joke on the top of the Eiffel Tower, with Maureen Lipman holding a poodle, Rusty objecting to the beret that Clark wants the family to wear, Clark relenting and tossing the beret over the parapet with the poodle immediately leaping out to u and catch the beret in midair and land in the pool beneath. The whizz tour of the Louvre also pokes fun at Americans’ attitude towards culture.

The go to visit Germans relatives, mistaking the number of the house, an elderly couple, assumed to be the relatives, actually welcoming them, cooking a meal, enjoying a meal, sleeping the night and both sides being none the wiser.

They also visit Rome but tend to be exhausted, although Rusty finds an agreeable American and has a flirtatious day, Audrey wants to return home to see her boyfriend. The crisis in Rome is that earlier in the film, Clark had filmed Ellen doing a provocative dance in the bathroom, had promised to erase it but did not and the camera was stolen from them in Paris. Here is Ellen in a provocative pose on a poster outside the Rome cinema… There is also a complication when some thieves want to use them as fall guys for getting rid of the bank guard being tied up, leading to crashes and smashes – and the reconciliation.

Amy Heckerling had made her mark as a director a few years earlier with Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She also invented the Look Who’s Talking films and directed Clueless. The screenplay was written by John Hughes’s reputation was at a peak in the 1980s with such films as The Breakfast Club, 16 candles…
A mixture of some clever funny moments and some lowbrow humour in the National Lampoon vein.