I'll Take Sweden (1965)

From the tone of this review, you may be surprised to learn that I recognize Bob Hope as one of the all-time greatest comedy stars. In terms of film, however, I put 1963 as the end of the impressive part of Hope's career. It was about that time that Hope changed his film persona into trying to be a sort of hip almost-swinger. And movie scripts began looking more like television scripts. And this film is certainly in that category. If you're going to watch this, get ready for a constant stream of one-liners, rather than a well-written script. But is that any surprise since the director was Fred DeCordova...Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" producer.? The premise here had possibilities -- Hope's young daughter (Tuesday Weld) is in love with a...what shall I call him...too clean cut to be a hippy, but (Frankie Avalon). So he has his company transfer to Sweden, where of course she falls in love with a...what shall I call him...a progressive thinker in terms of sexuality (Jeremy Slate). So Hope calls in reinforcements...back to Frankie Avalon.As stated, Hope is all too full of one liners here. There's not good script for him to follow. You could get the same patter on his television shows. But films are supposed to be more than television. Dina Merrill, whom I always thought was underrated, has a nothing part here. Sort of a place filler as Hope's love interest. Quite disappointing. Tuesday Weld's role is fine, just nothing special. And Frankie Avalon is trying to be a sort of outcast...who isn't.And then there are the shooting locales which are so not-Sweeden-ish.You can take Sweeden, ya ya ya, but if I were you, I'd pass it up saying no, no, no. You might find more laughs in a 1960s sitcom. My "6" here is a tad bit generous.

"Bob Holcomb" (Bob Hope) is an oil company executive who comes home and finds out that his teenage daughter "JoJo" (Tuesday Weld) is throwing a party with all of her friends and essentially wrecking the house in the process. If that wasn't bad enough she tells him that she has fallen in love and introduces him to a young man by the name of "Kenny Klinger" (Frankie Avalon) who she wants to marry. Bob realizes at once that Kenny is a bit too wild and immature for his daughter so in order to create some distance between the two of them he decides to accept an assignment to Sweden and take her with him. But things don't work out exactly as he plans because once there she finds a Swedish boyfriend named "Erik Carlson" (Jeremy Slate) who is much more sexually sophisticated and aggressive than Kenny ever was. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film shares a similarity to the "beach movies" produced in the early 60's which typically evolved around young men and women dancing to rock-and-roll music and getting romantically acquainted while having to overcome a host of weird obstacles along the way. This film is no exception and carries with it the same light humor and dated quality. True to form, Bob Hope throws some good one-liners here and there which certainly helps a comedy of this type. Likewise, the presence of an attractive actress like Tuesday Weld doesn't hurt this film in anyway either. Even so, neither of them could offset the uneven production quality or the rather predictable plot and because of that I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

You have to love Bob Hope's singular ability to be behind the times in terms of getting young teen idols to give his films a little youthful appeal. Two years after the British invasion where the music scene would irrevocably be changed, Hope casts Frankie Avalon and Tuesday Weld in I'll Take Sweden considerably after their time as teen idols had come and gone.In fact the film never got closer to Sweden than Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead the two California locations chosen to represent the pretty parts of Scandinavia. Which is a real pity because Stockholm is known as the Paris of the north and has reputation as a beautiful city. I wonder why producer Edward Small and Hope played on the cheap and didn't bother to go to Sweden to film this picture.Hope's in a role James Stewart played better in Take Her She's Mine as the harassed father of a shapely teenage girl. In case you're wondering, Tuesday Weld is the shapely teenage girl. Hope disapproves of boyfriend Frankie Avalon whom he thinks of as a beach bum dead head, living in a trailer at the beach and no prospects for a job. He decides on impulse to take a job in Sweden with his company and relocate. It starts to work out real well and Weld's found herself a nice Swedish boy in Jeremy Slate. Widower Hope's not doing too bad either with Dina Merrill. But when Hope finds out about the Scandinavian sexual attitudes, this red state American is saying 'not with my daughter, you Viking Casanova'.I'd have rated this film higher had we actually seen a bit of Sweden here. But for all this it just turns into a typical bedroom comedy as Hope and Merrill find out that Slate and Weld have registered in the same hotel for the same reason and Hope goes tearing around the place looking to save Weld from a fate worse than death. Oh, and he's brought Frankie Avalon over from California to help finding new virtues in him he hadn't seen before.You know what the dumbest thing in the film was. The fact that a no tell hotel in Sweden people register there as Mr.&Mrs. John Smith for anonymity. You'd think they'd register with the Swedish equivalent of same in Sweden.

JOJO(Weld): Daddy, I think I found Mister right! BOB HOLCOLM (HOPE): OH, I KNOW A BILL WRIGHT!And so begins the first salvo fired in this joyously painful assault on a genre that was stale long before this was dumped on hundreds of deserted theaters-the generation gap comedy. Acres of atrocious puns and one-liners battle the parameters of entertainment decency---yet who can resist? Take an aging Frankie Avalon, a budding star in Weld appearing in her last thankless role until "Cincinnati Kid"saved her, aryan legend Jeremy Slate and producer Edward Small's cardboard studio backdrops substituting for Scandinavia, mix with Johnny Carson's longtime producer/director and you have the beginning of Hope's career slide that didn't hit rock bottom until "Cancel my Reservation" was unleashed 7 years hence. It's been 30 years since his last starring role and the scary thing is, the entire cast of all of his yearly cinematic holocausts from 65-72 are still alive and could reunite for Boy, Did I Get A Wrong Number 2 (the late, great Cesare Danova not withstanding). Suffice to say Hope was always only as good as his writers. The impossibly guileless challenge of his obnoxiously un-hip, sexist attitude and the wardrobe straight from Squaresville will amuse only the few Hope cultists who find the sheer bombastic gall and idiocy riotous (guilty!)--- and the ultimate irony--- touching. Younger audiences catching this on the tube without warning are bound to be indifferent-the coup de gras for longevity (the ancient comic trying to prove his lasting power to the few loyal surviving fans) and unlike the timeless masters- e.g. Buster Keaton, Fields, etc. there will undoubtedly not be a re-discovery of Hope's excellent early work as the residue of the crap of the last 40 years is too thick to peel away. I'll Take Sweden" is his best film since 1965. For those who thought this a temporary mis-step in Hope's career----a helmet-headed Marjorie Lord waited anxiously in the wings.........