Summer Holiday

1963

1h 49m

Musical

Comedy

List

33%

Tomatometer

6 Reviews

68%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

A British mechanic (Cliff Richard) and his buddies pick up passengers and head for Athens in a double-decker bus.

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Variety Staff

Variety

From this thin thread of yarn, songs, situations and dance routines arise fairly naturally. Even when dragged in, they add a lot to the excitement. Richard has a warm presence and sings and dances more than adequately.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

[Summer Holiday] would have looked feeble and imitative back in the years when Betty Grable was making college musical comedies for Paramount.

May 9, 2005

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Penelope Gilliatt

Observer (UK)

Peter Yates's Summer Holiday, with Cliff Richard, must he the most cheerful and skilful British musical of our generation.

Mar 9, 2024

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MFB Critics

Monthly Film Bulletin

A star vehicle for Cliff Richard that aims high, but continually slops into the second-rate through lack of inventiveness in narrative and dancing.

Mar 4, 2019

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 2/5

Jul 22, 2005

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Film4 Staff

Film4

All kinds of people in the swinging 60s got on a bus and went for a journey of discovery. Only Cliff Richard did it with such staggeringly tame mediocrity.

May 24, 2003

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StephenPaul C

LOL, the funniest 01 hour: and 49 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I wanted to gauge out my eyeballs with a spoon after watching this film. If you are blind and deaf you may enjoy this film- only because the silence is a deafening relief from the horrific sound of Cliff Richard's voice and awful acting. Stick to backing singing Cliff- that way hopefully we won't be able to hear you. Stay away from this cringeworthy film. 🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾👎🏿👊🏿🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🐂🐂🐂💩💩💩💩💩💩

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

Audience Member

No easy to rate this movie being a Cliff Richard fan , Nice to see again yes . The story fine ...some great songs , but also some anoying moments with the not that good songs ( musical-style ) , and the cabaret things with a bunch of people also not my style ....Half a star extra just for the historical value ! SOMDVD

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Uninspired and cheesy acting mixed in with dreadful musical numbers make for a torturing and unbearable watch.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Directed by Peter Yates (Robbery (1967), Bullitt (1968) and Krull (1983), this is a light and fluffy British musical filmed around Europe, and was a follow-up to the success Cliff Richard had had on screen in Expresso Bongo (1959) and The Young Ones (1961), it has some good songs and some of the songs topped the UK single's chart in 1963, Cliff has a likeable charm, even though the mannerisms of him and his mates are dated. Cliff plays as Don, a London Bus mechanic, who along with his fellow workers Cyril (Melvyn Hayes), Steve (Teddy Green) and Edwin (Jeremy Bulloch), do up a London bus as a hotel, and drive it from London to Athens. They encounter women such as Sandy (Una Stubbs) and her friends Angie (Pamela Hart) and Mimsie (Jacqueline Daryl), as well as American runaway Barbara Winters (Laurie Peters) who is on the run from her overbearing mother Stella (Madge Ryan), and weird French actor The Great Orlando (Ron Moody). However, Stella wants her daughter back by any means necessary, and has agent Jerry (Lionel Murton) to stop them This might be a movie which looks easy to dismiss, but it proves to be good fun, with some good songs to punctuate the journey. It's a movie of it's time, and it's proud of it, it's a shame films like this have died out, as it's a genre in need of an ever so slight revival.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fluffy pop musical starring Cliff Richards as Don, one of four mechanics who drive a double decker bus into Europe and on the way hilarious mishaps, such as dance with gypsies and pick up a american pop star dressed as a man on the run from her overprotective stage mother. Not that great. The only words that sum up the movies and how camp it is. "We're All Going On A, Summer Holiday!"

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Peter Yates

Director

Cliff Richard

Don

Lauri Peters

Barbara Winters

David Kossoff

French Magistrate

Ron Moody

Orlando

Melvyn Hayes

Cyril

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Synopsis

A British mechanic (Cliff Richard) and his buddies pick up passengers and head for Athens in a double-decker bus.

Director: Peter Yates
Producer: Samuel Z. Arkoff, James H. Nicholson
Screenwriter: Peter Myers, Ronald Cass
Production Co: Elstree
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Release Date (DVD): Oct 20, 2009
Runtime: 1h 49m