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Summer Holiday

Play trailer Poster for Summer Holiday 1963 1h 49m Musical Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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33% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 68% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
A British mechanic (Cliff Richard) and his buddies pick up passengers and head for Athens in a double-decker bus.

Critics Reviews

View All (6) Critics Reviews
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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review 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 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (73) audience reviews
Bill G Best of the 60s pop vehicles Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/02/24 Full Review 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 Read all reviews
Summer Holiday

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Movie Info

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
Kenneth Harper
Screenwriter
Peter Myers, Ronald Cass
Production Co
Elstree
Genre
Musical, Comedy
Original Language
British English
Release Date (DVD)
Oct 20, 2009
Runtime
1h 49m