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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 67% 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

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Variety Staff Variety 03/26/2009
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. Go to Full Review
Bosley Crowther New York Times 05/09/2005
[Summer Holiday] would have looked feeble and imitative back in the years when Betty Grable was making college musical comedies for Paramount. Go to Full Review
Penelope Gilliatt Observer (UK) 03/09/2024
Peter Yates's Summer Holiday, with Cliff Richard, must he the most cheerful and skilful British musical of our generation. Go to Full Review
MFB Critics Monthly Film Bulletin 03/04/2019
A star vehicle for Cliff Richard that aims high, but continually slops into the second-rate through lack of inventiveness in narrative and dancing. Go to Full Review
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 07/22/2005
2/5
Film4 Staff Film4 05/24/2003
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. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Bill G 08/02/2024 Best of the 60s pop vehicles See more 10/02/2019 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. 🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾👎🏿👊🏿🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🐂🐂🐂💩💩💩💩💩💩 See more 06/11/2016 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 See more 02/14/2015 Uninspired and cheesy acting mixed in with dreadful musical numbers make for a torturing and unbearable watch. See more 04/17/2013 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. See more 07/21/2012 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!" See more 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