Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation

Plot

Roger Hobbs is an overworked banker who reflects on his recent vacation. Originally, he and his wife Peggy were to travel overseas alone together, but Peggy instead arranges a seaside holiday, which includes their two grown daughters Susan and Janie, teenage daughter Katey, teenage son Danny, family cook Brenda, sons-in-law Stan Carver and Byron Grant, and young three grandchildren Peter, Peewee and Junior.

When Roger and Peggy reach their vacation destination, they find a dilapidated beach house with rotting steps. The shared telephone line and unreliable plumbing are running gags throughout the film.

Complications mount. Their youngest child and only son Danny only wants to watch television. Katey, embarrassed by a new set of dental braces, refuses to engage in any activities inside or outside the beach house. Meanwhile, their grandson wants nothing to do with Roger.

Furthermore, one of his sons-in-law, Stan, is unemployed, which is causing tension in his marriage to Susan. Their children are undisciplined, as Susan does not believe in saying no to them. Janie is married to Byron, a windbag college professor who has a lot of ideas on psychology.

While Peggy is quite worried about the state of the family, Roger argues that the children must learn to handle problems themselves, and that he and Peggy need to stay at arm's length.

Despite this, Roger quietly goes about trying to solve each problem, one by one. He manages to convince Katey to go to a local teen dance, where she insists on sitting on the sidelines with her mouth clenched shut. Roger bribes a handsome young man named Joe to pay attention to her; Joe genuinely falls for Katey and returns the money. After the television breaks, Roger agrees to take Danny on a boating trip, where they get lost in fog for a while but bond as father and son. Byron shows interest in an attractive neighbor, but Roger tells him that she is a paranoid schizophrenic, effectively keeping him from a full-fledged affair with her.

Son-in-law Stan has a shot at a good job, and Susan asks Roger and Peggy to entertain the potential employer and his wife for a few days. The couple present as prim, proper, and sober; the only interest the man has is bird-watching, and Roger endures a boring jaunt with him, but they are not what they seem to be. Chaos ensues in a madcap scene involving a hot shower and a broken door lock.

In the end, all these interpersonal crises are resolved and the family is sad to leave. Even the grumpy grandson is upset to leave his grandfather.

They book the beach house for the next summer.

Cast

James Stewart as Roger Hobbs

Maureen O'Hara as Peggy Hobbs, Roger's wife

Fabian as Joe Carmody

Lauri Peters as Katey Hobbs, Roger & Peggy's third daughter

Lili Gentle as Janie Hobbs-Grant, Roger & Peggy's second daughter and Junior's mother

John Saxon as Byron Grant, Janie's husband and Junior's father

John McGiver as Martin Turner

Marie Wilson as Emily Turner, Martin's wife

Reginald Gardiner as Reggie McHugh

Valerie Varda as Marika Carter

Natalie Trundy as Susan Hobbs-Carver, Roger & Peggy's first daughter and Peter & Peewee's mother

Josh Peine as Stan Carver, Susan's husband and Peter & Peewee's father

Michael Burns as Danny Hobbs, Roger & Peggy's son

Minerva Urecal as Brenda, the Hobbs' cook

Peter Oliphant as Peter Carver, Susan & Stan's son

Richard Collier as the plumber, Mr. Saltonstall

Production

Nunnally Johnson wrote the screenplay for Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation based on Edward Streeter's novel, Mr. Hobbs' Vacation. Streeter had previously written the novel Father of the Bride, which was filmed in 1950 and remade in 1991.

Johnson had just finished directing a series of films, and wanted to focus on writing. He agreed to do Hobbs because he liked the story "and I knew something about it."

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation was filmed in California at Laguna Beach and Dana Point. The film was shot using CinemaScope wide-screen formatting, with color by DeLuxe. It marked the first time James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara starred together in a film. They co-starred again in the 1966 Western The Rare Breed. During the scene in which Mr. Hobbs escorts his daughter Katey to a dance at the yacht club, Herb Alpert is the trumpet player in the band.

The movie was the first of two James Stewart made with Fabian, the second was Dear Brigitte (1965). "If anybody’s ever blessed, you have to be blessed to work with Jimmy Stewart," recalled Fabian. "He was the most congenial, helpful person I ever worked with."

It was a rare comedy role for John Saxon.

Reception

The film was relatively successful in the United States and Canada upon its release on June 15, 1962, earning $4 million with an estimated budget of $2 million, but found even greater success when released overseas.

James Stewart won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival for his performance, and director Henry Koster was nominated for Best Director. Stewart was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy. The screenplay by Nunnally Johnson was nominated for Best Written Comedy by the Writers Guild of America. Stewart and Maureen O'Hara were also nominated for their performances by the Laurel Awards.

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation's success inspired a series of light-hearted family comedies written by Johnson. Two of these also starred Stewart and were directed by Koster: Take Her, She's Mine (1963) and Dear Brigitte (1965).

This was the final feature film for actress Marie Wilson.

Critical reaction

Prior to the film's release, columnist Hedda Hopper wrote to her readers about it, saying: Dear Dad: It's vacation time, but before you take your wife and brood on yours, run—don't walk—and see Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation." You will enjoy yours a thousand times more. It's hilarious! The film, upon its release, received generally positive reviews, although most were not as enthusiastic as Hopper's.

Variety called it "a fun picture with enough going for it on the plus side of the ledger to make it a promising boxoffice candidate for 20th-Fox, although it misfires, chiefly in the situation development department."

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote in his review: "Right off the bat, it is suggested in this wacky domestic report that togetherness is strictly for the birds and that sensible parents, especially elders, should write it out of their books. The Mr. Hobbs of the title, played beguilingly by James Stewart, is very much of this opinion as far as his own brood is concerned."

Wanda Hale of the New York Daily News gave the film a full four-star rating, calling it "a crackerjack comedy. By all means hurry to the Paramount Theatre and laugh yourself weak at this take-off on family togetherness on a holiday at the seashore that stars James Stewart in one of his funniest roles. Jerry Wald's comedy for 20th Century-Fox is more amusing than 'Mr. Hulot's Holiday' because of the dialogue—droll, clever, fresh lines written by one of the keenest wits in films, Nunnally Johnson. 'Mr. Hobbs' is not one of those slick comedies about people we seldom meet. It's a comedy of identity, the characters are those we know intimately, even ourselves."

Philip K. Scheuer wrote in the Los Angeles Times: Twentieth Century-Fox has, for a change, what looks .like a box-office winner... Nunnally is a humorist in whom the milk of human kindness has soured, and some of this seeps through the script and tastes unwontedly bitter. At the other extreme, he has squirted the text with occasional witticisms that are funny in themselves but seem out of the context. Neither characteristic is calculated to lessen the over-all enjoyment of the paying customer. Myles Standish wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: ONE WOULD SUPPOSE it is about time the modern American fetish of togetherness gets a gentle ribbing, and just that is given it in "MR. HOBBS TAKES A VACATION," an amusing domestic comedy at the FOX THEATER.