For 1963 this musical seems dated. Rock and Roll arrived in the mid fifties but a musical with actual melodic melody and literate lyrics in 1963 was definitely a throw-back. To be fair it probably aspired to nothing more than giving the audience a painless dose of escapism so long as they didn't ask any awkward questions; for example in about the second reel the boys are in the bus on a road in France which is about three times as wide as any road in France that I've ever driven on, clearly shot on the back-lot at Elstree. When they meet the girls who are in a clapped-out car there is a sequence lasting a good ten minutes in which they try to persuade the girls to ride with them which includes a song/dance. During ALL THIS TIME the road is completely EMPTY: No pedestrians, no bicycles, no cars, no vans, no trucks, no lorries, no buses, no coaches. Nothing. In the middle of the day yet. If you can live with this and don't object to the central plot point - a wealthy girl on the run from a controlling parent - being lifted straight out of It Happened One Night, then you may well enjoy this.
Review of Summer Holiday
