Movie Review by Greg Goodsell
Mr. Hobbs (Jimmy Stewart) yearns to take a romantic holiday with his gorgeous wife (Maureen O'Hara). However, a vacant beach home on the Northern California coast proves too good to resist, and so the Hobbs bundle up their youngest daughter Katey (Lauri Peters) and only son Danny (Michael Burns) along with their Finnish cook (Minerva Urecal) and head out to later join their two older, married daughters and their husbands and children at the cottage. Said “cottage” turns out to be a Victorian ruin that makes the Bates Mansion in Psycho (1960) look positively inviting. Straight away, troubles ensue. Katey is far too self-conscious with the braces on her teeth, and dear old Dad must pay the boys at the yachting club to dance with her. Everything works out and Katey begins a chaste romance with beach bum Joe (teen idol Fabian Forte). Mr. Hobbs drags son Danny for a boating adventure that almost turns tragic – but turns into a bonding experience for both. The older daughters' families seethe with neurosis, one long unemployed son-in-law abandoning the home to seek work. Landing a job offer, it is up to Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs to entertain his prospective employers (John McGiver and Marie Wilson). Things go disastrously, but everything turns out alright in the end.