Holiday For Lovers (1959)

When their eldest daughter (Jill St. John) travels to Brazil with a tour group and decides not to return, a psychologist (Clifton Webb), his wife (Jane Wyman) and their precocious younger daughter (Carol Lynley) trek down to South America to see what's going on. Based on the Broadway play by Ronald Alexander, the attractive cast can't do much with the sitcom material. It doesn't help that there's an unpleasant pre-feminist undertone to the proceedings. Webb wants his daughters to further their education but they're more concerned with boys/men and his wife seems to implicitly encourage them. One of the more hideous examples of the film's tone: when Lynley refuses to marry Gary Crosby, he takes her over his knee and spanks her! Webb is offended at this but Mama Wyman thinks it's cute! Yes, yes I know it was a different time but still. Furthermore although the film takes place in Brazil, it doesn't appear any of the cast went there, just the second unit as the actors play out their scenes in front of rear projections of Brazil's tourist sites. The film's theatrical poster compares it to THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN ... as if. Directed by Henry Levin (WHERE THE BOYS ARE). With Paul Henreid, Jose Greco, Nico Minardos, Wally Brown and Gardner McKay.