If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium

The exhausting nature of the European bus tours that were popular in the 1960s is satirized very mildly in Mel Stuart's 1969 movie, in which a large ensemble cast acts alternately enchanted and frazzled as stereotypical Americans racing across the continent to see the sights. Their English guide Charlie—played as a debonair, fast-talking rascal by Ian McShane—inevitably romances one of the sightseers, a Minneapolis woman (Suzanne Pleshette) who is taking the journey to test her feelings about her boyfriend back home. Other passengers include such perpetual second bananas as Norman Fell as a man whose wife becomes lost, Michael Constantine as an army vet hoping to reconnect with a wartime flame, Sandy Baron as a sad sack looking to meet his Italian relatives, and Marty Ingels as a garrulous would-be womanizer. Although Baron's encounter with an over-friendly uncle (Vittorio De Sica) is probably the goofiest plot thread, the arc that provides the most graphic proof that the movie hasn't aged well is one in which a high school girl (Hilary Thompson) links up with a wandering American hippie (Luke Halpin) who hopes to organize leftist demonstrations in Europe. Also featuring an interlude in which Scottish folk singer Donovan warbles one of his tunes (he also composed the blandly silly title song), this is a film that tosses around words like “square” and “groovy” with no tongue in cheek, but also proves to be a moderately amusing nostalgia trip. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)