University of Virginia Library

'If It's Tuesday' Fails In Imitation

By Jay Steer

Last month, Fred Skidmore, Publicity
director for United Artists (the distributors
of the film), invited me, along with 25 or 30
other college editors from as far away as
Maine, to New York to preview a couple of
movies that he thought we might like.

I liked New York, I liked the college
editors I met, I liked Fred Skidmore, but I
didn't especially like his movies.

"Popi," the other movie I previewed, was
better than "Tuesday — Belgium." But
"Where It's At," the movie we were
supposed to have seen but could not
because the producer decided to withdraw
it, would have probably been better than
both of them.

As it turned out, Fred did, as one
observer there quipped, a pretty good job of
keeping 30 odd "college-critics" from
burning down the United Artists building
because the movies did not have any appeal.
"Where It's At" might have made Fred's
project more of a success, but as he told me
later the reason the producer withdrew it
was because it was a ridiculous movie, even
less relevant than the others.

The whole affair was very cordial, except
for the scattered hisses I heard at the end of
"Popi" from some of my fellow critics in
the back row.

But at least Fred avoided a confrontation
of the type that occurred at a similar type
preview in Las Vegas last year when one
ambitious young editor queried of "Where
Eagles Dare" director John Huston of his
reasons for "selling out." (Mr. Huston's
insightful response, as I heard the story, was
that he had worked long and hard to get to
where he was. Huston then allegedly
muttered something about "young punks.")

"If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium,"
David Wolper's account of the mis-adventures
of a group of Americans touring the
continent, stole its name, as one might
guess, from last year's successful, almost-award-winning,
television documentary.

The documentary was done well. Narrator
Robert Trout followed one of those
14-day 28 country bus tours of Europe and
reported on it. It was a very funny show
because everything he said happened. And
the people he took pictures of were real
people.

Producer David Wolper took the television
show and made all the characters into
"types." We see the ex-GI returning to the
old battlegrounds (Michael Constantine); we
see the antics of a teen-age daughter (played
by Hilary Thompson) touring with her
parents; and we put up with a romance
between Suzanne Pleshette and her tour
guide.

The humor is not as good as the
accidental humor of the documentary.
Some of the puns are unbearable: one
tourist grumbles, "why are these stops
called lay-overs?"

As the reader might imagine, the
majority of the college editors I was with
did not like the movie. I guess it wasn't
relevant enough. But to me, relevancy is
irrelevant. "If It's Tuesday This Must Be
Belgium" was not a very good movie. It
strove to be funny and lively, yet the factual
TV documentary was funnier and more
jabbing.

One final note. As I read the ad in the

Times this morning, I found that this movie
is playing at Radio City Music Hall, so in the
eyes of the public, "Tuesday — Belgium" is
a guaranteed success, even without the aid
of good reviews from 30 college newspapers.
Too bad.