Review of Week-End with Father

"Week-End with Father" is very much in the same tradition as the film "Yours, Mine and Ours" as well as the show "The Brady Bunch"...especially the earlier episodes where the two families learn to care for each other.

Brad Stubbs (Van Heflin) and Jean Bowen (Patricia Neal) are both widowed with two children each. They meet just after dropping off their kids at summer camp...and soon they fall in love. But, when they come to pick up the kids and inform them that they're now about to become a blended family, things naturally don't go well. Is the upcoming marriage doomed....especially with Brad's AND Jean's exs being around as well and the kids hating their future parent?

I think the subject matter of this film could have been handled much better had the film relied less on sit-com style humor and instead dealt more with the realistic problems such a situation might entail. Additionally, having the parents both spring this on the kids like they did seemed really stupid...no wonder there were problems! Overall, while I like Van Heflin, the film is just a dopey time-passer and it could have been a lot more.

By the way, in an interesting bit of casting the two little girls are played by real life sisters, Gigi and Janine Perreau.