National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

 In the 1980s when I was both a teenager and as a burgeoning film fan there was no comedy star I found more entertaining than Chevy Chase.  Chase was smart, knew how to play irreverence and sarcasm better than anyone, and had a writer's sense of how to build and payoff a joke.  He was also an expert with physical comedy, perhaps highlighted best by the pratfalls he took while playing Gerald Ford as a clutz on Saturday Night Live.  Chase wrote a chapter in a book called "Tools of the Trade" on it in which he explains how to fake getting slammed in the face with a door (a trick I pulled on my mother to her horror one time).  Chase could play terrific tricks with his face, switching quickly from one expression to another to great effect.  In the 80s even the films he was in that did not work well always had funny moments (a moment in the otherwise dull Spies Like Us has him using every trick he can think of to cheat on a test). Fletch, Foul Play, Seems Like Old Times and the first two National Lampoons Vacation films are my favorites of his, blending physical comedy with some clever characterizations.  Fletch in particular has witty lines that were seemingly written for him ("For an extra grand I'll let you take me out to dinner:).  

In 1989 at Christmas time the third in the Vacation series, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was released and I missed it in theatres.  The following summer I caught it on video and thought it had some moments but definitely felt I was seeing it at the wrong time of year.  Over the years it has become a Christmas classic and is perhaps the most re-watched of the series and maybe any of Chase's films.  I had caught bits and pieces of it on cable but finally decided to give it a full revisit and show it to my kids.

I must acknowledge that it has been disappointing to learn that Chase badly mistreated people he worked with a lot over the years.  Chase's time on the show Community and some interviews in which he behaved horribly exposed some behavior that was probably not well documented during productions he worked on in the past and he has been the subject of several unflattering books and articles.  I knew nothing of this when I became a fan, nor did I have much interest in Chase's personal life though it appears a mixture of a toxic household while growing up and alcoholism may have been contributing factors.  I hope he is able to turn this around because this is hurting his legacy.

Spoilers below:

In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Clark (Chase) and Ellen Griswold (Beverly D'Angelo) decide (at Clark's behest) not to take another ill destined trip but to host a big family Christmas in their home.  Clark is determined to make it the best Christmas ever though as always he dreams a little too big and there are disastrous results.  Both Clark and Ellen's parents, along with a great aunt and her husband and Ellen's cousin Kathryn and her redneck husband Eddie, their kids and their dog all come to the Griswold home.

The Vacation films always start off with Clark overly optimistic about the upcoming vacation until one thing too many goes wrong around the end of the second act which sends him off the deep end.  The opening sequence (after a cute Santa cartoon which sets the tone of the film) is amusing with Clark driving out to the middle out nowhere to get an enormous Christmas tree and while losing in a face off with another driver.  A lot of the humor in the immediate aftermath is generated from Clark awkwardly fitting into the house, while also annoying his WASPY dink neighbors.  The neighbors are played by Nicholas Guest (brother of director Christopher) and, in an early showcase, Julia Louis Dreyfus.  Louis Dreyfus' gets to play a selfish woman who gets increasingly frustrated as her life and house fall apart around her and foreshadows a lot of her enormous comic talent.  In retrospect the film should have given her more scenes in which she faced off with Clark.  

All Vacation films change the actors playing the kids (they were made too far apart for the kids to remain young) but this time it is notable as Russ goes from about 16 in European Vacation to about 13 here and is apparently younger than sister Audrey, who is played as more of a brat than before by Juliette Lewis.  Both actors would go on to bigger things with Galecki becoming a big TV star in Roseanne and Lewis building an independent film career off a strong part in Cape Fear.

The house with far too many guests leads to a film with too many characters who mostly stand around bickering.  The first time director Jeremiah Chechik keeps the focus on Chase's Clark and does not give good actors like Diane Ladd, E.G. Marshall, or Doris Roberts much to do.  There's a warm scene with Clark and his father played by John Randolph where we see were Clark's sweetness come from but nothing of the clumsiness.  D'Angelo, whose Ellen is always playing the straight woman to Clark's antics, and matches well with Chase onscreen, has much less to do here than in the other films.  

The only other actor who really gets to shine is Randy Quaid who returns from the first film as Eddie,  whose intrusive ways and financial struggles cause havoc for Clark and Ellen.  Eddy's poverty is played a lot for laughs with the rusted over RV and the overpopulated family.  There is a funny gag repeated from the first film in which Eddie tries to kiss Ellen and she slips away from him.  Clark is pretty tolerant of the guests but Eddie is too much for  him.  Chase gets to have fun with his brand of passive aggressive behavior with lines like "I can't believe you are standing in my living room" or spitting out a cup of eggnog when Eddie says how long he and Kathryn are planning to stay.

Additionally the film does boast Mae Questel, who was the original Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, as Aunt Bethany who has a loud voice and some hilarious lines as a senile old relative no one knows how to relate to.  Clark's attempts to be patient with her are both nice and funny, like when he remarks that she wrapped uo her own cat.  Questel is well matched by William Hickey as playing her husband Uncle Lewis who also gets some good lines.    

While the film has many funny gags the best moments for me are the small moments like when Clark is admiring the Christmas lights and discovers that Eddie is there.  I also like after the Christmas turkey is ruined Ellen subtly throws pieces off a fork while pretending to chew to spare Kathryn's feelings.  Clark has a nice scene with Ruby Sue (played by Ellen Hamilton Latzen) where she gets some funny lines,  but Clark just tries to cheer her up.  

The crowd scenes, like when the family tries to flee a squirrel do not work as there are too many people and I could not figure out Clark would be afraid of one.  It would be more successful to focus the scene on Clark and Rusty trying to capture it and failing miserably.  

There is a curious moment when Clark gets trapped in the attic and watches some old home movies which show us the mood he is trying to create in hosting this big family Christmas.  But the comedy of the situation does not quite work as Ellen opens the attic and he falls out but we do not see him land and the scene feels awkwardly edited.  

There are other such moments where something crazy happens, and we get a seemingly unrelated reaction shot to someone else seeing it, and then it cuts back to Clark.  In the end I think scriptwriter John Hughes would have done better to create a smaller number of distinct guests (a la Eddie) rather than a big crowd scene.  

Chase gets some funny improvisational moments in which Clark is tempted by an attractive clerk in a department store.  However Clark learned in the first film how dangerous it is to his marriage to flirt with other women so I was surprised that there was no scene in which Ellen puts him in his place for it.

The climax of the film is a little flat as Clark learns he has not received the expected annual bonus and flips out but Eddie indirectly saves the day by taking Clark's heat of the moment monologue seriously and kidnaps Clark's boss who eventually comes through with the bonus.  The Griswolds live in Chicago so I wonder how good an investment a pool is as they could only use it a couple months of the year.  The best moment is when the SWAT team invades the Griswold home which is full of a middle aged couple, several kids and three older couples, but it repeats a similar beat in the first film.  Alexander Folk gets in a good line about beating Clark's boss with a rubber hose.  

All in all Christmas Vacation is not a terribly well made film but it does offer some entertaining holiday humor and is a showcase for Chase's unique talents.  It was fun to share it with my kids.  ***