''Family Honeymoon'' is a 1949 domestic

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

made by

Universal International Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

, directed by Claude Binyon, and written by Dane Lussier, based on novel by

Homer Croy Homer Croy (March 11, 1883 – May 24, 1965), was an American author and occasional screenwriter who wrote fiction and non-fiction books about life in the Midwestern United States. He also wrote several popular biographies, including books on ou ...

. It was shot in

Grand Canyon National Park Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona, is the 15th site in the United States to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often conside ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Plot

Katie Armstrong (

Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures ...

) is a young widow and mother of three children - Charlie ( Jimmy Hunt), Abner ( Peter Miles), and Zoe (

Gigi Perreau Gigi Perreau (born February 6, 1941) is an American film and television actress. Early years The daughter of French-born Robert and Eleanor Child Perreau-Saussine, she was born Ghislaine Elizabeth Marie Thérèse Perreau-Saussine. Career Perrea ...

). She is also engaged to be married to

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

professor Grant Jordan (

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series, in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

). Grant is seeking funds to raise a new botany research building on the university

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-li ...

where he works, and the most influential person to convince in this quest is his chancellor, Richard Fenster (

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

). Grant used to be involved with the chancellor's daughter, Minna ( Rita Johnson), and is surprised when Minna crashes his

bachelor party A bachelor party (in the United States and sometimes in Canada), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia), is a party held/arranged by th ...

. Minna also almost succeeds in completely ruining Katie's engagement party. When Katie hears about Minna's visit at the bachelor party, Grant does his best to assure her that Minna is a finished chapter in his book, but he also has a hard time completely ignoring her, since he needs to be on good terms with the chancellor himself. Minna is obviously out to sabotage the relationship between Grant and Katie. While the couple are to get married and go away on

honeymoon A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...

, Katie's sister Jo ( Lillian Bronson) has agreed to look after the children. Right before the wedding, Jo injures herself in a domestic accident, preventing her from fulfilling her promise to look after the children. The newlywed couple have no other alternative than to bring the children with them on their honeymoon, which is when things start going wrong. Abner and Charlie abandon the train they are riding together, and disappear into the night at the stop in Porterville. When the rest of the family arrives at Junction City, they take a taxi back to Porterville to look for the missing brothers. In Porterville, they find out that the brothers have left for Junction City with a traveling salesman. It soon turns out they never made it all the way, but hitched with a local farmer, Mr. Webb (

Irving Bacon Irving Bacon (born Irving Von Peters; September 6, 1893 – February 5, 1965) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 500 films. Early years Bacon was the son of entertainers Millar Bacon and Myrtle Vane. He was born in St. Jos ...

), to his home. The family is finally reunited and the next day they board a train bound for the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

. When the family arrives at the

, Grant discovers that Minna and the chancellor are there, too, on vacation. Minna immediately starts working Grant, trying to spend as much time with him as possible, convincing him to show his preliminary sketches for a new botany building to her father. While this happens, Katie and the children are away on a horseback-riding excursion. Katie meets the chancellor on her excursion, thus finding out about the Fensters' presence at the canyon. She returns to the lodge just in time to be invited by Minna, with Grant, to a dinner with her. When Katie is away getting her hair done, Minna surprises Grant with a visit when he is looking after the children. Coming back, Katie finds them both in the lodge together, and a quarrel between Grant and her ensues. Outraged, Grant leaves the lodge in a taxi, while Minna is contentedly watching. Soon after, Katie also leaves the lodge with the children, and when Grant returns, regretful, she is already gone. Since Katie has told her sister that she is on her way home, Jo decides to throw the happy couple a welcoming party. Upon her arrival, Katie is quite embarrassed by returning home alone to the party, and tries to speak with Jo in private. Minna and the chancellor turn up at the party, and Minna gloats in Katie's unfortunate position, believing that she is trying to escape the attention at the party. The children go away to find Grant, and just as Katie is about to tell the crowd that Grant and she are separated, Grant and the children turn up at the house. Much to Minna's dismay, the couple reunite and get to spend their first night together.

Cast

as Katie Armstrong Jordan *

as Grant Jordan * Rita Johnson as Minna Fenster *

as Zoe * Jimmy Hunt as Charlie * Peter Miles as Abner, Gigi Perreau's older brother * Lillian Bronson as Aunt Jo *

Hattie McDaniel Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedian. For her role as Mammy in ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'' (1939), she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, ...

as Phyllis *

Chill Wills Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet. Early life Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas, on July 18, 1902. Career He was a performer from early chi ...

as Fred *

Catherine Doucet Catherine Doucet (born Catherine Green; June 20, 1875 – June 24, 1958) was an American actress. She appeared in more than 30 films between 1915 and 1954. Her film debut came in ''As Husbands Go''. Doucet's work on Broadway began with ''B ...

as Mrs. Abercrombie *

as Chancellor Fenster *

as Mr. Webb *

Chick Chandler Fehmer Christy "Chick" Chandler (January 18, 1905 – September 30, 1988) was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 130 films from 1925 through the mid-1950s. Chandler was known for his starring role as Toubo Smith in ...

as Taxi Driver * Frank Jenks as Gas Station Attendant *

Wally Brown Wallace Edgar Brown (October 8, 1904 – November 13, 1961) was an American actor and comedian. In the 1940s, he performed as the comic partner of Alan Carney. Early years Wallace Edgar Brown was born in Malden, Massachusetts, the son of Her ...

as Tom Roscoe

References

External links

* * * {{Claude Binyon 1949 films 1949 comedy films American black-and-white films Films directed by Claude Binyon Universal Pictures films Films scored by Frank Skinner American comedy films 1940s American films