Charlie Cartwright, an amorous Englishtour guide, takes groups of Americans on whirlwind 9-countries-in-18-days sightseeing tours of Europe. Having overslept with his newest conquest, he is late meeting tour #225, finding a resentful group that is eager to start.
Samantha Perkins, one of those tourists, is on vacation to contemplate whether to marry her fiancé, George. In London, Charlie begins a campaign to charm and seduce the gorgeous Samantha, who considers him frivolous and conniving, reluctant to become just another conquest. Despite verbal sparring, they become mutually attracted, and erstwhile confirmed bachelor Charlie proposes marriage. Samantha ultimately decides not to settle for unexciting George, who turns up unexpectedly, but also that charismatic Charlie is not husband material.
Suzanne Pleshette plays Samantha Perkins.
Fred and Edna Ferguson take their daughter Shelly on the trip to separate her from an undesirable boyfriend with whom she is getting sexually involved. In Amsterdam, Shelly meets an activist American collegestudent who follows her around different tour locations, where they sneak off on his motorcycle to spend time together sightseeing through counterculture eyes.
Also in Amsterdam, Irma Blakely disappears on a Japanese tour bus that she mistakenly boards when separated from her group. Multiple attempts must be made before the two tours overlap to restore her to her husband Harve. Although Harve pines for Irma during the whole trip and must be coaxed into joining the group at a nightclub; when Irma finally reappears in Rome, she finds him onstage dancing with burlesque dancers and mistakenly believes he has been partying in her absence. Irma declares they will go to Japan next year, since she has made many friends on her improvised tour.
In Belgium, Jack Harmon revisits the WWII site where he fought in Bastogne. As he tells tall tales to fellow tourist Freda Gooding of a German retreat, he literally crosses path with a German veteran who is acting out a contradictory tale of Allied retreat to his wife. In Rome, eager to see Gina again, a girl he met during the war, Jack's fantasies are shattered when he finds Gina is still attractive, but a grandmother with a family. In consolation, he turns to Freda Gooding, a widow, and begins to get to know her.
Often getting slapped, Bert Greenfield sneaks pictures of breasts, thighs, and other intimate angles of voluptuous women, pretending that he is “scoring” with them, and sending made-up stories to his buddies. Desperate, he pays a pretty girl to pose with him in an embrace; she returns his money out of pity and kisses his cheek before departing.
In Italy, John Marino takes time from the tour to meet his relatives, who receive him warmly but alarm him when they want to fix him up with Francesca, a plump, plain cousin, whom he jumps through a bathroom window to avoid. The next day he is handed a pile of messages from “a cousin” and spends the rest of his time avoiding her. As he is leaving Rome John finds that he has been dodging a different beautiful cousin who he laments not getting to know; Bert laments not getting her photo for his collection.
Throughout the tour, Fred complains to Edna that the tour is an ordeal and he is eager to get home. His one objective is to have a custom pair of Italian shoes made, for which he goes through an arduous process to make the non-English-speaking shoemaker understand his specifications. After Fred leaves, the shoemaker selects a pair of ready-made shoes from a catalogue, completely mistaking the specifications, that he will mail to the US to fulfill the "special order". Despite having complained throughout the whole tour, Fred declares they will go on a tour of Scandinavia next year.
Throughout the tour, kleptomaniac Harry Dix steals “souvenirs” such as towels, ashtrays, Bibles, bells, lifesavers, telephones, and paintings from each location, which he stows into a commodious suitcase. At the airport on departure, his suitcase is so heavy that it collapses, spilling all his pilfered objects, which he leaves behind.
Starting tour #226, Charlie gives an introductory speech, expressing that unexpected adventure can happen as they rotate seats and get to know each other, reflecting his new romantic, less cynical, outlook.
The title, also used by a 1965 documentary on CBS television that filmed one such tour, was taken from a New Yorker cartoon by Leonard Dove. Published in the June 22, 1957, issue of the magazine, the cartoon depicts a young woman near a tour bus and a campanile, frustratedly exclaiming "But if it's Tuesday, it has to be Siena," humorously illustrating the whirlwind nature of European tour schedules.[n 1] This concept formed the premise of the film's plot. Donovan sings "Lord of the Reedy River," which he had also written. He also wrote the film's title song, performed by J.P. Rags, a pseudonym for Douglas Cox.
Locations
Locations where the film was shot include first: London, Great Britain; second: the Netherlands; third: Brussels and Bastogne, Belgium; fourth: Rhineland-Palatinate with the boat on the Rhine from Koblenz to Wiesbaden, Germany; fifth: Switzerland; and last: Venice and Rome, Italy. The film poster shows the cast on the normally pedestrianized Grote Markt square of Antwerp, Belgium, posing for a typical souvenir photo in front of the city hall, with their tour bus obstructing the view of the Brabo fountain which is normally a favorite photo-op with other tourists.
Reception
Box office
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium earned estimated rentals of $3 million in the United States during its initial run.[4]
Critical response
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote in his review: "IF IT'S TUESDAY, This Must Be Belgium may be the first cartoon caption ever made into a feature-length movie. If I remember correctly, that was the legend that appeared some years ago under a New Yorker Magazine cartoon showing two harried American travelers, in the middle of a relentlessly picturesque village, consulting their tour schedule. It was a nice cartoon, made timely by the great wave of tourism that swept Europe in the 1950s. Subsequently, I'm told, there was a television documentary that explored more or less this same phenomenon—the boom in pre-paid (two in a room), packaged culture junkets. Now, some years after the subject seemed really fresh, a movie has been made about one such 18-day, 9-country excursion. Even if you don't accept the fact that just about everything that could be said about American tourism was said earlier by Mark Twain, Henry James or even Woody Allen, If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium is a pretty dim movie experience, like a stopover in an airport where the only reading matter is yesterday's newspapers."[5]
Roger Ebert wrote in his review: "Someone -- Mark Twain? -- once said that the American tourist believes English can be understood anywhere in the world if it's spoken loudly and slowly enough. To this basic item of folklore, other characteristics of the typical American tourist have been added from year to year: He wears sunglasses, Bermuda shorts and funny shirts. He has six cameras hanging around his neck. He orders hamburgers in secluded little Parisian restaurants. He talks loudly, and the female of his species is shrill and critical. He is, in short, a plague. This sort of American tourist does still exist, but in much smaller numbers. My observation during several visits to Europe is that the American tourist has become poorer and younger than he used to be, and awfully self-conscious about being an American. On the average, he's likely to be quieter and more tactful than the average German or French tourist (who doesn't have to prove anything). The interesting thing about If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium is that it depicts this new American tourist. That's amazing because movies of this sort usually tend to be 10 years behind the times, and I went expecting another dose of the Bermuda shorts syndrome. "If It's Tuesday" isn't a great movie by any means, but it manages to be awfully pleasant. I enjoyed it more or less on the level I was intended to, as a low-key comedy presenting a busload of interesting actors who travel through England, Belgium, Germany, and Italy on one of those whirlwind tours. There is a lot of scenery, but not too much, and some good use of locations in Venice and Rome. There are also some scenes that are better than they should be because they're well-acted. Murray Hamilton is in a lot of these scenes, and they're reminders that he has been in a disproportionate number of the best recent comedies: The President's Analyst, Two for the Road, and The Graduate (he was Mr. Robinson)."[6]
^The idea had appeared earlier, in The Café de la Paix, a 1925 revue sketch by Noël Coward in On with the Dance, which includes an exchange between American tourists: Mrs Hammaker—"Are we in Paris or Brussels, Harry"? Harry—"What day of the week is it"? Irma—"Thursday". Harry—"We are in Paris".[3]
