Weekend with Father Reviews

In a charming tale of adults vs. children and urban life vs. nature, Heflin and Neal are single parents who meet while taking their children to summer camp. They learn that they've both been widowed and fall in love. Their children, however, are against the idea and have other marital prospects in mind--for Heflin it's a hot-shot TV personality, and for Neal it's the athletic camp counselor. The mischievous youngsters, led by Perreau, succeed in breaking the couple apart, but when Perreau sees just how much in love they really are, the kids work to get them back together. The children become the focal point in WEEKEND WITH FATHER, substituting for fate by taking the lives of the adults in their own hands. Sirk stressed the kids' importance by claiming he made the picture "only for the children." He used themes from this picture in later works, most notably in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, which has the impending marriage of Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman controlled by her selfish children and a snobbish society crowd. While Sirk makes light of several characters in WEEKEND WITH FATHER, he seems to have the most fun with the health-nut camp counselor, Denning. Sirk became a vegetarian during filming, and Denning's character, in Sirk's words,"was, therefore, a bit of a self-satire."