`National Lampoon's European Vacation`

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National Lampoon's European Vacation ( 1985, Warner Bros . ) is a comedy film, second in the Vacation series, directed by Amy Heckerling and starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo. Dana Hill and Jason Lively replace Dana Barron and Anthony Michael Hall as Griswold children Audrey and Rusty. After Anthony Michael Hall declined to reprise his role (he decided to star in Weird Science instead), producers decided to recast both children.

This was the only Vacation movie that did not feature Randy Quaid's "Cousin Eddie" character. In the opening "Pig in a Poke" sequence, the family's name is shown as "Griswald", though in every other instance and film it is spelled "Griswold".

Plot
The film's plot is another family misadventure, full of over-the-top slapstick. Chase and D'Angelo again portray the married couple Clark and Ellen Griswold, living in suburban Chicago with two children, Rusty and Audrey. The family competes in a game show called "Pig in a Poke" (based on Family Feud, but with the families wearing pig costumes) and wins an all-expense-paid trip to Europe, flying Pan Am Airways. In a whirlwind tour of western Europe, chaos of all sorts ensues. Their fleabag London hotel desk clerk is a sloppy, tattooed Cockney wearing a tank top (Mel Smith). Clark drives his family endlessly round the busy Lambeth Bridge roundabout for hours, unable to maneuver his way out of traffic, mentioning the Big Ben clock and Parliament with each pass. His wrong-way driving habits cause him to repeatedly knock over and injure the same frightened bicyclist (Eric Idle) who reappears in different scenes as if by coincidence, each time wearing more bandages than in the scene before. At Stonehenge, Clark backs their car into a priceless, ancient stone monolith, knocking all the stones down like dominoes, which they do not even notice happened as they happily leave the scene. (While the family are at Stonehenge, Clarke shouts for Rusty who is standing right behind him. Rusty then replies, 'Yeah Dad?'. This conversation is a callback to a similar one which took place in National Lampoon's Vacation after Clark crashed the car in the middle of the desert.)

In Paris, Rusty throws his beret cap off the Eiffel Tower observation deck, causing a lady's dachshund to jump off after it; later young Rusty meets a hooker at a bawdy Paris can-can dance show. The Griswolds burst in on a bewildered, elderly German village couple who they mistakenly think are relatives but who serve them dinner anyhow, not knowing each other's languages. Clark manages to turn a lively thigh-slapping Bavarian folk dance stage performance into an all-out street brawl, after which he, fleeing hastily, gets their car stuck in a too-narrow medieval archway after knocking down several street vendors' stands. In Rome Mrs. Griswold is kidnapped by terrorists, who also are holding a store manager for ransom. The family's movie camera is stolen by a slick confidence man at a Paris fountain; sometime afterward, private sexy pictures of Mrs. Griswold from the camera appear on large billboards advertising a porn movie, much to her embarrassment. The family members get on each others' nerves while riding together in a train compartment. Lovestruck daughter Audrey runs up exorbitant overseas telephone charges repeatedly calling her American boyfriend Jack (William Zabka), and leaves the family, anxious to fly back alone to see him.

Cameo appearances are made by John Astin (playing game show host "Kent Winkdale"), Moon Unit Zappa, Robbie Coltrane, Maureen Lipman, Leslie Phillips, Ballard Berkeley, Eric Idle and a musical appearance by The Power Station ("Some Like It Hot").

Landmarks and locations
Famous landmarks and sights appearing as the family tours England, France, West Germany, and Italy include:

London's Tower Bridge
Buckingham Palace
Heathrow International Airport
Big Ben
Palace of Westminster
Stonehenge (which they accidentally knock down with their car like dominos)
Paris' Left Bank
Eiffel Tower
Louvre museum
Notre Dame de Paris cathedral
Rome's Colosseum
United States' Statue of Liberty (the torch of which their plane crashes into and knocks over)
Other locations used in the movie include:

Addison Avenue, Notting Hill (where Clark runs over Eric Idle's character)
Lambeth Palace Roundabout
Scenes supposedly taking place in West Germany were actually shot in Italy (Brixen).

Music
During Rusty's dream sequence, we hear "Some Like it Hot" by The Power Station.
During the fast-paced tour of the Louvre, we hear Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi."

Follows
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Sequels
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Vegas Vacation (1997)
Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure (2003)

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