Chevy Chase's Dislike Of Director Amy Heckerling Spelled Trouble For National Lampoon's European Vacation
The National Lampoon is not a movie studio, though it might have seemed like it in the 1980s. The humor magazine that ran from 1970 to 1998 got into the movie business in 1978 when it put its name on "Animal House." The college comedy — co-written by Harold Ramis, directed by John Landis, and starring John Belushi — was wildly successful and launched a cinematic comedy institution. After a few disappointments, National Lampoon would hit cinematic gold again in 1983 with "National Lampoon's Vacation," a cross-country family vacation movie written by John Hughes and starring Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo. The franchise would see two John Hughes-penned sequels and a fourth movie not associated with National Lampoon (1997's "Vegas Vacation").
With a hot comedy label, one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood, and the lead actors returning, what went wrong with the first sequel, "National Lampoon's European Vacation?" According to one author, Griswold family patriarch Chevy Chase played a large role in ruining the vacation this time around.
Chase wanted a different director
Two years after finally making it to Wally World, Chevy Chase returned as Clark Griswold, this time leading his family on an ambitious cross-Atlantic vacation to Europe. Although John Hughes returned as the screenwriter, "National Lampoon's Vacation" director Harold Ramis was succeeded by Amy Heckerling, not too far off the success of her debut film, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."
According to Nick de Semlyen, author of "Wild and Crazy Guys," the decision to go with Heckerling as director didn't sit well with the film's star. Chase wanted original "Vacation" director Harold Ramis for the sequel, but Ramis was busy with "Ghostbusters." The tenuous relationship between star and director made for an unpleasant production. After "European Vacation" finally wrapped, Chase didn't see himself returning to the series. According to de Semlyen's book, the actor said:
"The first was enjoyable, the second was hard and there was a different chemistry. I won't do another. It would be a waste of time."
The 31-year-old director might have been in over her head. On just her third feature film she was paired with a notoriously cranky star and shipped to another continent for a three-month film shoot across several European locations. The recipe for disaster proved to be just that.
European Vacation is the worst of the series
Chevy Chase made it known that he was miserable on the set of "National Lampoon's European Vacation," but he wasn't the only one suffering. Amy Heckerling, who always kept a plane ticket to New York with her, wasn't shy about admitting what went wrong. Heckerling said:
"We were being steered toward rewriting scenes that weren't going to be as good. I was assigned certain actors that when I met them didn't look the way they did in the photos, or did not speak English well or at all. And there were times when Chevy didn't show up or whatever [...] He was not a happy camper. And neither was I."
Chase's concerns about "National Lampoon's European Vacation" extended beyond the director. Nick de Semlyen notes how Chase had issues with several parts of the film, including the pedophile game show host and the spouse-swap gag. Both Chase and D'Angelo were worried their reaction to foreigners might paint them as racist.
And Chase might have been on to something. Although movies are subjective, "European Vacation" is widely considered the worst of the three "National Lampoon" films. Scores on IMDB (6.2 out of 10 rating) and Rotten Tomatoes (34% Tomatometer score) confirm that sentiment.
It's not fair to lay the blame for the movie's failures at the feet of Heckerling. At the time, Chase already had a reputation for being a pain in the ass. And despite whatever production problems the crew faced, it sounds like Chase was hell-bent on making Heckerling's life miserable. While "European Vacation" didn't bomb at the box office, pulling in just under $50 million, it was the least successful of all three movies. What started as a quest for fun sadly turned into a nightmare of a sequel.