Escargots

Bon Voyage (Walt Disney; Buena Vista) is one of those travel pictures made "with the generous cooperation of" assorted hotels, railroads and steamship lines that seem to gain in glamour upon being transferred to film. This time Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman, an ever-lovin' couple from Terre Haute, Ind., are off to France with their three typical kids: a sweet plump daughter (Deborah Walley) with steely morals, an engagingly nutty teen-age son (Tommy Kirk), and another boy (Kevin Corcoran), 12, whose freckled wit comes forth in lines like ''I know who Napoleon was. He was the guy that had the same trouble with the English that Custer had with the Indians."

The action turns on the amorous experiences of each member of the family except the brat. Father smashes the jaw of a celebrated shoulder kisser who specializes in middle-aged mothers. His daughter falls in love with a miserable young architect who cannot believe in marriage until the young girl's golden example and courageous fortitude in refusing his more immediate advances win him over to a vision of permanent happiness at the end.

For all that, the film does have its moments. The little boy jumps up and down in his desperate need to go to the bathroom during a tour of the Paris sewers.

Fred MacMurray is a great pampered hound of a father with a sure comic touch despite the undistinguished script. And each departure and arrival, of course, require establishing shots, providing the outstanding footage in the picture. There is some splendid color photography of the Statue of Liberty, for example, and stunning views of the S.S. United States.

There are long shots across the bridges of the Seine and pedalo views of Cannes.

An overhead shot of a biscuit warmer full of escargots seems a trifle arty, but the snails, piled high in a veil of heavenly vapor, look utterly royal. It dishonors them to say that the picture as a whole creeps at a snail's pace-- but that, in a shell, is what happens.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.