Seeing as Woody Allen was the credited writer and there was a talented director and cast involved, Don't Drink the Water had much potential. But while it is nowhere near as bad as some have said it could have been much better. It does have a fair few bright spots. It is not a bad-looking film, even if very 60s, the fashions are lovely to look at and give a real sense of nostalgia. Jackie Gleason does his absolute best but while he can be a little too abrasive he is very amusing. Richard Libertini also looks as if he's having fun, making his dialogue funnier than they deserved to be, and Michael Constantine gives very skilled support. There are a few good gags and pieces of dialogue, like Gleason and Constantine's confrontation, the spontaneous riot against the US embassy, "do you think it was a place that sold, guns, guards and barbed wire?" and the ahead of its time "that's the state department for you". Estelle Parssons is a mixed bag, she has moments where she's charming and her chemistry with Gleason is reasonably good but I do agree actually that she does come across as too much of an airhead. Ted Bussell is little more than a charmless dunce and the rest of the cast have nothing to do and can't do anything to make them shine. The film also feels very pedestrian, with a ridiculously overlong introduction, a story that can drag and be bloated and has some slack editing that really hurts the timing of most of the gags. The script has moments but for Allen, due to how much is changed, it lacks the sharpness, bite and wit that you associate with Allen to the extent it didn't sound like Allen's writing. It also didn't feel farcical enough, there was need of more energy, the humour was uneven and it could be too serious and not broad enough. The music sounded tacky and forgettable and really dated the film. All in all, there are some bright spots and there's much worse out there but Don't Drink the Water to me was rather average. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Caterer Walter (Jackie Gleason) and wife Marion Hollander (Estelle Parsons) are on their European vacation with their teenage daughter Susan. Their plane is hijacked and forced to land in Vulgaria. The family decides to sightsee behind the Iron Curtains. The local authorities chase the family into a US Embassy limo. Axel Magee is the incompetent son of an ambitious politician and the acting ambassador. He takes the family back to the American Embassy. Commissar Krojack (Michael Constantine) intends to get the supposed spies.

This family is the worst example of the ugly Americans. It was probably funnier with an audience who grew up with Jackie Gleason. It would be better if Marion isn't a complete idiot. Two idiots don't always make for a funny couple. One smart one would be a great foil for the other. I just found everybody terribly stupid and insufferably annoying. I really hate this family and by extension, I hate this movie.

If you can get past the credits without feeling yourself going blind, you may want to pull out sunglasses for the sight of Jackie Gleason in a very loud black and white striped jacket with a colorful scarf that looks like something more out of "Boys in the Band" than something that Ralph Kramden would wear. But this certainly isn't as bizarre as some of the things he was forced to wear in Otto Preminger's disastrous "Skidoo" (made the same year) and in place of Carol Channing as his spouse, he gets Estelle Parsons, not screaming here as she did in her Oscar Winning role as Blanche in "Bonnie and Clyde", but spoofing the perfect wife and mother, overly cheerful at every moment, as they prepare to take off from Newark Airport to head to Europe for a nice family vacation. Of course, this was during a whole series of planes being hijacked, so no sooner are they sitting on the plane (grabbing a nut out of a tray passing by) than the plane lands in Vulgaria, that fictional European country first visited in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", and now obviously under a communist regime. Taking this chance to get off the plane for home movies, Gleason, Parsons and their daughter (Joan Delaney) are chased by machine gun carrying military and end up in the American Embassy, protected by none other than "That Girl's" Ted Bessell and accused of being spies. As they wait for their accusers to learn the truth, Gleason insults world leaders, Parsons waxes the entire mansion's floor, and a romance ensues between Delaney and Bessell. When the opportunity arises for these unfortunate out of towner's to return to the quite life of Newark, New Jersey, it still isn't easy, and like the Griswalds of the "National Lampoon's Vacation" series and Sandy Dennis and Jack Lemmon of "The Out of Towners", the results are dangerously wacky to say the least.

This Woody Allen play was a huge hit on Broadway, and its movie version uses every odd late 1960's cliché for its structure. However, while Allen wrote the screenplay, he didn't direct it, that job being given to T.V. veteran Howard Morris who gives it a rather strange pacing, sometimes frenetic and sometimes too frantic to catch everything going on. Gleason, though, milks every laugh for what its worth, particularly in a scene where he finds him holding onto an obvious bomb. Parsons manages to be funny with her eternal smile, good nature and dim-witted reactions to everything going on, never once giving any indication that she fears her life might actually be in danger. Some really funny character performances help this along, particularly Richard Libertini who could always take the most generic line and turn into something hysterical. Not a perfect comedy (and certainly extremely dated),it still gives an interesting look back to a time in film history where traveling the globe really proved that it was indeed a mod, mod world.