Long-time documentarians (The Making of the President 1960, Four Days in November) David L. Wolper and Mel Stuart had their first go at narrative filmmaking with If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), a tour group comedy inspired by a 1957 New Yorker cartoon. If David Shaw's screenplay aims squarely at the lowest common denominator (grumpy husbands and frumpy wives, time-honored ethnic stereotypes and literal toilet humor), Wolper and Stuart are well-served by a lively cast of television actors (Norman Fell, Michael Constantine, Peggy Cass), the odd feature player (Murray Hamilton, between Seconds and Jaws) and a pair of well-matched leads in Suzanne Pleshette (transitioning from big screen roles to TV stardom) and Ian McShane (close to the beginning of a long and highly diverse career), all of whom give the material personality and spark. A bonus is the location cinematography of Vilis Lapenieks, which bestows upon the hoary hijinks freshness and spontaneity, but the film's trump card is the stunt casting of John Cassavetes and Ben Gazzara (taking five during production of Husbands in London and made to share the frame with Marty Ingels), Senta Berger, Virna Lisi, Elsa Martinelli, Vittorio De Sica, Anita Ekberg, and Robert Vaughn (like Gazzara, pointed towards the Wolper-produced war movie The Bridge at Remagen) in star cameos. Wolper and Stuart's next project was Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).

By Richard Harland Smith