• Berlanga’s third film, brimming with nostalgia for youth, romance and summer.
  • Set in “Europe 1918”
  • Berlanga’s trademark quick wit—“the highest he ever got in the army was draft dogger”.
  • Under 90 minutes
  • Breezy, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953 just the year before) and Amarcord (1973) come to mind as comparisons. Boyfriend in Sight, like Welcome Mr. Marshall! is an ensemble comedy.
  • The romance for 15-year old’s, cute, the end of innocence (Berlanga wants to extend this—he spoofs “adult life”- politics, war—here half the jokes are about war and the “war games” of the kids vs. the adults is a big part of the plot (if you can call it that))
  • Berlanga does feel akin to Preston Sturges – the collective support here like all the great films with William Demarest in the cast
  • Narrative symmetry with the rain coming in signifying the end of vacation/summer and going back in school for the test just how the film opened.
  • Recommend but not near the top 10 of 1954