This tired, aimlessly frisky comedy ["How Sweet It Is!"] is about as sweet as a dill pickle….

Unfortunately, what begins as a bouncy frolic about a fortyish couple involved with some teen-age girls on a European tour starts meandering, then flounders in a welter of stale gags, and finally does an inane nosedive.

The basic idea, in the screen play by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, is not bad, the joke being that [Mom and Pop] aren't getting any younger and can't communicate with their teen-age son, with his hippie haircut and a mind of his own. Europe is supposed to change or at least clarify things….

[Once] the picture plunks down on the Italian Riviera, or Hollywood with some post-card backdrops, it airily goes to pieces….

The volume increases, in some broad, sexual teasing that dates back to "Up in Mabel's Room." And the grand finale, a...