Two students (a boy and girl) escape from their Swiss private school and make for Paris. Their respective parents, an American father and a French mother, together embark on a wide journey around the countryside, getting local police involved in finding them, with many whimsical situations, including riding on a police motorcycle, and encountering military maneuvers and a bicycle race.
Allmovie wrote, "The Happy Road tends to bludgeon its audience with whimsy at time," but noted, "Gene Kelly, as always, is charming, and less affected than usual" ;[3] while The New York Times praised the film as "a lively and charming little tale" concluding, "Mr. Kelly rates a good hand for this picture. So does Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer."[4]
Box office
According to MGM records, the film earned $325,000 in the US and Canada and $625,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $117,000.[1]