You won't be disappointed!

Dreadfully Boring

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Arthur Kober's play Having Wonderful Time was fresh from its Broadway run of 372 performances for 1937-38 when RKO bought it to the screen starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Ginger Rogers. The play was a homage to the Catskill resort area so frequented by New York's Jewish population because of restrictions on other vacation areas. The area with its own Jewish owned and operated resorts became popularly known as the Jewish Alps.On Broadway John Garfield and Katharine Locke starred, but for the screen RKO used two of its best contract players of the time Fairbanks and Rogers. According to Salad Days the memoir of Fairbanks, both he and Rogers did use proper Brooklyn and Bronx accents in their characters, but after the audiences in Red State America had trouble understanding them, both he and Ginger were called back and dubbed a whole lot of their lines in more generic tones. By the way Fairbanks could and did use a really good New York type accent in Angels On Broadway a few years later.A whole lot of outstanding character players are in Having Wonderful Time like Eve Arden, Donald Meek, Lee Bowman, Jack Carson, and Lucille Ball. Making his screen debut as the camp social director where we got to see some of his Catskill type shtick was Red Skelton.Having Wonderful Time is a good screen comedy, showing off Fairbanks and Rogers to their best advantage. But I would probably have liked to have seen the film done as it was presented on Broadway. The days of the great Jewish resorts of the Catskills are gone now so it's highly unlikely we'll see a remake of Having Wonderful Time. An opportunity to have preserved a piece of history is now gone unfortunately.

Ginger Rogers, working girl and typist, decides to forget her worries and take two weeks at Camp Kare-Free, a lodge that promotes rest and relaxation. She gets there and Camp Kare-Free is anything but. While this movie seems to be going and getting nowhere, it's the constant presence of young Hollywood that keeps the viewer intrigued as to who's going to pop up next. As always Eve Arden manages to stand out in all the recognizable faces, and one can even spot an unbilled Ann Miller in the crowd. Red Skelton provides much of the humor in some very funny skits. One may leave this movie thinking there wasn't much to it, but the movie does succeed in making the viewer feel they're on vacation, with some nice shots of the Catskills and with realistic dialogue between the waiters and escorts of the lodge. Ginger's scenes with her love interest, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. come off very laid back, once they start to like each other, of course. You could do a lot worse (and maybe better,) but for 70 minutes of escapism with Ginger Rogers, who's complaining?

This is a poor film for so many, many reasons and I was shocked to see SOME reviewers who gave it a 10! Do they seriously think this film is as good or better than CITIZEN KANE, CASABLANCA or ORDINARY PEOPLE? Yes, it's fine if you liked the film, but to give it a 10 sets up some amazingly high expectations and I really think this film, on a generous day, MIGHT earn a 5, as it was very poorly written, the acting and accents were at times terrible and the romance completely hokey and clichéd.A big part of the problem was that the film was set at a "Borscht Belt" resort in the Catskills, but it was so sanitized that it gave a superficial view at best. Let me explain with a little bit of background. In the first half (or more) of the 20th century, many Jewish families went to these mountain resorts for vacations--partly for the fun and partly because, unfortunately, Jews were made to feel unwelcome at all the other resorts (some even banned Jews and other "undesireables"). These Borscht Belt resorts featured hiking, camping, canoing as well as lots of entertainment by Jewish performers who would later go on to stardom as comedians--such as Milton Berle, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Morey Amsterdam and Rodney Dangerfield (among MANY others). While I was NOT hoping to see over the top Jewish accents and overly stereotyped images, this film featured Ginger Rogers in the lead (one of the least Jewish-looking actresses of the time) and some bizarre Jewish-like accents that frankly were ridiculous (particularly Eve Arden's). The overall effect only bears a vague resemblance to the Borscht Belt--the way that Amos and Andy bore a resemblance to Black America (especially the radio version of the show)! Why not instead use more Jewish actors and have them just be themselves? Perhaps Hollywood thought Americans at the time would not accept this, so they created a bland and Wasp-y version with only a token Jew that might be more acceptable to the common person.Regardless of the sanitized nature of the film, the romance and acting were poor and clichéd. When Ginger met handsome Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., you KNEW exactly where the film would go and their antics became pretty annoying. In fact, the film itself was loud, obnoxious and about as subtle as a 2x4 upside your head! Plus, male camp workers uttering lines such as "what a pack of dogs" as the female vacationers got off the buses was rather awful because it was meant to be funny. Aside from a few scenes from Red Skelton which some might find funny (I didn't), the film was neither funny nor romantic--clearly a misfire.

A cavalcade of stars - Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden (all together in Stage Door) This has Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Jack Carson, Donald Meek, Alan Lane (voice of Mr. Ed), Red Skelton, Grady Sutton (made all those W.C. Fields movies). As others have noted, movie lost a lot in translation from the original play, which would be politically incorrect these days. This show has Ginger Rogers in the same formula plot from the Fred Astaire movies, where boy meets girl, girl acts spoiled and insulted, and boy spends remainder of movie trying to make it up to girl. Unfortunately, the script and interaction between actors just isn't up to the par of those Fred Astair films, but it IS interesting to see all those actors in their early years.