Having Wonderful Time (1938)

Memorable, crazy movie

i must have seen a different film!!

Absolutely Fantastic

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

My impression is that the original play of HAVING WONDERFUL TIME was something along the lines of Woody Allen's RADIO DAYS. Assuming that it had been funny, nearly all the humor left with the ethnicity and what was left is quite a disappointment, maybe the least movie that Ginger Rogers made between, oh, 1933 and 1949, which must cover around 50 films.When I first saw it I wondered what had happened with the obvious dialogue looping. Fairbanks reports that he and Rogers had been called back to the studio to re-dub their lines, dropping their respective Brooklyn and Bronx accents. Thus the New York setting also is largely removed from the finished product (Jack Carson, Lucille Ball and Eve Arden retain New York accents that do not strike my ear as particularly accurate. One guesses that Fairbanks and Rogers had been more successful).I'm not sure if the characters were originally so unpleasant on the stage. Rogers' 'Teddy' was awfully touchy and even snooty, and Fairbanks was downright cruel to that poor little blonde who asked him for a dance. Surely there was some attention paid to the supporting characters on Broadway that was cut out of the film, which runs only 71 minutes as it stands, leaving its proceedings quite threadbare. It seems that Teddy is interested in educating herself (Schopenhauer's Essays and some relatively formal grammar when she speaks) but all that really comes across is that the girl has a chip on her shoulder. You could say pretty much the same for Fairbanks, and no one else gets any serious screen time with which to develop their characters.On the plus side, Rogers and Fairbanks do have good screen chemistry, and Ginger manages to make a backgammon game the funniest thing in the movie. Fans of Red Skelton will appreciate his first film appearance; alas, I'm not really one of them. And Big Bear Lake serves as a nice substitute for the Catskills, but other than that there isn't very much. I fear I may be a bit generous in giving it a 6/10.

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.

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.

Dull and uninvolving with scenes that play out too long. The basic premise of a secretary on vacation falling in love with a waiter at the lodge is interesting but is not explored to its full extent; and despite good performances, laughs are far between.