Having Wonderful Time
Having Wonderful Time
| 01 July 1938 (USA)
Having Wonderful Time Trailers

Teddy Shaw, a bored New York office girl, goes to a camp in the Catskill Mountains for rest and finds Chick Kirkland.

Reviews
Diagonaldi Very well executed
Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined
ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
moonspinner55 Bronx stenographer leaves the typing pool for two weeks in the country at a camp for single adults (presumably the Catskills, though any ethnic division has been tidily scrubbed from the scenario). Arthur Kober adapted his own successful play for the screen, keeping the patter between the guests and the staff coming fast and loose. Ginger Rogers at first appears to be playing a lovely blonde killjoy, and the lack of humor in her snippy characterization is a bit disconcerting (although it certainly explains why she's unattached); she's even rude to law student/waiter Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who should have women fawning all over him yet curiously does not. Douglas manages to thaw Ginger out in time, however a childish fight between the two sends her to another man's cabin on Party Night. Not much of a plot--this works much better as a comedic study of character circa 1938. Ginger's mother worries her daughter will become an old maid (!), while Fairbanks seems to embody the handsome but unmotivated loaf-off. Richard (Red) Skelton plays social director, while Lucille Ball and Eve Arden are two of Rogers' cabin-mates. Breezy, innocuous fun for star-watchers. **1/2 from ****
sol ***Slight Spoilers*** Things got really wild at Camp Kare-Free in the Catskills when pretty and conceited Thelma "Teddy" Shaw, Ginger Rogers, arrived there to spend, from her boring job as a typist in the big city, her two week summer vacation. Outside her work environment, typing typing typing, Teddy always tried to put on an act in being extremely well read, by carrying a book on the works of 19th Century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, and talking in the lingo of a rich and well bread Park Avenue débutante. The fact is that Teddy is just a working girl from the Bronx helping her family, whom she lives with, make ends meet in the depths of the Great Depression.It's at Camp Kare-Free that Teddy will not only get a new outlook on life as well as personal relationships but also find the man of her dreams; out of work lawyer and now camp waiter Chick Kirkland, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. At first Teddy wasn't all that crazy about Chick after he accidentally dumped all her clothes, when Teddy's suitcase unlatched, all over the ground and then gave her a piece of his mind when she tried to show him how sophisticated she was. It didn't take to long for Chick, with his boyish charm and striking good looks, to get Teddy to see things his way and fall for him like a ton of red ripe New York Delicious Apples.It's when Chick got a little overconfident in his being a lady killer that Teddy, who's never been exposed to a dreamboat Romeo like him, made a B-line to the camp dance hall before he swept her off her feet. It's there that Teddy met rich and spoiled Buzzy-or Buzz to his friends-Armbuster, Lee Bowman, whom she later got involved in a harmless night long game of backgammon at his cabin. This had Buzz's girlfriend at Camp Kare-Free Miriam, Lucille Ball, not only get jealous in Buzz dropping her for another girl but doing it behind her back: without even bothering to write her a Dear Joan letter!The film ends, together with Teddy's two week vacation, at the Camp Kare-Free dinning room where Teddy's old boyfriend Emil Batty, Jack Carson, unexpectedly show up to give Teddy a ride home to the Bronx! It's then that all the pent up tension between Teddy Chick as well as Mariam reach critical mass. Chick, who's waiting on Teddy and Emil, is made to look like a jerk when Emil treats him as if he just got off the boat, as an illegal alien, from Timbuktu. It's when Buzz, who earlier almost got his skull cracked by a flying rock, shows up for breakfast that a mad as hell Mariam, who threw the rock, confronts him about being unfaithful to her. It's then that a shocked and humiliated Chick learns, from Mariam, that Buzz spent the entire night with his girl Teddy at his private cabin!The hilarious free for all, with fists cups and dishes flying in all directions, at the conclusion of the film gives it just the right amount of action that was lacking, with all the talk talk talk, in it up until that point. It also finally brought both Chick and Teddy back together in them knowing that despite not being financially ready, with Chick out of a job, to get married and start a family that's, by falling in love, the only and logically thing for them to do.P.S The movie "Having a Wonderful Time" was Red Skelton's first film appearance as the camp's goofy social director Itchy Faulkner. We get to see Red do his thing in demonstrating how to properly dunk a donut into a cup of coffee without spilling the contents all over ourselves.
Neil Doyle If the pleasure of watching GINGER ROGERS, DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. and LEE BOWMAN in their prime is enough for you, you won't mind watching this feeble little comedy about a vacationing girl in a typical girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl wins boy kind of affair.And whatever laughs come along are few and far between, as someone else suggested, and the gags aren't fresh enough to sustain much interest. The backgammon scene becomes a bore, as does the party scene with "Heigh Ho" being sung non-stop in inebriated fashion.Strictly a small time trifle, hardly worth bothering about. No one is seen to their advantage except for the three photogenic leads in a cast that includes EVE ARDEN (wasted), LUCILLE BALL (wasted), JACK Carson (wasted), DONALD COOK and GRADY SUTTON, with an interesting debut of comedian RED SKELTON, billed as Richard (Red) Skelton) who demonstrates his skill with a series of pratfalls. He does more with his small role than anyone else is able to muster.The original play was a satire about Jewish vacationers in the Catskills but was revamped as a vehicle for Ginger Rogers with all the Jewish jokes removed. What's left is a weak comedy with nowhere to go.Summing up: The title is a misnomer. It's hardly worth anyone's time but it's pleasing to note that LEE BOWMAN's reaction shots reveal a flair for comedy never fully realized throughout his film career.
raskimono 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.