What to Do on a Date
What to Do on a Date
| 22 February 1951 (USA)
What to Do on a Date Trailers

A shy teen wants to ask out a girl on a date - but how can he know what she'd like to do, or what kind of activity would be best suited for getting to know her?

Reviews
Organnall Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,
filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
ksf-2 From the 1950s... it's the typical "How To...." educational film from the days of Stop, Drop, and Roll, or how to be a good human, also known as Big Brother is Always Watching!the goofy high school students share these awkward moments about how to do things in every day life. It's SO dated, basic, and awkward, it's campy now. We watch as they set up a sock hop, or whatever they are doing. The narrator talks about hanging around in groups, so clearly this would avoid any personal, one on one romantic contact. Apparently, Jeff (Robert Casey) didn't dig the hollywood scene... he disappeared after just three small roles. No other cast listed. Directed by Ted Peshak, who made a ton of these educational short films during the 1940s, 1950s. Pretty droll stuff. This one is shown on Turner Classic Movies, and sometimes as a quick short shown on Mystery Science Theater episodes. Yawnnnnn.....
pinetarrag This short tells of Nick, a shy guy who has long had a desire to ask sweet Kay out on a date. Jeff his buddy, suggests taking Kay to a "scavenger sale" a kind-of indoor garage sale, and Nick does only after his attempt to take Kay to "Wagon Train" is foiled because Kay has seen the film. They end up having a nice time and Nick sees a schedule of things to do, so he sets another date with Kay to go to a weenie roast.Overall this short film was sweet and gave some decent advice for dating, (make sure the other person will enjoy the activity, double date, choose dates that aren't too expensive etc) but the acting is wooden and the styling is badly dated. Still you can do worse for education shorts. "Drugs are Like That" for instance.
Mike Sh. Man, girls sure scare me. I mean, I like them and all; they sure are swell, but I just don't know what to do or say when they're around. If I see a girl I like, how do I ask her out? And if she says "Yes" (Hey, hope springs eternal, right?), then where do I take her? What do we do on a date? My own ideas of shopping for roofing nails or going to the supermarket and playing with the electric doors always fall flat. Fortunately for me, and all the other socially-challenged basement-dwelling geeks out there, this film exists to instruct in the ways of social interc-, er, interaction.In this film, Nick, a gangly, goofy, but good-natured young fellow, yearns for the wholesome Midwestern affections of Kay, the wholesome Midwestern girl next door. He's in the same mess I am - how to convince Kay that being seen in public with him would not be the social suicide she fears it is? Nick's smirking know-it-all buddy Jeff is ready with lots and lots and lots of condescending and unsolicited advice. Soon Nick and Kay are hitting the town, going to all the hottest and hippest scavenger sales around. They seem to be on track to live happily, wholesomely and Midwesternly ever after.This instructional short from the early 1950's is a corny, but sweetly affable example of the genre. And that Kay sure is a cutie. Rrrrrowwrrr!
Jay The following is more of a summary of the movie than a review:In "What To Do On A Date," Nick, a lovesick dork who sounds perpetually constipated, wants to go on a date with Kay, whose status as a member of the fairer sex is confirmed when she needs Nick's manly help to nail a paper elephant to a rafter. Nick calls up Kay, and asks her if she wants to go see a movie on Friday night. But Kay knows that in the darkness of the movie theater, Nick might put his arm around her shoulder or hold her hand, and that would cause their swell little fifties white suburban world to implode, so she rejects him. Fortunately, our flustered hero has some help from his smooth best friend Jeff and a fifty-year-old's Authoritative Disembodied Voice, who clearly knows what all the teenagers are into. They suggest all sorts of sanitized dating ideas for Nick and Kay, most of which involve doing things in a group so the teens can frustrate themselves trying to suppress their hormonal urges. Nick and Kay talk about various dull, non-sexual dating scenarios and Nick discovers a great pick-up line in the process: "Say, you like to do lots of things, don't ya?" Nick asks Kay if she'd like to go for a bike ride or a weenie roast or a bowling party or a baseball game or a taffy pull next Friday, and here we reach the climax of the movie: will Kay go on a second date with Nick, or will she dump him for somebody who's not such a loser, or will she spend Friday night listening to the Authoritative Disembodied Voice tell her about the importance of home economics? Will Nick continue to have a bland and asexual relationship with Kay, or will he find true friendship and companionship with Jeff, or will he become celibate and devote his life to nailing paper elephants into rafters?But still, the fact that a socially inept loser like Nick can get a girl to go to the community center to set up a garage sale on a first date should give the rest of us hope.