Having a Wonderful Time

This wonderful RKO film from producer Pandro S. Berman has a sweetness and sense of charm only films from the 1930's posessed. Perhaps because it was a lesser production shoved between RKO's new screen team of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire this warm and enjoyable film hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. Ginger's fans, however, have always been aware of its existence.

Ginger is both lovely and endearing as Teddy, a young typist who laments she must work 50 weeks out of the year just to enjoy looking at the moon for two. It's exactly what she intends to do when she heads to the Catskills for vacation with a sharp outfit and nifty new hat.

Plot takes a back seat to enjoyment as director Alfred Santell lets the romance and humor unfold in a leisurely manner. It is not slow, however, and thanks to those great RKO sets and a nice score from Roy Webb everything is just right. Perhaps with a different cast this would be forgettable, but the two leads make it more than it has any right to be.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is his usual charming self as Chick, a worker at the resort Teddy eventually falls for after a rocky start. Red Skelon provides the humor as Camp Kare-Free's social director. An excellent supporting cast including Peggy Conklin, Eve Arden, Donald Meek, Lee Bowman, Lucille Ball, and Jack Carson as Teddy's ex-boyfriend.

Rogers is terrific here as a nice working girl who would rather play backgammon than fool around, at least until she gets Chick to wise up and realize love is more important than money. This is a nice find for Ginger's many fans who will enjoy watching her in this humorous romance from the mid-1930's. Skelton is actually billed here as Richard! A must own for Ginger's fans.

(3.5 stars)

Having Wonderful Time is the screen adaptation of a Broadway play; and although it has its moments it's not exactly the best romantic comedy I've ever seen. Ginger Rogers does prove that she can act in this film; it's just that she deserved to prove it in a film of better quality than this unremarkable movie. On the other hand, the film is not all that bad. We get performances from great actors including Jack Carson, Lucille Ball and Eve Arden although these actors are underutilized. There's also Red Skelton (billed as Richard "Red" Skelton) making his debut in film; he does inject some good comedy into this movie. In addition, the choreography and the cinematography work rather well.

When the action starts, we quickly meet young Thelma "Teddy" Shaw (Ginger Rogers) from The Bronx in New York City; she's earned her two weeks vacation after working as a typist for fifty boring weeks with a supervisor simply referred to as "Old Ironsides" (Elise Cavanna). While Teddy's mother (Leona Roberts) wants Teddy to marry wealthy Emil Beatty (Jack Carson), Teddy just isn't interested in him and his smooth talk. Instead Teddy heads to Camp Kare-Free in the Catskill Mountains of New York for some fresh air and relaxation.

It isn't long before Teddy meets Chick Kirkland (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) who works at the camp as a porter, a bus driver and a waiter; and they don't hit it off. To make matters worse, Chick isn't happy about the way his life is going in the first place; he's a Harvard Law School graduate who doesn't have a steady job once the summer is over and he doesn't like taking orders from his boss Mr. Rogers (Donald Meek) to dance with the single women on the dance floor. However, it also isn't long before Teddy and Chick make up--and after a mere six days Chick has fallen madly in love with Teddy; and she's beginning to feel the same way about him.

The plot can go in different directions from here. When Teddy spends the night sleeping in the living room of Buzzy Armbruster's (Lee Bowman) cabin, everyone misconstrues and thinks Teddy was a loose woman when in fact nothing happened. Miriam (Lucille Ball) has had her eyes on Buzzy--will she believe Buzzy and forgive him when he tells her nothing happened? Will Chick believe Teddy when she says nothing happened? And what happens when Emil Beatty arrives unexpectedly to take Teddy back to the city in his brand new, expensive car--how does Emil factor into all this? No spoilers here--watch and find out!

Having Wonderful Time is a pleasant movie if you want something extremely light. It's too bad that Lucille Ball, Jack Carson, Eve Arden and several others have small roles when the movie could have been spiced up and improved by actually using their incredible talent. On the bright side, however, this is actually a good movie for fans of Ginger Rogers and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; and fans of Red Skelton will appreciate his performance in this film as the social director of Camp Kare-Free.

Ginger Rogers again is great. This is another great love story where she meets up with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and they get off to a bad start but eventually they fall in love. This movie also has some of the great stars before they became well known such as Lucille Ball, Eve Arden and Red Skeleton. Good classic movie.

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