Customer Reviews

Summer Holiday [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the most gorgeous technicolor films ever. Director Rouben Mamoulian is second only to Vincente Minnelli when it comes to having an eye for color design. This film is a musical remake of
Eugene O'Neil's play "Ah, Wilderness!" The cast is first rate--Walter Huston, Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan (a delight as always), Agnes Moorehead, and the lovely Gloria DeHaven, who is a
fine singer. The songs by Harry Warren and Ralph Blane aren't what
you could call tunes you'll sing after viewing the film; they help
advance the story in a way similiar to Meet Me in St. Louis. This
movie was filmed in 1946 but not released until 1948 when Rooney's MGM contract came to its end. A simple turn of the century family story--high school graduation, Fourth of July
celebration (a beautiful sequence), first love (and first taste
of alcohol) and paternal wisdom. The section with Rooney and
Marilyn Miller as a bar floozy whose look grows more lascivious
as he has his first drink is a triumph of color cinematography
design. If you love technicolor this is a must-see film.

I really liked this musical. I admit it don't have much of a story line but it was throughly enjoyable. Especially Mickey Rooney...this was one of the very last movies he made for MGM. I guess the best part about this movie is waiting to see if his girlfriend Murial will ever kiss him. Of course I'm writing this review based on the fact that I'm very partial to Mickey Rooney. I don't think there is an actor a ever liked better. This movie is cute. My favorite song is The Stanley Steemer. Cute flick and if you are a Mickey Rooney fan you should see this one. ;)

Most people dont have VHS anymore! We cant watch this movie on out Plasma tvs. Please re-master it on DVD so we too can enjoy it !!!

There are, to my knowledge, two musical adaptations of Eugene O'Neill's play Ah Wilderness! Summer Holiday, the M-G-M musical is the first; the Broadway show Take Me Along is the second. Both have their charms; both have wonderful casts. Take Me Along starred Jackie Gleason as Uncle Sid, Walter Pidgeon as Richard's father, and Robert Morse as Richard. Summer Holiday stars Mickey Rooney as Richard, with Walter Huston as his father, Frank Morgan as his imbibing Uncle Sid, Agnes Moorehead as his aunt, and Gloria DeHaven as Richard's girlfriend Harriet. Music and lyrics for Take Me Along are by Bob (Carnival, Funny Girl) Merrill. Merrill also did music and lyrics for a stage musical adaptation of O'Neill's Anna Christie, New Girl in Town, starring Gwen Verdon. But it is Harry Warren who wrote the music for the film Summer Holiday and Ralph Blane who wrote the lyrics. Each of these adaptations of Ah Wilderness! has a song that everyone was singing at the time, and some even today. For Take Me Along, Merrill wrote the catchy title song ("Take me along,if ya love-a me"), and for Summer Holiday, Warren and Blane gave us "The Stanley Steamer".

Warren's and Blane's score for Summer Holiday provides several catchy tunes, though only "Stanley Steamer" has become a standard. The songs grow charmingly and appropriately out of the plot. The characters are mostly well-etched. Just as there are only slight traces of the darker side of O'Neill in Ah Wilderness!, so there are even fewer traces in Summer Holiday, but, hey, it's an M-G-M musical! Still, most of the themes and characters from O'Neill are there: the "revolutionary" teen who reads Omar Kayam, the saloon gal who tries to seduce and roll him, the sweet girlfriend whose controlling father tries to keep her away from Richard, and, of course, Uncle Sid, who represents O'Neill's fixation on substance abuse. My one quibble with the script is Agnes Moorehead's dialogue and direction as Richard's aunt, who love Sid but holds out on saying yes to him until he sobers up. Moorehead has given us a series of powerful, complex performances, particularly in Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons. Granted it would have tilted the balance of Summer Holiday too much in the direction of O'Neill seriousness to have made her character too close to that of the origial Ah Wilderness!; however, I found myself somewhat cheated by not getting the full benefit of Agnes Moorehead's capabilities. But that, as I said, is a quibble. The musical as a whole moves tunefully and deligtfully along and is over before I want it to be.

I had high hopes for this film, mainly because of its great cast and the fact that it is from producer Arthur Freed, who was responsible for the best musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Mickey Rooney, Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead, and Frank Morgan are all fine actors who are capable of much better than this. The film's screenplay had no spark to it, and the scenes that were supposed to be pivotable to the characters' development garnered no reaction from me as a viewer. The actors seemed to know the script wasn't that good because in each scene, they seemed to recite their lines without enthusiasm or conviction. As a musical, it is also unmemorable. The songs are not catchy or memorable and seem to be talked rather than sung. I feel so sad writing a bad review for a film from MGM's golden era, but I guess every producer and studio is entitled to a stinker! If you want to see a really good family based musical, trty "Meet Me in St. Louis", or if you want to see Mickey Rooney at his best try "Strike Up the Band."

This movie is a sad piece of cinema. I found it difficult to watch. The only reason I gave it two stars is the cast, but they can't save this film. The storyline is so then. They also seem to be taking bits from other musicals that were popular and meshing them all in to one. Also, Mickey Rooney is playing a 17 year old lovestruck high school graduate again! This entire film is unbelievable. There isn't a single song that catches the ear. Oh well, I guess this is one musical MGM got wrong.