summer holidays Free helpful Tip

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1. Redford says

   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 !!!

   February 12, 2010, 9:41 am
2. Moffett says

   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.

   February 12, 2010, 3:50 pm
3. O'Connell says

   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.

   February 12, 2010, 9:27 pm
4. Fine says

   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.

   February 13, 2010, 3:23 am
5. Flowers says

   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.

   February 13, 2010, 9:41 am
6. Valerio says

   This version of the Summer Holiday film soundtrack was released to mark the 40th anniversary and includes all the original 16 tracks digitally remastered along with 10 bonus tracks made up of film versions and alternate takes. The booklet contains behind the scenes information, photos, recording data and related discography (this review refers to the CD Special Version)

   February 13, 2010, 3:18 pm
7. Cates says

   First of all, it’s worth it for the packaging alone!! It comes in a 7″ X 7″ sleeve, just like a 45 RPM E.P. (but YES, it’s a CD!) Everything – the cover and the gatefold sleeve, and booklet, and poster, and lobby cards are extremely colorful!! I’m not even a big Cliff fan (more of a Shadows fan) The best tracks are Cliff’s Summer Holiday, Bachelor Boy, A Swingin’ Affair, and the gorgeous Next Time; also The Shadows’ Les Girls and Foot Tapper. The bonus tracks are all very worthwhile, and
   I’ve just ordered the DVD! Can hardly wait to see it! Grab this GREAT 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Soundtrack of “Summer Holiday” while you still can (hey, it’s a bargain on Amazon Marketplace!)…then check out the film – it’s supposed to be a great little pop music film!! Cliff and The Shadows at their greatest!!!

   February 13, 2010, 10:07 pm
8. Ulinski says

   I love this movie! Very clever, very sweet, very funny. And I love the song (How’s the Weather in Paris?) that is repeated over and over throughout the movie–very catchy tune! But where is the French version that is 114 minutes long, vs. 87 minutes for this version??? I want to see the longer version!!!

   February 14, 2010, 3:21 am
9. Poindexter says

   In most movies dialogue is critical for understanding what is happening. Not so with Jacques Tati. Dialogue is secondary in all of his films. Tati requires that the viewer watch carefully to catch all that is happening. All of his films are a visual education. Mr. Hulot’s Holiday is like a fine, subtle wine that only gets better over time.

   February 14, 2010, 9:54 am
10. Lam says

    I had never heard of this movie til it was shown on TV the other night. I haven’t laughed that hard at a movie, continually almost, for a long, long time. It is so excellent. Right to my kind of off-beat taste. Now, I want to see Tati’s other Mr. Hulot movies. I just loved the music that ran continually through this movie. The fact that it repeated the same music over and over added to the charm and hilarity. Yes, it was irritating at times, but I think that was the purpose of it. It is a “madhouse” of a movie. I wonder if Peter Sellers got some of his ideas from “Mr. Hulot.” At any rate, I can’t wait to see it again and again !

    February 14, 2010, 3:43 pm

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