Having Wonderful Time (1938)

A typist (Ginger Rogers) in New York City has saved up to spend her vacation at a camp in the mountains. Her first contact with a waiter (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) at the camp results in a hostile and antagonistic relationship but it isn't long before a romance develops. Based on the play by Arthur Kober and directed by Alfred Santell (THE HAIRY APE). The original play is set in the Catskills and its characters are Jewish. This being 1938 Hollywood, all the characters were turned into gentiles. What's left is an inoffensive romantic comedy with engaging performances by Rogers and Fairbanks Jr. The movie was also the film debut of Red Skelton and already an overbearing presence. When Fairbanks Jr. asks Rogers, "Don't you think he's funny?", she snaps "No!", the most honest moment in the movie. Turned into the Broadway musical WISH YOU WERE HERE in 1952. With Lucille Ball providing some vinegar, Jack Carson, Eve Arden, Dean Jagger, Inez Courtney and Donald Meek.