Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962)

Lack of good storyline.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I always watch this movie when I can. There's so many perfect situations in it.Most of the reviews have gone over the family dynamic involved. People nowadays don't know the significance of ground breaking movies in those days. This movie may have been the first glimpse of a reunited family that didn't step out of a Norman Rockwell painting. They have real life problems with finances, fidelity and maintaining a cohesive family unit.There are some perfectly defined moments in the film. Hobbs marveling at a 50 year old light bulb, or the maid quitting because she misunderstood him when he said he was going to get "some sun on the beach".The one scene that chokes me up every time is when Stewart shows O'Hara the $5 bill that Fabian returned to him after the dance.

A Jerry Wald Production for Company of Artists/20th Century-Fox. Copyright 25 May 1962 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Paramount: 15 June 1962. U.S. release: July 1962. U.K. release: 22 July 1962. 10,350 feet. 115 minutes.SYNOPSIS: In "Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation", Stewart was playing his own age as banker Roger Hobbs but looking much more spruce than he had for some time. He was felicitously teamed with the redoubtable Maureen O'Hara, playing his wife Peggy who mounts a family reunion at a holiday cottage instead of the quiet vacation he'd been hoping for... Farcical situations (are) helped by the presence of teenagers' favorite, Fabian. The film had surprisingly wide appeal. — Allen Eyles in his excellent biographic book, "James Stewart".NOTES: Commenced shooting: 21 November 1961. Locations: Carillo Beach, Zuma Beach. Novelist Edward Streeter's most popular novel was "Father of the Bride" (1949).COMMENT: The idea packs plenty of promise, but only a third of that potential is actually realized on the screen, partly because some of the jests are stretched out way beyond their chuckle-some capacity, but mostly because Henry Koster's direction is so heavy-handed. Ask this guy to boil a two-minute egg and he'll bake it in an oven for a couple of hours.Nonetheless, the players try hard (perhaps too hard). Some of our favorites can be spotted in support slots. But one of the "stars" of the film is undoubtedly the wonderfully ruinous beach-house itself, "like something out of Edgar Allan Poe," as James Stewart's character tartly comments.In all, reasonably entertaining, but it could have been better!

Jimmy Stewart, as Roger Hobbs, takes his teen-aged daughter and young son on a vacation to Carmel, California, where they've rented a decrepit old beach house the size of a mansion. If that house existed today, dilapidated or not, buyers would come to blows over it if it were on the market for ten hundred thousand million dollars. The real estate office would look like Filene's Basement. There would be blood.I only mention this, irrelevant to the story though it is, because -- well, let me get another nugacity out of the way. You know when Jimmy Stewart takes his son out on the little sailboat and they pass the two breakwaters before entering the open sea? Well, that's not Carmel. That's Newport Beach. I know this because I passed between those two lights on a boat. I was also a lookout on a Coast Guard cutter, the USCGC Ewing, that entered Monterey Bay, where I hurriedly reported that the ship was about to run over a man in a rubber diving suit. The man turned out to be a seal splashing around.I see that's a total of three nugacities but I don't care, any more than Nunnaly Johnson seems to have cared about this screenplay. He's thrown every conceivable problem derived from television situation comedies into the story. Stewart wears an irritated, perplexed expression throughout. He gets lost at sea in that sailboat. The water pump breaks down and when it's fixed it makes a lot of noise and shakes the house. The water heater emits a plume of steam at awkward moments. His daughter is ashamed of her braces.His wife, Maureen O'Hara, catches him in an innocent chat with a buxom Scandinavian neighbor. The situation is suggestive. His explanation: "We were reading 'The Brother Karamazov' together." Later, when she reveals that she had had lunch with a gabby Englishman, she mocks Stewart with her announcement: "We were just reading 'War and Peace' together." When I first saw this, I loved her Irish pronunciation of "together" -- "togaither." I still do. It's fey. It's charming.But, man, this is one dated movie. The jokes are straight out of the 1950s, and not as clever as those in, say, its rough contemporary, "Pillow Talk." When she's surprised, O'Hara exclaims, "Holy Moses!" And when Fabio is courting the daughter, he says he asked her to dance because of "your charm, your pure far-out charm." Then they sing a song together: "Jelly roll . . . shortcake . . . malted milk . . . milk shake." It's a relaxed and enjoyable comedy if you aren't familiar with the format of 50s TV comedies. (With a few changes, Stewart could have been Ralph Kramden.) The kids will enjoy it, though I'm no longer certain they'd get the gags or identify much with the on screen teens, but if you're an adult you really have to inhibit your suspension of disbelief. You have to practically strangle it.

There is nothing wrong or bad about this film; the cast is strong, and the writing acceptable. The problem, frankly, is that it is just not that interesting. However, if we approach this film without high expectations, then we can accept it for what it is: a mildly amusing movie that allows us to sit comfortably with two of our all-time favorite actors, Jimmy Stewart and Maureen O'Hara (although, to be honest, Maureen is not that interesting here either). So, if you love Jimmy Stewart, and want to make a point of seeing every movie he is in, then definitely watch this movie. But be prepared to have to put up with unappealing child actors, badly dated 1960's "teen scenes", and a number of other actors and actresses who we never particularly care about. Luckily, very few scenes indeed do not feature Jimmy Stewart.Well, I take some of that back; "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation" is saved towards the end by the appearance of John McGiver and Marie Wilson as Mr. and Mrs. Turner, a business couple who make a point of being very dull. They are actually pretty funny, especially McGiver, and the scenes featuring these actors save the whole movie from being a completely dreary waste of time. To be fair, Fabian is not bad either, playing his role rather sympathetically; and the family's 1960 Dodge wagon, with its fantastically distinctive grill, is also cool to see.Particularly annoying is a lengthy sequence in which Jimmy Stewart and his son are piloting a sailboat out of a harbor; this they do with great difficulty, barely missing hitting other boats, and upsetting a water-skier. The problem is, Stewart and his boat are clearly sitting in front of a projection screen. Now I understand that it is much easier and cheaper to film scenes sometimes in front of a projection screen; scenes with people "walking down the street", when they are actually in front of a movie screen showing the sidewalk, are common and harmless enough. But here, the humor of the situation completely depends on us believing that Stewart is hardly able to control his boat, causing several near misses with other boats. The fakeness of the projection is so obvious that the whole scene is just a painfully long (over 2 minutes of this) debacle.The beach scenes are odd too. Valerie Varda, a Hungarian-born actress, has an accent that is definitely not Hungarian (I grew up surrounded by Hungarians, and can pick up the accent across a room). I don't know what the accent is, but it is very hard to follow; she had a blessedly short acting career after this film. John Saxon appears in a bathing suit, with a shockingly well-built body (if I may say so), and it appears that, though he is married to Jimmy Stewart's daughter, he is on the verge of having an affair with Varda; in the end, though, this idea is not pursued.One final note: when Stewart's family enters the massive yet run-down vacation house, Stewart goes to climb the stairs; as he takes the first step, he grabs the large knob on top of the railing, and it lifts right up. He stares at it a moment before replacing it; I have to believe that this moment was intended to pay some minor homage to "It's a Wonderful Life", where a similar stair-railing knob comes to symbolizes the crumminess of Stewart's home in that film.