Summer Holiday | |
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Australian theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Rouben Mamoulian |
Written by | Frances Goodrich Albert Hackett Irving Brecher Jean Holloway |
Based on | Ah, Wilderness! 1933 play by Eugene O'Neill |
Produced by | Arthur Freed |
Starring | Mickey Rooney Gloria DeHaven Agnes Moorehead |
Cinematography | Charles Schoenbaum |
Edited by | Albert Akst |
Music by | Lennie Hayton |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Loew's, Inc |
Release date |
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Running time | 92-93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2,237,000 [1] [2] |
Box office | $1,609,000 [1] |
Summer Holiday is a 1948 American musical-comedy film, directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Mickey Rooney and Gloria DeHaven. The picture is based on the play Ah, Wilderness! (1933) by Eugene O'Neill, which had been filmed under that name by MGM in 1935 with Rooney in a much smaller role, as the younger brother. Although completed in October 1946, the film sat on the shelf until 1948. [3] [4] [5]
In addition to Walter Huston, the supporting cast features Frank Morgan as the drunken Uncle Sid, (a role originated in the stage play by Gene Lockhart, portrayed onscreen by Wallace Beery in 1935 and later by Jackie Gleason on Broadway) as well as Marilyn Maxwell, Agnes Moorehead, Selena Royle and Anne Francis. One of producer Arthur Freed's MGM musicals, it has costumes and cinematography that take full advantage of Technicolor. [4]
![]() | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.(August 2024) |
In Danville, Connecticut, in June 1906, 17-year-old Richard Miller is about to graduate from high school, go to Yale, and step into the world of adults. He has a cynical view of the world because of all the books he has been reading. He has a girlfriend, Muriel McComber, whom he loves very much (she lives across the street), but she is afraid of being kissed. He tries to convince her as they sing "Afraid to Fall in Love". He does not get the kiss, but they do dance across the park.
Richard's father Nat Miller, editor of the town newspaper, is a wise man with a sense of humor that serves him well in facing the challenges of parenthood. Richard has three other siblings: older brother Arthur, who is home on vacation from Yale; sister Mildred, and mischievous Tommy, the youngest.
Also living with the family are his Uncle Sid and Cousin Lily. They are usually on the verge of getting engaged, but the uncle's drinking gets in the way. Uncle Sid is leaving for a new job in Waterbury, in hopes of making good (he is nearly 50).
The graduating class enters the auditorium marching to the Danville High fight song and smoothly transitions to an elegiac alma mater, and the camera pans over touching vignettes of listening townspeople, including a deliberate recreations of Grant Wood's Daughters of Revolution, Woman with Plants and American Gothic . Richard, who is valedictorian, plans to give a Marxist call to arms, but he leaves his speech where his father can see it and, during a round of applause, Nat stops him before he can get to the revolutionary material. After the ceremony, his father asks him if his conscience will allow him to drive the family's Stanley Steamer. A bright number built around the song "Stanley Steamer" follows.
Dawn on a peaceful morning; the town is hung with flags for the 4th of July. Suddenly explosions erupt all over town as boys and girls (and a young-at-heart grandfather) set off masses fireworks.
Richard, still spouting revolutionary propaganda and scorning the 4th, is surprised to find that his father has not only read Carlyle's The French Revolution: A History , but admires it—as he does the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam. Mother Essie, on the other hand, is horrified at Richard's choice of reading, which also includes Swinburne and Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol , and says that this "is no kind of reading for a young boy".
Uncle Sid appears, and Nat quickly realizes that he has been fired. To save him the embarrassment, he offers Sid his old job.
At the bandstand, a cornet player displays his skill, setting off the "Independence Day" number. A tableau recreating The Spirit of '76 takes a bow. Everyone celebrates at separate picnics; each area has its own routine to go with "Independence Day".
At the men's picnic, they have a beer-drinking contest, which Sid wins. At the women's picnic, they play croquet and share the delicacies they have cooked. The kids swim at the pond, and the young people sing and dance.
No sooner does the Miller family return home for dinner than Muriel's father arrives, accusing Richard of corrupting Muriel's morals. He saw Richard trying to kiss her. That was bad enough, but the letters Richard wrote to her are worse. When Nat Miller takes the whole things with a sense of humor, McComber threatens him with loss of his advertising and storms out, leaving a farewell letter from Muriel to Richard, dictated by him. When Richard reads it, he is heartbroken, devastated and angry; he bursts into tears.
At the dinner table, a tipsy Sid has everyone laughing, but Lily weeps, saying that they all encourage him and laugh at him—and maybe they should not. Richard launches into a diatribe about women driving men to drink and marches out of the house. At the front gate, his older brother's friend Wint invites him on a double date with some "slick babies from New Haven". They turn out to be a couple of dance hall girls. Wint and Crystal leave immediately. Richard's girl Belle takes him to a bar to drink, although he is underage.
Like the opening, this is a long scene mixing spoken and sung dialogue. It has a nightmarish quality that is enhanced by the way Belle's costume changes, from pastel pink to scarlet and back, and the bright green wash of light over the background.
The bartender slips something into Richard's drink. He gets drunk but it has the opposite effect to what Belle expected. He starts trying to reform her. Belle gets fed up with him and goes to sit with another guy. When that man points out that Richard is underage, the bartender throws him out. When Belle tells him that the boy is the son of a newspaper owner and could run him out of town, he throws Belle out.
Richard arrives home drunk and miserable. The next day, Belle writes to Nat, reporting the bartender for serving alcohol to an underage boy.
Meanwhile, Muriel finally finds a way to send a note of apology to Richard, through Tommy, saying that she will always love him. They meet at night at the brook and finally kiss.
He returns home in state of exaltation. His father says that it is about time that they had a serious talk about "certain women". Nat hems and haws, mangling Richard's clay sculpture of Lincoln, and never completing a sentence. Finally, Richard, full of concern, gives his father a drink of water and tells him not to worry, he is going to marry Muriel.
Sid and Lily are in the swing, drinking lemonade. Mildred and Art are out walking with their sweethearts. Mr. McComber and Nat have reconciled. Richard's outlook on the future is now brighter and happier. "We are completely surrounded by love," Nat says. Richard kisses his parents and goes to look at the moon, waving goodnight to Muriel, who is standing in her bedroom window. Nat, surveying the scene, quotes the Rubaiyat and says to his wife, "Spring isn't everything". [6]
Building on his experience of integrating book and music for the original Broadway production of Oklahoma! , director Rouben Mamoulian saw this project as an opportunity to create a different kind of film musical than the studio had tried before, [8] [9] and he gave the songwriting team of Ralph Blane (lyrics) and Harry Warren (music) specific instructions on what he wanted to achieve. [3]
The result can be seen in the opening sequence "Our Home Town", begun by Nat Miller, who introduces us to the town and to the family. The sequence segues back and forth and back again into lines that are sung, lines that are spoken in rhyme, and lines that are read straight, ending in the soda fountain. The length of this sequence may be the root of the incorrect idea that the whole film is written in rhyme. [10] [11]
Bosley Crowther in The New York Times regrets that the film adaptation of Ah, Wilderness! substitutes Eugene O’'Neill's "reminiscence of adolescent youth" for the antics of Andy Hardy's Mickey Rooney, "clowning in his familiarly broad and impish way" and "his inclination to steal every scene". Crowther notes director Rouben Mamoulian's effective handling of the "I Think You're the Sweetest Kid I've Ever Known" musical sequence with Marilyn Maxwell, and is generally approving of the entire cast. He closes the review with faint praise: "And it all looks attractive in color. So it may do for casual summer fun." [12] [13]
Much of the criticism was harsh, including the British press, where C. A. Lejeune in The Observer called Summer Holiday "a degrading film". [14] [15] [16]
The film was a disappointment at the box office, earning only $1,208,000 in the US and Canada and $401,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $1,460,000. [1] [17] [18] Today it is considered a minor classic, "largely because of Mamoulian’s innovative approach". [19]
Film historian Tom Milne praises the "utopian" Midwestern idyll that Mamoulian creates, in particular the "superb" Independence Day picnic sequence. [20] Milne add this caveat:
The film is least successful in one brief sequence where it attempts to re-create too faithfully in a series of tableaux vivants based on famous paintings by Grant Wood (Daughters of Revolution (1932), as well as American Gothic (1930). Thomas Hart Benton's Ploughing It Under also makes an appearance. [21] [22] [23]
Summer Holiday suffers from an "overblown artificiality", reflecting a distorted Hollywood view of small-town America in 1912. Film historian Marc Spergel places responsibility for this on director Rouben Momoulian:
Mamoulian typically bloated a simple story with visual excess. What he achieved in visual splendor and taste was done at the expense of honest feeling and insight. What we get instead is Mamoulian showing us his cleverness and skill at manipulation. [24]
Spergel adds that contemporary reviews were almost unanimous in their distaste for Mamoulian's handling of Mickey Rooney in his role as the youth Richard Miller: "...showing off and over-acting to the detriment of the film". [25]
Film critic Kurt Jensen points out that Rooney's performance was not only in stark contrast to O'Neill's protagonist Richard Miller, but to Rooney's own romantic life, a fact of which movie audiences were well aware. Aged 26 and recently divorced from movie star Ava Gardner, he could hardly pass as a high school virgin on or off screen. [26]
Jenson cautions that despite his critics, Mamoulian's film adaption showed fidelity to O'Neill's, but erred in duplicating the spirit of the play perhaps too fulsomely. [27]
Love Me Tonight is a 1932 American pre-Code musical comedy film produced and directed by Rouben Mamoulian, with music by Rodgers and Hart. It stars Maurice Chevalier as a tailor who poses as a nobleman and Jeanette MacDonald as a princess with whom he falls in love. It also stars Charles Ruggles as a penniless nobleman, along with Charles Butterworth and Myrna Loy as members of his family.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1931 American pre-Code horror film, directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March, who plays a possessed doctor who tests his new formula that can unleash people's inner demons. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which turns him from a mild-mannered man of science into a homicidal maniac.
Becky Sharp is a 1935 American Technicolor historical drama film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Miriam Hopkins who plays the eponymous protagonist. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. Other supporting cast were William Faversham, Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, and Alan Mowbray.
The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American black-and-white swashbuckling film released by 20th Century-Fox, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, and starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Basil Rathbone.
Rouben Zachary Mamoulian was an American film and theater director.
Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It differs from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a happy family in turn of the century America. It is O'Neill's only well-known comedy.
Queen Christina is a pre-Code Hollywood biographical film, produced for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933 by Walter Wanger and directed by Rouben Mamoulian. It stars Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in their fourth and last film together.
High, Wide and Handsome is a 1937 American musical western film starring Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Alan Hale Sr., Charles Bickford and Dorothy Lamour. The film was directed by Rouben Mamoulian and written by Oscar Hammerstein II and George O'Neil, with lyrics by Hammerstein and music by Jerome Kern. It was released by Paramount Pictures.
For Me and My Gal is a 1942 American musical film directed by Busby Berkeley, and starring Judy Garland, George Murphy, Martha Eggerth, Ben Blue and Gene Kelly in his film debut. The film was written by Richard Sherman, Fred F. Finklehoffe and Sid Silvers, based on a story by Howard Emmett Rogers inspired by a true story about vaudeville actors Harry Palmer and Jo Hayden, when Palmer was drafted into World War I. The film was a production of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM.
Blood and Sand is a 1941 American Technicolor film drama starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth and Nazimova. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, it was produced by 20th Century Fox and was based on the 1908 Spanish novel Blood and Sand by Vicente Blasco Ibanez. The supporting cast features Anthony Quinn, Lynn Bari, Laird Cregar, J. Carrol Naish, John Carradine and George Reeves. Rita Hayworth's singing voice was dubbed by Gracilla Pirraga.
Applause is a 1929 American backstage musical " talkie" directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Helen Morgan, Jack Cameron, and Joan Peers. It was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, New York during the early years of sound films.
City Streets is a 1931 American Pre-Code romantic melodrama directed by Rouben Mamoulian from a story by Dashiell Hammett and stars Gary Cooper, Sylvia Sidney and Paul Lukas.
Golden Boy is a 1939 American drama romance sports film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou and William Holden. It is based on the 1937 play of the same title by Clifford Odets.
Silk Stockings is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. It is based on the 1955 stage musical of the same name, which had been adapted from the film Ninotchka (1939). The film was choreographed by Eugene Loring and Hermes Pan.
Rings on Her Fingers is a 1942 American comedy film directed by Rouben Mamoulian for 20th Century Studios and starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney.
Ah, Wilderness! is a 1935 American comedy-drama film adaptation of the 1933 Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. Directed by Clarence Brown, the film stars Wallace Beery and features Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, Spring Byington, and a young Mickey Rooney. Rooney stars as Richard in MGM's musical remake Summer Holiday (1948).
We Live Again is a 1934 American film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Anna Sten and Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 1899 novel Resurrection (Voskraeseniye). The screenplay was written by Maxwell Anderson with contributions from a number of writers, including Preston Sturges and Thornton Wilder.
The Song of Songs is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Marlene Dietrich. This Paramount picture is based on the Hermann Sudermann novel Das Hohe Lied (1908) and the play The Song of Songs (1914) by Edward Sheldon.
Strike Up the Band is a 1940 American musical film produced by the Arthur Freed unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was directed by Busby Berkeley and stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, in the second of a series of musicals they co-starred in, after Babes in Arms, all directed by Berkeley. The story written for the 1927 stage musical Strike Up the Band, and its successful 1930 Broadway revision, bear no resemblance to this film, aside from the title song.
The Gay Desperado is a 1936 American musical-comedy film starring Ida Lupino, Leo Carrillo, and Nino Martini and directed by Rouben Mamoulian, produced by Mary Pickford and Jesse Lasky and originally released by United Artists. The film is a spoof of the Hollywood gangster genre.