So You're Going on a Vacation

So You're Going on Vacation (1947)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) is wore down from his job but thankfully his two-week vacation has arrived. He plans on staying home and getting some rest but his wife demands that they go on a vacation. This vacation turns out to be a camping trip, which isn't going to go as planned. This is another middle-ground entry in the series as we get some good laughs but not as much as usual. There were some very funny sequences but there were some rather cold and strange attempts at humor as well. A lot of this deals with an Indian that Joe to buy to guide him on this trip. The "dumb Indian" joke gets played a lot and some of the humor even goes to the point of a park ranger saying the Indian can't stay because they don't accept foreigners. What humor does work is the type we'd expect as Joe goes into a store to get a free brochure on vacations and of course the salesman starts to take advantage of him. Another good joke involves the final punchline.

Joe comes home after working 50 straight weeks - he's overworked and underpaid. All he wants to do is spend two weeks laying in a hammock in the back yard, listening to the radio, and finishing reading a book. His wife has other ideas. Spending their vacation in the back yard was OK during the war, but now, she wants to go places.

Joe tries to talk her out of it, first blaming inflation. The wife, Alice counters, "Oh, inflation, half the people don't know what the word means." She then suggests cashing in their war bonds - the ones from the first world war. She then picks up the paper, which is conveniently opened to an ad for a department store offering to plan your vacation - with no cost or obligation.

When Joe gets to the department store, he gets the free vacation planner. The salesman first pressures Joe to buy a flashlight. And then a raincoat. And a tent, a canoe, golf clubs, polo mallet, life raft, and a fountain pen that writes underwater - to write his will if the life raft doesn't work. And in typical Joe McDoakes fashion, just about anything that can go wrong, does.

Sometimes, you don't feel the least bit sorry for Joe McDoakes. After all, in many of the shorts he's a complete idiot who brings problems on himself. However, in "So You're Going on Vacation", he just wants some peace and quiet...and no one will let him do this. First, his wife insists that he CAN'T stay home and enjoy his two weeks doing nothing. Second, after sending him to the store to get free brochures about travel, he's attacked by the world's most aggressive salesman. And, third, he arrives at the lake in the middle of no where only to learn that pretty much EVERYTHING he wants to do is against the rules. This is a cute little short about the pitfalls of vacationing and is a good object lesson to us all...or at least it should be. I just liked watching the salesman chasing McDoakes and tackling him to get a sale! Cute and worth your time.

Another 11 minutes of McDoakes insanity.

It's vacation time and Joe just wants to spend it resting and reading in his good, old backyard. Nope says Alice (Jane Harker). She wants a vacation after spending the "war years" at home!

What's a guy to do? There's "free" vacation planning at the local department store. Why not just stop by and see what it's all about. BEWARE! The friendly planner at the store has a very slick job -- sell, sell, sell vacation stuff, although the adivce is FREE? Joe becomes the proud owner of such usuable yet non unsable dopey things as a raincoat (for rainy vacation days?), a tent (you have to sleep somewhere) and even a life raft. Why not? Toss in a few other blunders.

When you add up what he spent on all this... Well, don't ask. It's outrageous. Would have been cheaper to stay home and read ANTHONY ADVERSE and all his troubles?

Jane Harker is always fun as Alice. Leonard "Lenny" Bremen turns up in a goofy role as Cheetah, the indian. Clifton Young, former child actor, plays Mr. Sylvester. Narrated by Art Gilmore, the voice behind HIGHWAY PATROL. A labor of love directed and written by Richard L. Bare, as usual.

Remastered in Warner Brother dvd box set, featuring other episodes from the legendary series. Thanks TCM for faithfully running these golden oldies.

George O'Hanlon needs his two-week vacation. He wants to spend it quietly, in a hammock in the backyard, reading ANTHONY ADVERSE. Wife Jane Harker considers home no vacation spot, so soon enough they're trundling across the countryside with a jet-propelled canoe, A fountain pen that can write underwater, an Indian guide, and the copy of ANTHONY ADVERSE George has been reading since 1934.

If this seems like the mildly surreal comedy of TV's GREEN ACRES, there's no reason to be surprised. Richard Bare directed more than sixty of these shorts for Warner Brothers, then went into directing television, including GREEN ACRES. His large and undistinguished career of turning out very funny shorts, on the big and little screen, extended through 1973, and he died in 2015, 101 years old.