Vacation in Reno

Jack Haley is goofy but sympathetic as a dreamer named Jack out to strike it rich. Armed with a metal detector and an old map, Jack heads to a Reno dude ranch determined to find buried treasure on his vacation.

A gang of bank robbers, a dogged deputy sheriff, and marital misunderstandings complicate his plans and it all adds up to a wild if somewhat cluttered 60 minutes.

Anne Jeffreys is fine as Jack's wife Eleanor. Early in the story, Jack and Eleanor stage a fake argument for the benefit of another bickering couple; not surprisingly, it turns into a real fight and Eleanor goes home to mother. Will they get it straightened out before the end of the picture?

Iris Adrian is funny as a young woman named Bunny who is amused to find herself mistaken for Jack's wife. The supporting cast also features energetic performances from lesser-known actors like Constance Purdy (hilarious as the stereotypical raging mother-in-law) and one Matt Willis as the deputy sheriff who won't give up.

One funny gag: Haley hangs up the phone…but the angry shouts of the mother-in-law on the other end cause the receiver to pop off the hook, bounce into a pitcher of water, and start the water boiling.

Haley, at the center of it all, is fun to watch. His mostly clueless yet very earnest character makes us smile but has us rooting for him too.

Jack Carroll (Jack Haley) buys a ridiculous military surplus amphibious vehicle and a mine detector to go treasure hunting near Reno which will finance his rabbit farm. He and his wife Eleanor (Anne Jeffreys) have their friends over for dinner, but their friends are a non-stop bickering couple. They pretend to fight during their next gathering, but it turns into a real fight over Eleanor's mother. While she runs off to her mother, he decides to go to Reno without informing her. He stops at a Reno bank where a bank robbery happens to take place. The robbery crew buries the loot near a cave which is exactly where Jack ends up digging.

It's convoluted. It's way too convenient. It's a wacky screwball comedy with more misunderstandings than a bad sitcom. It really goes over the top when the sheriff pulls off his pants. It's silly non-sense and would fit in a lot of silly non-sense sitcoms.

Jack (Jack Haley ... wizard of oz) and Eleanor (Anne Jeffreys) do indeed follow the advice of the title. And they are quite the may december couple! When a plan backfires, they head to Reno. And accidentally get mixed up with bank robbers. Jack wants to get rich quick. The Mrs. Wants a divorce. The cops want the robbers. Jack just wants to straighten out all these messes. Lots of divorce jokes. Of course the divorce lawyer's name is Shark! It's mostly good. And fun. The arguing and the misunderstandings get a little annoying. Of course, it all could have been straightened out so much sooner! Jack haley six years after Wizard. Every time he speaks, you hear the voice of the tin man. Directed by Les Goodwins. Looks like he did mostly shorts until about 1938.

For its first third or so, this resembles the very corniest of short subjects from its day, or earlier. It elicits more groans than laughs.

Jack Haley has a nice comic touch as we all know but the material here is from hunger.

About a third of the way into it, Haley ends up in the title city. Marital squabbling is replaced by bank robbers and confused identities. When the Robbers, Haley, his wife, a sailor and his wife, the sheriff, and assorted others are running from room to room, it turns into a sort of French farce. Not a funny French farce, mind you. More "oh not THAT again" than "ooh-la-la." The supporting cast is amusing, in a very broad way. Haley's mother-in-law, an actress unknown to me, is a monster as intended and is quite funny.

It seems like an older crowd, however, and somehow the lovely young Anne Jeffries is made up or directed, or both, to seem tired and worn down like the others.

It's not offensive in any way. And I sat through the whole thing. So I guess the real joke was on me.

Wally Brown and wife are so unpleasant to each other when they visit with Jack Haley and Anne Jeffreys that the latter couple decide to behave the same way when they return the visit as an example of comedy plotting. They are so abusive that Miss Jeffreys goes home to mother, while Haley prepares to go on vacation to Reno to hunt for treasure with his new metal detector. First, though, he is the unwitting witness of a bank robbery. When he gets there, the robbers have preceded him, and buried the loot, which he promptly discovers, and they try to get him to shut up as a witness by having Iris Adrian claim to be his wife, while his luggage gets mixed up with Myrna Dell's, who has a jealous, pugnacious husband in Matt McHugh.

If it sounds like three or four shorts colliding, that's because where writer Charles Roberts spent most of his time at RKO, and director Leslie Goodwins was no stranger to the department. The individual set pieces are very well run by the practiced farceurs and that kept me smiling. While I was annoyed by Haley playing his nebbishy comedy character yet one more time, Miss Jeffreys is a delight at less than half his age.