Casanova Junior

Dobie Gillis shows up on campus having already decided to dedicate his college years to having fun and pursuing women. Pansy Hammer, on the other hand, wants nothing more than to "study, study, study" and "work, work work". Naturally it's love at first sight. It doesn't take long for the two to work out their differences, but it will take the rest of the movie for her father to be convinced!

Having never realized that Dobie Gillis had been made into a movie prior to the television series, I naturally had to watch this movie if only for historical purposes. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find myself thoroughly entertained by a very good comedy quite capable of standing on its own merits. It's silly but it works, and is filled in quite nicely with several excellent song and dance routines. All of the cast is outstanding, from stars to supporting roles, but it is Bobby Van who steals the show as the happy-go-lucky Dobie Gillis.

A very attractive cast and a couple of good musical numbers make for reasonably good entertainment. Far different from the TV series that came a few years later (and not as good in my opinion), this feature was actually inspired by the Max Shulman Dobie Gillis stories from the forties. Shulman, who also wrote the the screenplay for this movie, does manage to work in bits and pieces of his short stories into the script, but not too successfully. The reason for this is that the original stories were stand-alone brilliant comic masterpieces. Here we just see a little scene from this one, and one from that one, and so on. The way to really, really enjoy Dobie Gillis is to track down the out-of-print collection, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"(easily available at Amazon). I'm a fan of the TV series, and I like this movie, but neither can hold a candle to the hilarious short stories that served as the original inspiration for both the TV and screen versions.

By the way, it was only about two years ago that I read the original stories. They are every bit as wonderful today as when they were originally written.

Being based on short stories that are still of much great enjoyment now and having people as talented as Debbie Reynolds, Bob Fosse, Hans Conreid and Bobby Van, 'The Affairs of Dobie Gillis' had all the makings of being good-natured fun and being very difficult to dislike.

'The Affairs of Dobie Gillis' is not necessarily a great film by all means, with a very thin, often meandering and at times non-existent story that feels like several comic situations/stories cobbled together and not much else. While most of the film is very entertaining and achieves what it set out to do very well indeed, there is always going to be the criticisms that some of the situations are unbelievably silly and that it's dated, so suspension of disbelief is needed.

Fosse doesn't look so comfortable in his role in the acting department and his personality doesn't shine as much as when he is dancing.

However, 'The Affairs of Dobie Gillis' is very nicely designed and quaintly photographed. The music fits very well and is more than listenable on its own as well, the standout song being the heart-melting "All I Do is Dream of You". When it comes to the choreography and dancing, Fosse in particular scintillates in a routine that brims with energy, clever choreographic flourishes and extraordinary dance technique.

Regarding the script, it is here very light and bubbly, never trying to do more or be more complicated than needed. A good deal of it is silly too, but has such a good nature and has its heart in the right place that it is hard to be too hard on it. The film moves quickly and never feels dull, because the energy of the cast and the pleasant atmosphere moves things along so well.

Despite having mixed feelings on Fosse (loved the dancing, didn't look at ease in the acting), the rest of the acting fares well. Van is at his most likeably earnest, while Reynolds is spunky and charming and Barbara Ruick is suitably peppy. In support, an amusing Hans Conreid, firm Charles Lane and tyrannical Hanley Stafford stand out in particular. The direction is more than competent throughout, having the right lightness of touch.

On the whole, not a great film but an enjoyably good-natured and easily watchable one. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Previous to watching this film my frame of reference for Dobie Gillis was the television series that starred Dwayne Hickman in the early Sixties. So I was curious somewhat to see The Affairs Of Dobie Gillis from where the television series sprung.

Other than Dobie you will not find a single character that came from TV show. And instead of high school the girl crazy Dobie who simply views his time at college as a romp with the opposite sex finds himself attracted to THE girl in the person of Debbie Reynolds.

Life throws many roadblocks at the young couple, her parents, his teachers, but they do overcome of course.

Bobby Van plays Dobie Gillis and he gets a few numbers to show off his singing and more important his dancing. Playing his best friend at the very start of his distinguished career is Bob Fosse and the two are quite the team. Fosse and Van came at the end of the musical cycle, but Fosse went on to Broadway as the most distinguished choreographer of his time. Barbara Ruick is also in the cast and she did way too few films, her best known being Carousel playing Carrie Pipperidge.

The Affairs Of Dobie Gillis is a mildly entertaining film that probably is best known as it turned out, a TV Pilot.

This comedy/musical is a rather silly but quite entertaining college romance. The dialogue and situations is extremely dated, having come out in the early '50s, but if you enjoy films from that period you'll probably like this one. Some of the situations made me laugh out loud which is more than I can say for many films of today. The characters from this film were later used in the television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.