dougdoepke What a pleasant surprise for a hardened old cynic like me. Ordinarily I would avoid a title like The Affairs of Dobie Gillis as if it were the plague. But the sheer bounce and charm of Weis's direction along with Van and Reynolds proved completely beguiling. Sure it's dated. The innocence and idealized portrayal of college-age youth belong to a bygone era. Still, Van's easy way with a song and a smile continues to captivate, while even Reynolds' manages an energized side that doesn't annoy (the sight of her pony-tailed wholesomeness crouched demonically over a boiling witch's brew is hilarious). Surely these two were made for each other in some malt-shop heaven. There are so many nice touches, including: Hans Conreid's arrogant professor (his tight-lipped barbs at Dobie are priceless), Kathleen Freeman's gap- toothed Polish band (I'm sorry we didn't hear more), and the utterly delightful song and dance numbers (a whole lot simpler and more spontaneous than MGM's over-produced foot- stompers of the day). Clearly, the studio dribbled out a bare-bones budget to give their younger talent a chance, and the youngsters responded in spades. I'm only sorry that Van didn't get the career his talent deserved-- watching him and Fosse was a treat. All in all, this is a much better movie than it had any right to be, and a fine piece of unexpected pleasure for viewers of any age.

MartinHafer I have never seen the TV show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", so you should keep this in mind when you read this review. I haven't a whole lot of preconceptions about the movie but I also wasn't particularly interested in the concept to actually watch the show the 106,284 times it was shown years ago on Nickelodeon and other cable channels. Why I actually decided to watch this when it came on Turner Classic Movies is beyond me--though I am glad that I did.While it is undeniable that this movie is complete fluff, it is nevertheless enjoyable fluff. There's lots of singing and dancing and romancing and comedy--a formula very similar to the Doris Day/Gordon MacRae films BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON and ON MOONLIGHT BAY (though these two Warner Brothers films were set in an earlier time period). It's all very light and very likable--even if it turns out that Dobie is a dirty little cheater (see the film to find out what I am talking about).Of particular interest, by the way, is the earnest and likable style of Bobby Van. It's too bad that he came to Hollywood near the end of the musical craze and that his life was so tragically shortened. He was talented and all I'd previously seen him in were insipid 1970s game shows.

Peter Swanson I caught this film in the pre-dawn hours of an insomniac night recently, and found it reasonably diverting, although certainly no cinematic treasure. It does, however, contain genuine buried treasure for anyone interested in dance history, especially fans of Bob Fosse. The future Triple Crown of entertainment winner (Tony, Emmy, and Oscar in the same year) has a dance solo in this little movie which is positively searing, absolutely mind-bending in its virtuosity...and that's as seen in 2006. In its original release that sequence must have snapped the jaws of any member of the audience who'd ever taken a dance class. The man was simply fantastic, making Bobby Van, a decent hoofer himself, look like a club-footed spaz. I'd watch the storyless antics of Van's Gillis again just to see that number. By the way, I have read the original Dobie Gillis novel by Max Shulman, and it is very funny, as well as substantially earthier than any film or TV version of the story. If you see it in the library, give it a try.

Phil Reeder After I warmed up to the taller, goofier-looking Bobby Van (compared to Dwayne Hickman), this movie really took off for me. Like many others, I didn't know there was a movie six years before the TV series debuted. I'm only a casual fan of DG (it doesn't get shown enough these days) but still wanted to see how this early version compared to the show. I wasn't disappointed. I noticed a similarity between this picture and Disney's Merlin Jones movies. But whereas Merlin was this semi-genius, Dobie is an underachiever out for fun and females.Die-hard fans of Zelda will be crestfallen to learn that she is mercifully absent here. She is replaced by the much more feminine Debbie Reynolds, who ferments a good screen chemistry with Van; that's appropriate, as their most harrowing adventures take place in the chemistry lab (Pansy is fond of mixing assorted substances until they explode).But where is Herbert T. Gillis, Dobie's workaholic grocer old man seen in the series? He was my favorite character, mainly because of Frank Faylen's inimitable characterization (he was also hilarious as Dearborne in Disney's THE MONKEY'S UNCLE). Instead of Dobie's family we get Pansy's blustery workaholic father, who wants to separate the lovebirds forever. Has anyone else noticed, by the way, how fathers are perpetually portrayed as silly windbags, while the boring cipher wife/mother is forever made out to be the "wise" one? Even in the 50's.Strangely, it seems as though Dobie and Pansy only took two courses - English and Chemistry. And what about that chemistry prof, who boasts that his class is the hardest they'll ever encounter? Guess he never heard of Cartography at Radford U. After playing hooky (except when it rained) for several months, they return to class to find an essay due in English and a project due in Chemistry. I won't give away how they solve this crisis. But then the sky falls on our amorous pair. Deeming Dobie the worst possible influence, Mr. Hammer sends Pansy to NYC (blah - like that's the greatest place on earth to be sent) to live with her horrid maiden aunt. You really feel depressed for Dobie, now wandering aimlessly around campus. After all the scrapes they'd been through together - the chemistry lab explosions; the capsized canoe; and the most hysterical of all - Pansy's blouse getting caught in the car engine, then her trying to sneak past Ma and Pa and a couple of neighbors watching TV (yes, they had TV in 1953). Then when a gun goes off on TV, the startled viewers suddenly become aware of Pansy in her undergarments. That scene ended perfectly.All this brings us to some intriguing questions about college life in the 50's. Was it common for professors to write their own textbooks? We have the deliciously snobbish, condescending Hans Conried (Prof. Pomfritt) announcing that he is rewriting his "English Usage For College Freshmen", suddenly accepting Dobie's belief that the rules should be according to the way people really talk. C'mon, a single professor rewriting the rules of grammar? And did academic buildings really have bells to dismiss the students? Sounds like high school all over again. All classes beginning and ending at the same time. Well, I know one thing in the movie that's definitely based in reality: the way school bookstores buy back used books for pennies on the dollar, then resell them at a 90% markup. This textbook racket is still flourishing!Absent from AODG is Dobie's endless philosophizing in front of a marble statue. But I don't expect you'll really miss that.All in all, I recommend THE AFFAIRS OF DOBIE GILLIS to even the most casual fan of the TV series, and to anyone who likes college slapstick/romance from the 50's. I only wish this movie had been long enough to include more professors played by character actors on the caliber of Hans Conried. Or a series of 75-minute films, where Dobie and Pansy take Psychology, physics, French...imagine the constant jams they'd've been in and out of. I know Debbie Reynolds went on to bigger things, like voicing Charlotte in CHARLOTTE'S WEB and giving birth to Princess Leia, but she could've been replaced by some other bodacious 50's babe. And no, I don't mean Zelda.