What to Do on a Date (1951)

"What to Do on a Date" is an 11-minute black-and-white short film from 65 years ago and the title gives away the core story of the film already. We watch a young man and he is not sure what to do with the girl he fancies when he has plans to go on a date with her. There were some not so great moments here, for example the girl must hear the other boy talking to him while she is on the phone and she'd probably not like it. But the main problem is that each girl is so different from the other that it is a bit pointless to make a film about that issue. Just do what she likes and what you like as well. On a positive note, this educational movie is among the most relevant today as young people everywhere still wonder what to do on a date these days. Oh yeah, people voted this down to the ground because MST3K picked it up and made fun of it, but I don't pay attention to these as they obviously cannot make up their mind by themselves and they probably have not even seen it. The film is better than the rating suggests, but it is still not a good watch. I do not recommend it. If you still liked it, you can check out the sequel if you find it anywhere.

This short tells of Nick, a shy guy who has long had a desire to ask sweet Kay out on a date. Jeff his buddy, suggests taking Kay to a "scavenger sale" a kind-of indoor garage sale, and Nick does only after his attempt to take Kay to "Wagon Train" is foiled because Kay has seen the film. They end up having a nice time and Nick sees a schedule of things to do, so he sets another date with Kay to go to a weenie roast.Overall this short film was sweet and gave some decent advice for dating, (make sure the other person will enjoy the activity, double date, choose dates that aren't too expensive etc) but the acting is wooden and the styling is badly dated. Still you can do worse for education shorts. "Drugs are Like That" for instance.

Yes, "What to Do on a Date" is the typical "educational" short made during the oh-so-innocent 1950s (which of course means that everyone is a bunch of wholesome white people). In this case, a geek can't figure out how to ask a girl on a date and needs guidance. Quite frankly, anyone who takes this movie as guidance will probably have a lot of trouble on a date.Has this film no redeeming qualities? Far from it. "Mystery Science Theater 3000" showed it, and the Satellite of Love viewers had lots of fun tearing it apart. Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank may try to torture Mike/Joel and the 'bots by showing them this swill, but they're no match for the jeers and heckling.

The following is more of a summary of the movie than a review:In "What To Do On A Date," Nick, a lovesick dork who sounds perpetually constipated, wants to go on a date with Kay, whose status as a member of the fairer sex is confirmed when she needs Nick's manly help to nail a paper elephant to a rafter. Nick calls up Kay, and asks her if she wants to go see a movie on Friday night. But Kay knows that in the darkness of the movie theater, Nick might put his arm around her shoulder or hold her hand, and that would cause their swell little fifties white suburban world to implode, so she rejects him. Fortunately, our flustered hero has some help from his smooth best friend Jeff and a fifty-year-old's Authoritative Disembodied Voice, who clearly knows what all the teenagers are into. They suggest all sorts of sanitized dating ideas for Nick and Kay, most of which involve doing things in a group so the teens can frustrate themselves trying to suppress their hormonal urges. Nick and Kay talk about various dull, non-sexual dating scenarios and Nick discovers a great pick-up line in the process: "Say, you like to do lots of things, don't ya?" Nick asks Kay if she'd like to go for a bike ride or a weenie roast or a bowling party or a baseball game or a taffy pull next Friday, and here we reach the climax of the movie: will Kay go on a second date with Nick, or will she dump him for somebody who's not such a loser, or will she spend Friday night listening to the Authoritative Disembodied Voice tell her about the importance of home economics? Will Nick continue to have a bland and asexual relationship with Kay, or will he find true friendship and companionship with Jeff, or will he become celibate and devote his life to nailing paper elephants into rafters?But still, the fact that a socially inept loser like Nick can get a girl to go to the community center to set up a garage sale on a first date should give the rest of us hope.