The movie was based on a story written by Jean Shepherd for Playboy Magazine. It's honestly one of his best stories he has in his archive. One of the reasons I began reading his books was to get at this story, and where it may not be my favorite, it's right up there near the top.
The story is about the Parker Family as they go on a surprisingly realistic 1950's vacation to a camping site called Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss. While there, they will stay in a cabin without any plumbing and go fishing. The journey there is full of fun little mishaps, but none of them feel like they couldn't have happened to real people. For example, the mother keeps wanting to stop at trinket shops, the tire blows out, and there is a sudden bee attack in the car. These are all kinds of normal things, but the movie pitches them in a very wholesome comedic light.
I've heard this movie often compared with the National Lampoon Vacation films. That's somewhat fair, but the National Lampoon films tend to border more on the absurd rather than relatable circumstances. They are more like worst case scenarios and can most often seem unrealistic. Nothing in "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss" feels unrealistic, and yet it still comes across as fun and entertaining.
As we have seen with the previous films, the movies are not long enough to encapsulate just one of his short stories. The first half of the movie is a flashback about Ralph getting his first job, which might actually be the worst job he ever had. Also it was great to see Jean Shepherd play Ralph's horrible boss himself.
The family also dealt with their dog Fuzzhead running away. This seems like a silly plot at first, but it almost takes over the whole movie. The mother obsesses over it and even claims she won't go to the lake unless Fuzzhead is found. It was an entertaining sidestep, and I won't spoil how it ends.
All said, "Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss" is a great movie, and it really did deserve to make it to the big screen. Sadly, Disney has all but ignored this movie since it came out. It had a few runs on the Disney Channel, but nobody really seems to talk about this film anymore, and it's really sad. The film is wonderful and keeps your attention from scene to scene. I think I may actually enjoy this film a little more than "A Christmas Story." It was just so relatable.
Of course, I absolutely recommend this movie. You can view it on Youtube in acceptable quality. The only problem with it is that it plays with mono sound (only in the right ear), and there was one part in the film where the recording glitches really bad, but then it recovers. It's about the only way to see this film today, so you should definitely deal with those imperfections. This movie deserves to be a classic, but there just isn't anybody who knows about it these days.
This blog was written on December 29, 2025.
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