Strip! Strip! Hooray!!! is exactly as weird as it sounds

Is it worth your time?

If you're a fan of vintage British comedy that moves at the speed of a gentle breeze, sure. It’s light, airy, and very much a product of its time. If you’re looking for a serious narrative or, heaven forbid, actual grit, you’ll probably find this thing painfully tedious.

Ken Douglas needs to make 2,000 pounds a year to marry his girl. That’s the whole engine. He's a reporter, which in these old movies basically means he’s allowed to go anywhere and act like an idiot without getting kicked out.

The Nudist Colony Setup

The film lands us at 'Sunville,' which is supposed to be this wild, daring place. By today’s standards, it’s basically a slightly awkward picnic with more grass stains. The contrast between the reporter’s 'mission' to find something scandalous and the actual footage—which is just people sitting around reading books—is honestly the funniest part of the whole thing.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Strip! Strip! Hooray!!! or (Fun with the Sunbathers) (1932) through its definitive frames.

There is this one scene where a character is trying so hard to act natural while barely wearing anything. You can practically see the director yelling at them to just keep smiling. It’s stiff. It’s awkward. I loved it.

Odd Little Details

• The dad in this movie is such a stereotypical buzzkill it almost loops back to being a cartoon character.
• The editing feels like it was done with a pair of rusty kitchen scissors.
• Nobody ever actually gets a sunburn, which seems like a missed opportunity for some classic slapstick.

Compared to something like Stop Thief, this movie feels like it’s trying to be a bit more 'naughty' but keeps tripping over its own shoelaces. It has that same frantic energy you see in Her Lucky Leap, but with less actual leaping and more sitting on towels.

The dialogue is very... proper. Even when people are meant to be shocked, they sound like they’re discussing the weather over tea. It makes the whole 'scandalous' premise feel like a warm hug. Don't go looking for deep themes here. There aren't any. It’s just people walking around in the sun, trying to save a marriage, and failing to be remotely controversial.

It’s a strange little artifact. Watch it if you want to see how movies used to handle 'risqué' topics without actually doing anything risqué at all. ☀️