‘Camp Stories’ Recalls Bittersweet Youth in the ‘50s

Summer camp movies usually spell hilarity and nostalgia, but Herbert Beigel’s engaging, semiautobiographical “Camp Stories� is bittersweet to the utmost.

It’s set in a fading orthodox Jewish camp in the Poconos in 1958, where 15-year-old David Katz (Zachary Taylor) has been sent much against his will by his parents, who figure their movie-nut son could use some fresh air in a presumably morally uplifting setting. There is some humor and warmth in Beigel’s look back, but his film is mainly a record of misery endured during two long, tedious months, relieved by David’s first experience of love with a pretty Westport, Conn., shiksa (Susan Vanech) vacationing nearby.

Surprisingly, there are no scenes of religious observance and instruction, and “Camp Stories� suffers somewhat from this lack. What we’re left with are some glimpses of desultory sports activities in an overly long tale of ultra-conservative adults constantly hectoring teenagers for the slightest infractions in behavior, while most everybody, adults and kids alike, do an awful lot of nothing much.

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Right from the outset, David, who’s nice-looking, intelligent and self-possessed, is locked into an edgy situation with one of his cabin mates, the unhappy Paul (Kris Park), who’s in his third summer--and whose parents haven’t bothered to visit him since his first. Making matters far worse for David is the hotheaded Chaim (Ted Marcoux), caught in a deteriorating marriage and vying with the gentle, ineffectual Moishe (Paul Sand) to take over the camp upon the impending retirement of its pompous leader (Jerry Stiller). A petty, jealous tyrant, Chaim has mistakenly got it in his head that his attractive, fed-up wife (Talia Balsam) is having an affair with David.

Beigel’s clear commitment to his people and their stories and some good actors--Taylor, especially--keep us involved, even though the film tends to be repetitious and could benefit from some trimming. “Camp Stories� has a prologue and an epilogue set in the present, which gives it a feeling of evening up old scores. Elliott Gould and Richard Council play the middle-aged David and Paul, respectively.

Unrated. Times guidelines: The film is suitable for general audiences, with an incident of adultery implied rather than described and a discreet love scene.

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‘Camp Stories’

Zachary Taylor: David

Ted Marcoux: Chaim

Paul Sand: Moishe

Jerry Stiller: Schlomo

Elliott Gould: David, in middle age

Susan Vanech: Sally

An Artistic License Films release of a Forensic Films production. Writer-director Herbert Beigel. Producers Robin O’Hara and Scott Macaulay. Cinematographer Paul Gibson. Editor Meg Reticker. Music Roy Nathanson. Production designer Deena Sidney. Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes.

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