Simply Perfect

Good concept, poorly executed.

From my favorite movies..

A Disappointing Continuation

Despite the Day-MacRae pairing the movie's not exactly a musical, the numbers being few and far between. Instead, the storyline is more like a down-home romantic comedy set in 1917. In fact, young Billy Gray gets as much screen time as Day. That's not to say the results are not generally delightful, especially the first part. But MacRae later disappears for a surprising period, while Day's presence is also intermittent. Somehow I suspect there may be a backstory here, even though the results are consistently entertaining.It's a fine cast, Day never fresher nor lovelier, MacRae as handsome as ever, along with stuffy dad Ames and sweet mom DeCamp. And for comedic effect, it's a surprisingly accomplished Gray as the impish son and Wickes as the sarcastic cook. On the other hand, there's tuneful singer Jack Smith in thankless role as nerdy extra man. It appears he's taking up some slack in MacRae's absence. Nonetheless, the pairing of the leads is almost picture perfect.The plot has daughter Day falling for unconventional neighbor McRae of whom her conventional banker dad (Ames) disapproves. So how can their true love blossom, especially when her mischievous little brother (Gray) is always up to something amusingly disruptive. Somehow, though, you know things will work out.A couple of points to note—catch Mom's pressing Day to enhance her natural attributes with a pair of falsies worn for the big dance. That really surprised me. After all, the 50's were the big airbrushed decade; plus, falsies amount to an ironic comment on the Monroes, Mansfields, and Russells of the decade. Also, having hero MacRae talk down our conventional economy, primarily the role of banks, seems a risky move for the movie's hero in that Cold War period. Then too, unless I missed something, he never recants those sentiments.Despite the occasional edginess, it's still a fun film full of candybox colors and the two charming leads. But fans looking for big production numbers may be disappointed.

This musical comedy focuses on the trials and tribulations of a family in a small Indiana town in early 20th century. There isn't much singing. There are only a few short songs that are not bad but not particularly memorable either. In fact, there isn't much of a plot either. It's episodic, playing like a sitcom without a laugh track. This was the third of five films in which Day and MacRae co-starred. They were both around thirty at the time - too old to be believable as teenagers. Ames does a variation of his role in "Meet Me in St. Louis," the classic that this one seems to be patterned after. Wikes is funny as the housekeeper. It's a light and inoffensive little film.

I wouldn't call this a musical, but it is certainly a great comedy drama. The main reason I wanted to see this is obviously the enchanting Doris Day as Marjorie 'Marjie' Winfield. Basically she met love interest William 'Bill' Sherman (Gordon MacRae) after only just moving into a house in the small town of Indiana, and they obviously got closer in moments on Moonlight Bay. It is the nice love story almost ruined by inconvenience, including Bill joining the First World War, but more prominently, Marjie's naughty brother Wesley (Billy Gray) causing trouble, arguments and almost no happy endings and dysfunction. Also starring Jack Smith as the annoying piano playing and singing Hubert Wakely, Leon Ames as Banker George 'Father' Winfield (Mr. Winfield), Rosemary DeCamp as Alice 'Mother' Winfield (Mrs. Winfield), Mary Wickes as Stella (Winfields' cook and housekeeper) and Ellen Corby as Miss Mary Stevens (Wesley's schoolteacher). This is where Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (and other Looney Tunes characters) picked up the song. A sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, followed two years later. Doris Day was number 84 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars. Good!

Though it doesn't match the captivating staging of Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St Louis as a nostalgic period musical, both this charmer and its sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon, based on Booth Tarkington's delightful Penrod stories, are very much in the same mold as the Minnelli classic; both films provide ideal vehicles for the multi-talented Doris Day, seen here at her most fetchingly tomboyish with her frequent on-screen partner at the time, Gordon MacRae. Their combined vocal talents bring genuine class to the turn of the (last) century tunes, providing a veritable cornucopia of some of the era's most recognizable standards. The pair create an easy chemistry mercifully free of the self-conscious projection so prevalent in many contemporary "feel-good" movies. Billy Gray, as Day's younger brother in his pre-Father Knows Best days was a likable and unspoiled child performer, who brought terrific comic timing in the delivery of his misplaced energies. Mary Wickes as the no-nonsense maid who acts as a kind of chorus to the action, is another notable scene-stealer, in a film which like so many of the early Doris Day musicals leaves this viewer with a warm glow.