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On Moonlight Bay
Doris Day's charming performance anchors a sweetly nostalgic, but ultimately empty 1951 musical called On Moonlight Bay.
The setting is the fictional town of Millburn, Indiana where we meet the Wingfield family, who have just moved into a new home. Doris plays Marjorie, the Wingfield's grown daughter who hasn't figured out that she's a girl yet, until she meets cute with William Sherman (Gordon MacRae), the know-it-all college student who lives across the street and has radical ideas about marriage and money.
Marjorie and William fall in love instantly but William makes it very clear to Marjorie that he doesn't believe in marriage. Marjorie, trying not to scare him off, says she feels exactly the same way, but Majorie's father is not having a man near his daughter who has no plans for marriage, which sets up this terribly complicated musical comedy.
The screenplay is based on the Penrod Stories by Booth Tarkington which perfectly captures small town sensibilities, more specifically, the societal roles expected by men and women and how relationships between men and women were meant to result in marriage. It's no surprise when Marjorie's father, George, finds a more marriage minded guy for his daughter. It's also no surprise that Marjorie finds this guy dull as dishwasher. There is an overly complex subplot involving Marjorie's little brother, Wesley, that seems to just pad the running time, but doesn't really interfere with the story either.
The score includes "Tell Me", "Cuddle a Little Closer", "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", "Love Ya", "Every Little Movement", and, of course, the title tune.
This was the second of three films that Day would make with Gordon MacRae, whose pearly whites and rich baritone compliment Day beautifully even though the story keeps his character offscreen a little too much. Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp are charming as Marjorie's parents and Mary Wickes cracks wise with the best of them as the housekeeper, Stella. There's also a scene stealing turn from Billy Gray as little Wesley. Gray would earn his fifteen minutes a few years later playing Bud on Father's Knows Best. The film cleverly sets up its sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon.
Doris Day's charming performance anchors a sweetly nostalgic, but ultimately empty 1951 musical called On Moonlight Bay.
The setting is the fictional town of Millburn, Indiana where we meet the Wingfield family, who have just moved into a new home. Doris plays Marjorie, the Wingfield's grown daughter who hasn't figured out that she's a girl yet, until she meets cute with William Sherman (Gordon MacRae), the know-it-all college student who lives across the street and has radical ideas about marriage and money.
Marjorie and William fall in love instantly but William makes it very clear to Marjorie that he doesn't believe in marriage. Marjorie, trying not to scare him off, says she feels exactly the same way, but Majorie's father is not having a man near his daughter who has no plans for marriage, which sets up this terribly complicated musical comedy.
The screenplay is based on the Penrod Stories by Booth Tarkington which perfectly captures small town sensibilities, more specifically, the societal roles expected by men and women and how relationships between men and women were meant to result in marriage. It's no surprise when Marjorie's father, George, finds a more marriage minded guy for his daughter. It's also no surprise that Marjorie finds this guy dull as dishwasher. There is an overly complex subplot involving Marjorie's little brother, Wesley, that seems to just pad the running time, but doesn't really interfere with the story either.
The score includes "Tell Me", "Cuddle a Little Closer", "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", "Love Ya", "Every Little Movement", and, of course, the title tune.
This was the second of three films that Day would make with Gordon MacRae, whose pearly whites and rich baritone compliment Day beautifully even though the story keeps his character offscreen a little too much. Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp are charming as Marjorie's parents and Mary Wickes cracks wise with the best of them as the housekeeper, Stella. There's also a scene stealing turn from Billy Gray as little Wesley. Gray would earn his fifteen minutes a few years later playing Bud on Father's Knows Best. The film cleverly sets up its sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon.