Pretty Good

From my favorite movies..

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

The, at least, equally entertaining sequel to the story of the Winfield family, in "On Moonlight Bay". Most of the major characters are played by the same people who previously played them. However, Russell Arms replaces Jack Smith, as the character Hubert, now called Chester. Leon Ames reprises his role as family father, begun in the rather similar MGM hit: "Meet Me in St. Louis". The story takes place in Milburn , Indiana, as WWI is ending. Rosemary Decamp is the mother, while Doris Day and Gordon McRae are the sometimes lovey dove song birds, who become reunited upon Gordon's release from the army, with the end of the war. Their marriage plans, however, are still controversial, as the story develops. The songs are generally more memorable and more frequent than those in the prior "On Moonlight Bay". Also, Doris stars in a memorable musical skit. Billy Gray is the 12y.o. scene-stealing brat brother of (supposedly) 18y.o. Doris. Mary Wickes again is the family maid and cook, and introduces the family members at the beginning. Poor Chester is the nerdy, if pleasant, longtime wannabe boyfriend for Doris. Probably from a rich family, he is father Ames' choice. Despite being a good piano player, and decent singer, and song writer, Doris generally finds him boring and often too stuffy. But, with the on again, off again, nature of the Doris + Gordon romance, he never gives up hope......At the film's beginning, Doris, with grease-smeared face, is under the family car fixing something: an indication of the tomboy side of her personality. In "Calamity Jane", released the same year, she was an even more extreme example of a tomboy, finally learning to be feminine at times, in order to please her boyfriend, as in the present film. Later, Doris has to fix Gordon's car, stalled in the boonies, as he has no idea what is wrong. .....The family Thanksgiving turkey, thanks to Billy Gray's meddling, creates an embarrassing situation at Thanksgiving dinner......Miss Renee LaRue, wants to rent a theater owned by the bank that father Ames works for. A written communication between them is hijacked by delivery boy Billy Gray. He creates a complex of imaginary scandals that dominates the last half of the film, and is only resolved in the ending. An addition, he has become obsessed with Sherlock Holmes-style detective work. At one point, Miss LaRue is fingered as his imaginary Dangerous Dora, with hilarious results......A family outing in a horse-pulled sleigh, to celebrate the 20th wedding anniversary of the parents, turns up a few surprises, as they end up at a favored skating pond, with the film's ending in sight. .......Songs with lyrics sung include: "I'll Forget You", "Just One Girl", King Chanticleer", "If You Were the only Girl in the World", "On Moonlight Bay", "Ain't We Got Fun", and "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee", the latter supposedly composed by Chester, who plays and sings it.......I don't want to reveal any more details. Just see it if you can., Presently, it comes with "On Moonlight Bay, in a 2 DVD packet. Gordon and Doris went on to star in several more pictures together, including "Tea for Two".

Penrod (renamed Wesley Winfield in this update) has less to do in this one, although he still provides a catalyst for the film's main pieces of action (the turkey dinner and the actress chestnut which was much funnier when Wallace Beery was taking rumba lessons from Carmen Miranda), and even has a dream sequence more elaborate than that in On Moonlight Bay. Penrod's decreased footage has been taken up by Doris Day. I'm not complaining.I like Doris Day. She even has a production number – the agreeably staged and sprightly sung, "King Chanticleer". Butler's direction is a mite smoother than Del Ruth's and the color photography is nice and bright here. But the screenplay lacks flair and is plainly a bit of a bore. Dead dreary old Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp help make the scenario even more sluggish. Gordon MacRae manages to put over a song rather well, but he's otherwise a bit of a bore. However, many of the support players are on top of their material and I especially liked Leon Ames' delightful rendering of "Bumble Bee".

BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON is a continuation of "On Moonlight Bay", the previous flick featuring DORIS DAY and GORDON MacRAE as sweethearts during the early 1900s who get to croon some pretty wonderful songs of that period. It's strictly family stuff, nostalgic and as prettily pictured as a postcard of an Americana that never really existed except in Hollywood's imagination and Norman Rockwell paintings.The delightful supporting cast has LEON AMES (who was also Judy Garland's father in MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS), MARY WICKE (as the sharp-tongued housekeeper), ROSEMARY DeCAMP as the patient wife and RUSSELL ARMS as Doris' nerdy other love.The wholesome story (from a Booth Tarkington tale) has Doris' bratty brother letting his childish imagination running away from him when he suspects his father is having an affair with a French actress.The skating ring sequence closes the story on a happy note--and after a nice bunch of songs by Day and MacRae (including "Be My Little Baby Bumble-Bee", "If You Were the Only Girl in the World" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon"), you'll feel yourself back in those innocent times wishing life could imitate the movies.

I have seen this film along with On Moonlight Bay many times on TV, not when they originally came out in the cinema, I wasn't a big fan of musicals then and I can't say I'm a big fan of Doris Day, but these two films are so uplifting and fun they are excellent to watch. It's something to do with the balance of light drama/comedy to songs, the songs don't intrude and seem to help the plot along. If I had to choose, it would probably be this film out of the two because of the great feel good factor with everyone enjoying themselves at the end out at the pond. My favourite scene is right at the end when Leon Ames seems to be the only one who hasn't got a clue what's going on, and says to his wife ..."and what did you think.... and she's just as puzzled as he his and the music comes up.........