Beautiful, moving film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

An absolute tremendous Doris Day-Gene Nelson musical. Why? There is a great plot here which was similar in a musical way to "Lady for A Day," which later became a Bette Davis-Ann Margret-Glenn Ford remake of "Pocketful of Miracles." Besides the wonderful plot of washed up boozy actress (Gladys George) having her daughter live abroad while she is a chanteuse at a broken singing lounge. Of course, the mayhem begins when Day plans a surprise visit and goes to the house where her mother has said she has lived all these years.The house is inhabited by S.Z. Sakall a Broadway producer, who knew George in her day, and is penny pinching, ever suspicious wife, Florence Bates. Billy De Wolfe and Anne Triola, both formerly of the stage and a friend to the George character, are valets there so that's how George was able to give out the address.The hilarity starts when Sakall starts taking out Day, creating a jealous Nelson and infuriating Bates, the latter suing for divorce naming Day as the correspondent!While all this is occurring, love blossoms between Nelson and Day, and they get involved in a forthcoming show-"Lullaby of Broadway."Day sings hit songs of the period and Nelson, of course, dances up a storm in this lively, entertaining wonderful film.

I was only familiar with Doris Day from her later romantic comedies of the late 50's and 60's, many with Rock Hudson. I also was a fan of her T.V. Show and her great Hitchcock movie with Jimmy Stewart, "The Man Who Knew Too Much." This was the first of her early movies that I have seen, and she is simply sunshine in a bottle. She seems to be enjoying every minute of every scene. Her joy is infectious. It is hard to watch the film and not respond to her by cheering up, no matter how your day may be going. Her supporting cast are also delightful and seem to be enjoying themselves. It was great to see Gladys George repeating her "Shantytown" song which she sang to James Cagney in "Twentieth Century" 13 years before. Billy De Wolfe is total gay delight as butler. He explains that he is really an actor, but took the butler job because of a "crazy, mad desire to keep from starving." Anne Triola compliments him perfectly as his maid/fiancé and they do an hilarious duet together. S.Z. Sakill steals the show as the flirtatious Broadway angel who is using his wife's money behind her back to invest in shows so he can oogle the actresses. Finally, there's Gene Nelson as Doris Day's song and dance partner. I have never seen him before, but he is quite a good dancer. At the beginning a fan tells him that he's the best dancer in the world. "It's you and me against Fred Astaire," he says. He does dance in Fred Astaire's style and is about as close to Astaire as anybody is likely to get. Typically, the male leads in musicals are the biggest problems, unless,they're Fred Astaire, Gene Kelley, or James Cagney, they're usually good dancers who can't act or good actors who can't really dance. Here, we seem to have somebody who can do both. The double plot has a) Doris Day coming back to New York to see her mother who she thinks is a big star, but is only an alcoholic cabaret singer, and b)some Broadway entertainers trying to entice S.Z. Sakill to invest his wife's money in a Broadway show. Not too original, but great one liners keep it moving cheerfully along between about a dozen small scale musical numbers. The director wisely understood that with Doris Day singing, you don't need Busby Berkeley super-sets or super choruses. This is a must for Doris Day fans and a wide toothy smile for everybody else.

Overstuffed Warner Bros. vehicle for Doris Day, here playing a nightclub singer who travels from England to New York to be reunited with her mom, a former Broadway star who has fallen on hard times; meanwhile, an elderly B-way producer hires Day for his new show, causing rumors that he's her lover! Since the many musical numbers consist of musty oldies (even for 1951) and the plot is a drag, that only leaves the stars to carry this second-biller, and Day, Gladys Cooper, S.Z. Sakall and Billy de Wolfe are all fun. Gene Nelson is off-putting as Day's romantic lead (he harbors a strangely creepy side which was probably unintentional), although his tap-dance with Doris up a steep flight of steps is breathtaking. An adequate time-filler, and Doris sparkles as usual. ** from ****

I just loved this movie. I loved it so much that I was able to choreograph a tap dance piece to Zing With the Strings of My Heart. I took it to many competitions, and won numerous gold and first place trophies and medals. This movie deserves a 10 for excellent!