Just so...so bad

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The 1910's may have not had the comforts of today, but they sure had an innocent sense of fun. In the days before World War I got the United States involved, there certainly were plenty of issues, but what appears to be the truth is that an innocent sense of living had society in the thought that hard work and clean living lead to a decent life. A naive view to be sure, but it is a nice fantasy.The team of Doris Day and Gordan MacRae were the 1950's answer to Mickey and Judy, and the lovely innocence of their films still holds a promise for happiness and joy. Day is a sweet but tomboyish teenage girl, falling in love with the boy next door and dealing with family issues no more serious than a misunderstanding caused by the prankish younger brother, Billy Gray, who is actually very well meaning if still immature.Leon Ames, Judy's father in MGM's "Meet Me in St. Louis" and Rosemary DeCamp, Cagney's mother in "Yankee Doodle Dandy", are typical classic American parents, while Mary Wicked is delightfully funny as the wise- cracking housekeeper. She hot so much praise for this film that her role in the sequel "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" was greatly expanded. Esther Dale has an amusing cameo as Ames' imperious aunt who has a surprising zest for life.Certainly by the early 1950's these simple storied had been done over and over, but some of them were too good to be dismissed. With Doris Day having taken over Bette Davis's spot as queen of Warner Brothers, she seemed to be able to do no wrong. As top female box office champ for 15 years, she had a career on film that often seemed to follow the same formula, but her continued popularity has not dwindled.

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.

As filtered through the scrubbed-clean, sexless mores of the 1950s, Booth Tarkington's "Penrod Stories" proved to be able ground for Warner Bros. in concocting sort of a low-brow variation on "Meet Me in St. Louis", with Doris Day as the small-town Indiana gal finding love with the boy next door (actually, across the street) while her ornery sibling (Billy Gray) causes chaos in the neighborhood. The Americana flavor (circa 1917) is laid-on with a thick coat of glossy color, while Doris twinkles and shines on cue. Warners had an immediate box-office attraction in Day, but too often cast her in bucolic settings (she seemed so much livelier in dressed-up musical comedies). Here, she cements her "wholesome as apple pie" image with smudges of dirt on her face and her hair in pigtails. It doesn't quite wash that leading man Gordon MacRae initially thinks she's a boy, though their sweetheart romance still manages to convey a bit of plastic magic. Followed in 1953 with "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", which was more of the same. **1/2 from ****

I've always had a sneaking suspicion that Jack Warner saw how well MGM did with Two Weeks With Love, a nostalgic gaslight era musical that starred Jane Powell. I'm sure Warner then got the idea to do a musical for his reigning musical star of the moment Doris Day from the same era. And save a whole lot of money because nearly all the material is in the public domain.On Moonlight Bay is the title of the film and one of several songs sung by Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, and Gordon's rival for Doris, Jack Smith all from the era before America's entry in World War I. Hollywood has done a lot to glamorize that era of Norman Rockwell and Grant Wood as America likes to see itself. Certainly none of the social problems the USA had in that era seem to intrude on Milbern, Indiana the fictional location Booth Tarkington had for the Winfield and Sherman families whose son and daughter find each other.Of course if you paid a ticket to see social problems in a Doris Day film as that other Warner Brother icon would say, what a maroon. Doris as the tomboy first baseman hasn't quite discovered men yet, that is until she almost shoots Gordon MacRae. After that you know how this film will go.One original song was done for On Moonlight Bay, the Christmas Story which Doris and Gordon sing with accompanying carolers. It blends nicely in with all the nostalgic material.On Moonlight Bay and its sequel film, By The Light Of The Silvery Moon is based on the Booth Tarkington Penrod stories. Billy Gray who later was Bud Anderson in Father Knows Best plays Doris's younger brother Wesley (Penrod). He's one mischievous kid and whatever trouble he doesn't get into here is saved for the next film.Doris, Gordon, and Billy all appear in the next film along with her parents Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp and maid Mary Wickes who always has a sharp word for the goings on.I confess I have a fondness for the songs of this romantic era myself, so I'm prejudiced about On Moonlight Bay. But try it you young folk, you might like it.