On Moonlight Bay (1951)

On Moonlight Bay: Directed by Roy Del Ruth. With Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Jack Smith, Leon Ames. During World War I, a teenage girl begins a romance with a college student, but his unconventional attitudes cause friction with her father.

“Iu0026#39;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. Iu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn Moonlight Bay is the title of the film and one of several songs sung by Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, and Gordonu0026#39;s rival for Doris, Jack Smith all from the era before Americau0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOf 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 hasnu0026#39;t quite discovered men yet, that is until she almost shoots Gordon MacRae. After that you know how this film will go.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn 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 Dorisu0026#39;s younger brother Wesley (Penrod). Heu0026#39;s one mischievous kid and whatever trouble he doesnu0026#39;t get into here is saved for the next film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDoris, 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI confess I have a fondness for the songs of this romantic era myself, so Iu0026#39;m prejudiced about On Moonlight Bay. But try it you young folk, you might like it.”