By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Just perfect...

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The cast and the beautiful scenery make this movie so endearing. It is one of those I could see over and over. Doris Day is a cute tomboy is this movie, and is her pretty self. Gordon McCrae is the pleasant man with his strong singing voice. These two seem to shine out more than the others. Mary Wickes is her comical self as the comically unpleasant housekeeper. Billy Gray, who would later play in the popular TV series "Father Knows Best" was, here at an early teen-age stage the "young detective" in the family. Leon Ames, as he was in so many other movies, was a stereotype father, here by the name of George Winfield. The sweet and lovely Rosemary DeCamp was excellent in her role as the mother named Alice Winfield; Billy Gray and Doris Day play the children of the family. Gordon McCrae plays the part of the soldier returning from WWI who wants to marry the Winfield girl, though not until he's more financially settled. In this movie, the setting of which is a small town in northern Indiana in 1918, a play is going to be held by a French actress and her repertoire company, sponsored by the bank where George Winfield is an officer. In the play there is a line which, though not vulgar, is objectionable; the line in the script is taken from the script and George places it in his pocket. Then, he asks his boy to take his clothes to the cleaners, and while the boy is emptying the pockets finds the script. And it is done on the day of the Winfields' twentieth anniversary, of all times.(!) It is enough to say that this "starts the ball rolling." The final scene is at the local ice skating pond on a cold winter night by the light of the silvery moon. The movie is wholesome, has a very talented cast, and the Technicolor is beautiful. In many ways it is, I feel, one of Warner Brothers very best.

A turkey named George threatens to steal the scene here in this Thanksgiving holiday musical which is a follow up to the earlier made "On Moonlight Bay", based upon Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories, itself a remake of a few movies which Warner Brothers made in the 1930's. It is also one of those rare movie sequels which is even better than the original. The film starts off in fine form with that delightful wisecracker, Mary Wickes, narrating directly to the audience who everybody is (just in case you forgot or hadn't seen "On Moonlight Bay"), but telling the audience not to be so nosy when it comes to revealing her own identity. It's just after the end of the first World War and soldier Gordon MacRae is on his way back (with a song on the train of course...) to claim his girl Doris Day from the nerdy neighbor who safeguarded her while MacRae was away.Brother Billy Gray is a detective in training trying to save turkey George from the wrath of the Henry VIII like butcher while parents Leon Ames and Rosemary De Camp prepare for their 20th anniversary. A misunderstanding concerning a visiting actress has Day, Gray and Wickes in a tizzy (treating Ames like a pariah rather than a patriarch) and town gossip (started by telegraph office operator Minerva Urecal) is spreading, leading to the ice-skating scene finale where the entire cast joins together in singing the title song.Innocuous fun, this gives the beloved Wickes one of her best roles and endeared her to audiences even more who had loved her ever since she told Monty Woolley off in "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Day is combination tomboy (initially seen in overalls fixing a car) and lady (she certainly knows how to tone down her feistiness while singing a love song with MacRae), then bombastic in the outrageous on-stage set "King Chantacleer", a campy production number set in a hay-stacked barn with chorus boys dressed up as a variety of foul.Day and MacRae get to help Wickes and DeCamp prepare for Thanksgiving dinner while singing "Ain't We Got Fun?", giving Wickes an amusing moment where she tangos with MacRae, and MacRae serenades passerbys while singing "Just One Girl", his declaration of love for Ms. Do-Da Day. Another musical highlight is the sappy sweet "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee", a ditty which may gag some listeners with its hokey lyrics, but is funny and amusing for people who appreciate all styles of music.Winter never looked so pretty with its Norman Rockwell like photography, and nostalgic viewers may long for a simpler time with sleigh rides, old fashioned Thanksgivings and Ice Skating on ponds with all your neighbors (no matter what their age) on skates. Day and MacRae, in their last screen appearance together, are as classic a screen couple as Fred and Ginger, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson and Betty Grable and Dan Dailey, and really should get more credit and appreciation in the historic annals of the movie musical.

An excellent taste of Americana with our changing society again the subject based on Booth Tarkington's writings. We must remember that Tarkington went way dramatic in 1942' memorable "The Magnificent Ambersons."Though this is a musical, change in society is the theme touched on as well as women getting involved in politics.The tunes are absolutely delightful and Doris Day and Gordon MacRae made an excellent team.Leon Ames is memorable as the father and veteran actress Rosemary De Camp is her usual complacent self here.Special kudos to Billy Gray, the younger brother, who was really 15 years of age when the film debuted in 1953. Gray looked much younger than that.The film is helped by the confusion and misunderstanding that prevails. We can thank our usual town gossipers for that.

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.