ON MOONLIGHT BAY
US, 1951, 98 minutes, Colour.
Doris Day, Gordon Mc Rae, Leon Ames, Rosemary de Camp, Billy Gray, Mary Wickes.
Directed by Roy del Ruth.
On Moonlight Bay is one of the many Doris Day musical vehicles from Warner Bros in the early part of the 1950s. She is teamed with Gordon Macrae, with whom she appeared in such films as Tea for Two and the sequel to On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon. The screenplay is from the team of Melville Shavelson and Jack Rose, responsible for many comedies (especially those of Danny Kaye) in the '50s. Shavelson went on to be a successful director. The film is based on Booth Tarkington novels, the Penrod series.
The film is set in 1917, echoes the period of American sweetness and light - and the beginning of its participation in World War I. The film highlights American values - though there is always a touch of irony in the screenplay as well as a highlighting that in 1917 a lot of free thinking was thought to be "modern". There are some undertones of later developments - the critique of the war, the critique of marriage, the place of women. However, it all ends up very traditionally in the sweetest kind of way.
The film is a genial piece of Americana.
1. A piece of Americana? 1917? As portrayed in the '50s? For later decades?
2. Warner Bros musicals, studio settings, the period, the musical score, the popular songs of the period? The popularity of Doris Day?
3. The title, middle America, homes, schools, universities, celebrations, dances?
4. The family and their moving house, the family upset, the father and his work at the bank, his wanting a better education and more prestige? Mother, father, two children, maid?
5. Doris Day as Marjorie: the tomboy, playing baseball, her mother's criticisms, with the gun and shooting Bill, attracted to him, dressing up, going to the dance, the falsies falling out, at the sideshow and winning the doll? Her devotion to him? Her learning dances for him? His being at university? Her responding to his free ideas, especially about marriage? His seriousness? Her contrast in liking love and marriage? Tomboy and hurting her leg in the snow? Telling him she couldn't go to the dance? Her relationship with her brother, his reading her letter? His story about their father's alcoholism, Bill's coming back, his scene? The reconciliation? Graduation, his speech? Wanting to run away with him? His return, the happy ending? The contrast with Hubert and his singing?
6. Bill, background, the gun, his free ideas, attracted to Marjorie, the dance? Going back for graduation? His listening to the teacher's story, his attack on the father? His being ousted, the graduation speech, the uniform? With the men going to war? His leave, confronting the father, the happy ending?
7. Westley, mischief, the gun, at school and his dreaming, Marjorie's letter and reading it out? His going to the film? The story of the drunkard and his telling it to the teacher? The repercussions for the family? His being an angel in the pageant? His birthday party and not dancing? Saving Marjorie from Hubert?
8. The mother and father, the bank, the home, the running of the household? The kind mother with her children? The exasperated father? His antagonism towards Bill and his ideas? Reconciled at the end? Stella, the comedy, the one-liners? Common sense in the house? The scene with Aunt Martha and her final visit, the slingshot and giving it to Westley for his birthday?
9. The 1950s and the portrayal of traditional American values?
