Starring Doris Day, Jack Carson, Eve Arden and Lee Bowman
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Ralph Blaine
We celebrate Easter with Doris Day's third starring vehicle. Warners saw potential in her after her success in Romance on the High Seas the year before and wanted to build her into a major star. Day started out as a radio and big band singer; it made sense to star her in a film where she played a struggling radio singer, with Carson as her devoted manager. How does this on the air romantic comedy look now? Let's begin on the air, as the radio program The Hour of Enchantment reaches its conclusion, and find out...
The Story: Gary Mitchell (Bowman) is the star of Hour of Enchantment...and now that he's reached the top, he claims to no longer need the services of his fast-talking agent Doug Blake (Carson). Angry at being fired, he swears he'll find a singer that's even better. He finally discovers Martha Gibson (Day) singing while spinning records in a jukebox factory and convinces her, her son Freddy, and their scruffy dog to move west to California. Trouble is, sponsor Felix Hofer (S.Z Sakall) doesn't think she's a big enough name to star in the show. Doug won't give up on Martha and keeps trying and trying to get her through to him, or at least find her work. Meanwhile, Gary has his own interest in her...and is equally unwilling to take "no" for an answer...
The Animation: Mel Blanc voices Bugs and Tweety and joined Ralph Blaine to write spoof lyrics to Hungarian Rhapsody #2 for an Easter dream sequence. Bugs (and Tweety, who pops up later for a "puddy tat" joke) move pretty well, and there's birds in Easter bonnets who flutter over Freddy's head.
The Song and Dance: Charming look at how one became a star in radio, just as the industry was transitioning from audio to visual media. Though Day and Carson do well enough as the sassy widow who wants a better life for her son and the determined talent agent, Eve Arden walks away with the movie. The assistant to sponsor representative Thomas "Hutch" Hutchins (Adolph Menjou), she gets most of the best lines and ends up with a lot of the funniest scenes, including having to share her apartment with Martha and her family, wash her dog, and sell her car to get Martha on the air. This is also an early glimpse of Day before her later sunny screen persona really began to gel - indeed, she gets to play several dramatic scenes here, especially with her son.
Favorite Number: The two big ballads "My Dream Is Yours" and "Someone Like You" are performed several times through the course of the film, by Day and by Hal Derwin (who dubbed Bowman). Day gets an especially nice run through of "Someone Like You" in the end, when she's realized which man she truly loves. "Tic, Tic, Tic" is the goofy upbeat number Martha sings when she initially auditions for producers, a very strange spoof comparing love to atomic bombs.
"Freddy Gets Ready" is the dream sequence the night before Easter where Martha's young rabbit-obsessed son Freddy dreams Bugs Bunny comes and sings to him. The sequences with Bugs, Tweety, and the birds who twitter over Freddy are adorable, but it gets a little too strange when Day and Carson pop up, dressed as two of Freddy's stuffed bunnies in rather silly suits.
Trivia: Remake of the 1934 Warners musical Twenty Million Sweethearts.
What I Don't Like: Despite its unique radio setting, the plot is a mess of backstage and romantic comedy clichés we've seen many times before. Bowman is pretty obviously a heel from the moment we see him give Doug the brush-off after he's made the big time. It's a wonder Martha takes as long as she does to figure that out.
The Big Finale: Cute enough way to pass the time on Easter Sunday if you're a fan of Day, Arden, Bugs Bunny, or 40's musicals.
Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming, the former via the Warner Archives.
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