Tag Archives: Doris Day

Musical Monday: Lucky Me (1954)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Lucky Me (1954) – Musical #184

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Jack Donohue

Starring:
Doris Day, Robert Cummings, Phil Silvers, Martha Hyer, Eddie Foy Jr., Nancy Walker, Bill Goodwin, Marcel Dalio, Hayden Rorke, James Burke, John Alvin (uncredited), Angie Dickinson (uncredited), Dabbs Greer (uncredited)

Plot:
Candy Williams (Day) is incredibly superstitious. She’s also part of an unsuccessful acting troupe, led by Hap Schneider (Silvers). When they wrap up a stint in a movie house, the group doesn’t know where to go next since they are out of money. When the group enjoys an expensive dinner in a Miami hotel with no way to pay for it, they all get jobs at the hotel to pay for their debt. While there, they meet successful songwriter Dick Carson (Cummings), who tries to work them into his show. The only problem is that the show is financed by the father of Lorraine Thayer (Hyer), who carries the torch for Dick.

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Musical Monday: April in Paris (1952)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

april in parisThis week’s musical:
April in Paris (1952) – Musical #129

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
David Butler

Starring:
Doris Day, Ray Bolger, Claude Dauphin, Eve Miller, George Givot, Paul Harvey, Herbert Farjeon, Wilson Millar, Raymond Largay, John Alvin

Plot:
S. “Sam” Winthrop Putnam (Bolger) is a by-the-book State Department diplomat. He plays by the rules and doesn’t believe in mistakes. However, even Sam isn’t above making an error. His mistake? Inviting chorus girl Ethel “Dynamite” Jackson (Day) to a Paris arts festival instead of actress Ethel Barrymore. Sam visits Ethel in New York City to break the bad news, as her friends are throwing her a bon voyage party as she leaves for France. As Sam tries to undo his mistake, his superior, Secretary Robert Sherman (Harvey), think that maybe having a chorus girl at the arts festival isn’t a bad idea after all, and could be great public relations.

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Musical Monday: Tea for Two (1950)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Tea for Two (1950) – Musical #171

tea for two2

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
David Butler

Starring:
Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, Eve Arden, Billy De Wolfe, S.Z. Sakall, Bill Goodwin, Patrice Wymore, Virginia Gibson, Elinor Donahue (uncredited), Carol Haney (uncredited), Dee Turnell (uncredited), John Wilder (uncredited)

Plot:
Told in the flashback from modern times, we are transported back from the 1950s to the stock market crash of 1929. At the same time Nanette Carter (Day) agrees to finance a Broadway musical, she has lost everything during the stock market crash. However, she doesn’t know and her financier Uncle J. Maxwell Bloomhaus (Sakall) doesn’t know how to tell her. Instead of telling Nanette she has no money, Uncle Max tells her to say “no” to everything for 48 hours. She believes that if she wins this bet, she can get the $25,000 to finance the show.

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Musical Monday: Calamity Jane (1953)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Calamity Jane – Musical #49

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
David Butler

Starring:
Doris Day, Howard Keel, Allyn Ann McLerie, Philip Carey, Dick Wesson, Paul Harvey, Gale Robbins, Chubby Johnson, Robert Fuller (uncredited),

Plot:
A fictional story about real-life western figures Calamity Jane (Day) and Wild Bill Hickcock (Keel). In the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, Calamity Jane vows to bring famed actress Adelaid Adams (Robbins) to Deadwood. When she goes to Chicago, Calamity is fooled by Adelaid’s maid Katie (McLerie) who says she’s Adelaid Adams. The town still opens their arms to Katie Brown, and the man Calamity Jane loves, Lieutenant Danny Gilmartin (Carey), falls for Katie.

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Musical Monday: Starlift (1951)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Starlift (1951) – Musical #653

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Roy Del Ruth

Starring:
Janice Rule, Dick Wesson, Ron Hagerthy, Richard Webb, Hayden Rorke, Howard St. John, Richard Crenna (uncredited), Ann Doran (uncredited)
Themselves: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, James Cagney Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman, Gene Nelson, Gary Cooper, Virginia Gibson, Phil Harris, Frank Lovejoy, Lucille Norman, Louella Parsons, Randolph Scott, Jane Wyman, Patrice Wymore, LeRoy Prinz, Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall (as Noonan and Marshall)

Plot:
Cpl. Rick Williams (Hagerthy) grew up in the same town as now-famous actress Nell Wayne (Rule). When Nell and other movie stars are near their military base for a premiere, Rick’s buddy Sgt. Mike Nolan (Wesson) encourages Rick to seek her out to say hello, even though they didn’t really know each other. When Mike and Rick meet Nell, Doris Day and Ruth Roman, Mike lies that they are about to go overseas to see action in the Korean War so that the three actresses will accompany them back to the base. While visiting, the actresses are inspired to gather other Warner Bros. stars to return and entertain the troops preparing to go overseas or are returning. Meanwhile, Louella Parsons reports a romance between Rick and Nell, and the two begin to fall in love.

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Musical Monday: Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Love Me or Leave Me – Musical #39

Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director: Charles Vidor

Starring:
Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Tom Tully, Harry Bellaver, Richard Gaines, Claude Stroud, Audrey Young, Dorothy Abbott, Veda Ann Borg, Robert Dix (uncredited), Jay Adler,

Plot:
Biographical musical on Ruth Etting (Day). Etting has dreams of becoming a singer. Etting is discovered by gangster Marty Snyder (Cagney) after she is fired as a taxi dancer. Using his force, Snyder helps Etting get singing bookings. Etting’s talent carries other offers, but Snyder still continues to control Etting’s life and career from Broadway to Hollywood, including having her marry him. Etting is also in love with her piano player Johnny Alderman (Mitchell), but is trapped by Snyder.

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Saying goodbye to Doris Day

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On the first day of eighth grade in 2002, I was a changed girl.

I was sporting contact lenses after wearing glasses for years, and I had a new favorite actress that changed my life over the summer: Doris Day.

I excitedly asked my friends as we walked through the halls if they had seen “Pillow Talk” (1959). Only one friend, Chelsey, had but most hadn’t. I think this is when I started to realize I was different from the other middle school kids … but I didn’t care.

Doris continued to affect my day-to-day life. I sought out her movies, and I saw the majority of them when she was the Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month in January 2003. “Romance on the High Seas,” “It Happened to Jane” and “On Moonlight Bay” became some of my favorite films. I listened to her music and tried to sing like her, and checked her autobiography out from the library. I even tried to mimic her behavior in films, such as wanting to learn how to play the ukulele like she does in “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” (1960).

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Musical Monday: Young at Heart (1954)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Young at Heart (1954) – Musical #26

Studio:
Warner Bros.

Director:
Gordon Douglas

Starring:
Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Malone, Elisabeth Fraser, Alan Hale Jr., Lonny Chapman

Plot:
The musical family the Tuttles are led by the widower father, Gregory (Keith), his three daughters Laurie (Day), Fran (Malone) and Amy (Fraser), as well as his unmarried sister Aunt Jessie (Barrymore). Their lives start to change as the daughters begin falling in love and getting married. Fran convinces herself that she is in love with and will marry Bob Neary (Hale Jr). Then young composer Alex (Young) comes to board with the Tuttles. Another guest turns the family upside down as well, the moody songwriter Barney Sloan (Sinatra). All of the sisters love Alex, but it’s Laurie that he wants to marry, but will she marry Alex if it hurts her sisters?

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Musical Monday: The West Point Story (1950)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical: The West Point Story (1950) – Musical #336

Studio: Warner Brothers

Director: Roy Del Ruth

Starring: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, Doris Day, Gene Nelson, Alan Hale Jr., Roland Winters, Jerome Cowan

Plot:
Broadway director Bix Bixby (Cagney) is down on his luck because he has a problem with betting on horse races. Gambling prevents him from getting a good show and from marrying his sweetheart Eve (Mayo). Bixby is persuaded by a producer to help put on an all-male show at West Point Military Academy because the producer wants his nephew, Tom (MacRae) to leave the Academy and come perform on Broadway. Coming from a show business background, Bixby has a hard time understanding the cadets and their schedules. He’s thrown off campus and is only allowed to come back if he enrolls as a cadet.

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Christmas Musical Monday: By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)– Musical #174

Studio:
Warner Brothers

Director:
David Butler

Starring:
Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp, Billy Gray, Mary Wickes, Russell Arms, Maria Palmer, Walter ‘PeeWee’ Flannery, Merv Griffin (uncredited)

Plot:
A sequel to On Moonlight Bay (1951), the story picks up in 1918 when Bill (MacRae) returns from World War I. Marjorie (Day) is anxious to discuss their wedding plans, as he promised when he left, but Bill doesn’t want to rush into wedlock. This causes a rift in their relationship. Marjorie’s brother Wesley (Gray) is still causing trouble in this film.

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