The back-to-back Warner Brothers musicals, gleaned from Booth Tarkington stories about a mischief-prone Tom Sawyer-ish kid named Penrod, serve up a lighter, fluffier, ice dream Sundae version of MGM's "Meet Me In St.Louis", ditching that movie's angst about the uprooting of the family. Nobody has to sadly sing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" in these films....they're already having one. (the Warners films also feature "St Louis"s father-figure Leon Ames as their stalwart, upstanding paterfamilias)
Even with World War I hovering over the storylines, no upsetting drama or strife rears its ugly head to threaten the All-American Winfield family (Ames, wife Rosemary De Camp, kids Doris Day and "Father Knows Best"s Billy Gray and wisecracking housekeeper Mary Wickes) They go about their untroubled business with teen tomboy Day romanced by the Boy-Across-The-Street (Gordon Macrae) Little brother Gray (inspired by Tarkington's 'Penrod' kid) regularly tumbles into trouble that embarrasses the entire family until they laugh it off and forgive him. Amidst all this soothing turn-of-the-century charm, Day and Macrae have plenty of opportunity to hug, smooch, and croon vintage songs to each other. In 'Moonlight', Day has to cope with Macrae's frequent proclamations of his high-minded moral ideals and fend off the unwanted attentions of the lovesick town Nerd....(weirdly, in the sequel 'Silvery Moon', this poor nerdy shmuck returns to further obsess over Doris, but with a new name and played a different actor,)
We love both films but we especially favor "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon" where the comforting coziness factor gives the film a Never Never Land glow that rivals any musical Disney fantasy film. There are more songs for Day and Macrae, more evenly integrated into the story.....including a glorious, nutso production number "King Chanticleer" in which Day, fetchingly outfitted as a barefoot farmgirl, prances around with chorus boys dressed in chicken suits. Unlike the precision choreography you'd see in MGM musicals, this endearing number looks like Doris and the Warners Chicken-Boys made the whole dance up as they went along. The film also deliberately and cleverly stages its own live versions of beloved Norman Rockwell illustrations in its depictions of a Thanksgiving dinner and small town gossips burning up the phone wires.
By the time the movie came to happily resolve all its plot threads (during a Technicolor moonlit evening at the studio ice pond, with the whole town on skates....) we were beyond smitten and singing along. (And by the way, let's hear it for the legendary Mary Wickes, who also played Meryl Streep's acerbic grandmother in "Postcard From The Edge" and kept up her wisecracking schtick right up to 1995's "Hunchback Of Notre Dame" where she voiced one of stone gargoyles)
Beached Quill sings out 5 stars (*****) for both "On Moonlight Bay" and "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon", each of them a FIND OF FINDS. If the world at large upsets you, we suggest an immediate visit to these two gems.
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