By the Light of the Silvery Moon **** (1953, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp, Mary Wickes, Billy Gray) – 2018 Classic Movie Review 7681

Director David Butler’s 1953 warm-hearted musical delight By the Light of the Silvery Moon brings back Doris Day and Gordon MacRae for further charming and enjoyable adventures in Warner Bros’ follow-up to the 1951 hit On Moonlight Bay, with wholesome tunes from 1918 and delicious playing.

Day’s character Marjorie Winfield has to cope with the troubles – both financial and emotional – that follow her lover Bill Sherman (MacRae)’s homecoming from the fighting in World War One, and then there is the problem of a visiting French actress called Renee LaRue (Maria Palmer) bothering Marjorie’s father George Winfield (Leon Ames).

By the Light of the Silvery Moon is soufflé cinema, easily forgotten but feistily performed and very sweet and tasty while it lasts. Happily, the soufflé rises, it is literally uplifting.

The songs include ‘If You Were the Only Girl in the World’, ‘I’ll Forget You’, ‘Your Eyes Have Told Me So’, ‘Ain’t We Got Fun?’, ‘Just One Girl’ and of course the title number ‘By the Light of the Silvery Moon’ (music by Gus Edwards, lyrics by Edward Madden).

Robert O’Brien and Irving Elinson’s screenplay is based on Booth Tarkington’s Penrod stories.

Also in the cast are Rosemary DeCamp, Mary Wickes, Billy Gray, Russell Arms, Walter Flannery, Geraldine Wall, Walter Maxwell and Carol Forman.

Wilfrid M Cline shoots in lovely Technicolor.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7681

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