Zeus

On Moonlight Bay (1951)

• Director
  • Roy Del Ruth
• Writers
  • Jack Rose(screenplay)
  • Melville Shavelson(screenplay)
  • Booth Tarkington(adapted from Penrod Stories by)
• Stars
  • Doris Day
  • Gordon MacRae
  • Jack Smith

  Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams, coupled with his Penrod stories, were incorporated in the script of the 1951 Warner Bros. musical On Moonlight Bay. The role of the incorrigible Penrod is played by future Father Knows Best regular Billy Gray, but his is a strictly secondary part herein. The emphasis is on Penrod's hoydenish older sister, played by Doris Day. She falls in love with Gordon MacRae, whose mildly anti-capitalist sentiments sit not at all well with Doris' banker dad (Leon Ames). Once a subplot involving Penrod's prevarications concerning his father's drinking habits is out of the way, we are treated to several romantic scenes involving Doris and Gordon, and a steady stream of early-20th-century standards like "Till We Meet Again," "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," "Cuddle Up a Little Closer," and the title song. On Moonlight Bay ends with MacRae marching off to World War I and Doris promising she'll wait for him; she did, as was proven in the 1953 sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon.