By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)

By the Light of the Silvery Moon is an American comedy romance film first released in 1953, directed by David Butler.  The film stars Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Billy Gray, Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Returning home after WWI, Bill Sherman is looking forward to marrying his sweetheart Marjorie Winfield.  But then he gets second thoughts and realises that before he marries he should first find himself a job and build up a nest egg. Naturally, Marjorie is distraught at yet another delay in their marriage but agrees that Bill is probably right.  Then another calamity hits the Winfield household.  Marjorie discovers what appears to be a love letter written by her father to a French actress...

After their success in On Moonlight Bay, Doris Day and Gordon MacRae are reunited in this equally light-hearted sequel.  Once again, Booth Tarkington’s Penrod stories provides the material for the narrative, although the film’s main appeal is its selection of jaunty musical numbers, which include such feel-good classics as Ain’t We Got Fun?, If You Were the Only Girl as well as the memorable title number.  Whilst there are few really good laughs, the film has a great deal of charm and is entertaining, particularly for aficionados of the stars.  It evokes a fairytale America of the 1920s which probably existed only in the minds of fanciful writers trying to exorcise the memory of a nightmarish world war.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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