MICHAEL CURTIZ

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBB. 

USA, 1949.  Michael Curtiz Productions, Warner Bros..  Screenplay by Harry Kurnitz, Dane Lussier, adaptation by Allen Rivkin, Laura Kerr, based on the story Hot Air by Paul Finder Moss, Jerry Wald.  Cinematography by Wilfred M. Cline, Ernest Haller.  Produced by Michael Curtiz.  Music by Howard Jackson.  Production Design by Robert M. Haas.  Costume Design by Milo Anderson.  Film Editing by Folmar Blangsted.

Doris Day works as a jukebox girl on the night that a talent agent (Jack Carson) is scouring New York looking for an undiscovered star to compete against a former client (Lee Bowman) who double-crossed him in a sponsorship deal.  Day’s sterling singing voice gets Carson interested, but after he drags her back to Los Angeles, the two of them find that getting her noticed by even the measliest of bigwigs is nearly impossible. Meanwhile, Day is romanced by Bowman and finds herself irresistibly attracted to him while Carson does his best to keep his feelings on a professional level, hocking business partner Eve Arden‘s worthiest possessions to fund his belief in the lovely blonde’s talent. This delightful musical romance, a remake of Twenty Million Sweethearts, has candy-coloured cinematography, a gorgeous collection of songs and the impossibly wonderful style of its lead star, here taking over for Dick Powell from the original in only her second film role. A third-act dream sequence, in which our heroine’s young boy dreams of Bugs Bunny coming to wake him up for Easter, is ridiculously out of place but saved by a delightful tune that the megastar bunny sings with the film’s two real-life stars.