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(More customer reviews)Two years ago Warners released "The Doris Day Collection" which quickly became a best seller. It contained some choice Day films from the 50's and 60's and reacquainted a lot of people with the wide-ranging talents that Doris Day possesses. There was a reason she reigned as the top box-office female star in history, a title she holds to this day. Volume 2 contains 6 more reasons why Doris Day still has that unique ability to make audiences feel warm, content, happy, and very satisfied.
Included in this collection is Day's screen debut, 1948's "Romance on the High Seas". It's a gorgeous technicolor treat - a throwback to an era when movies were designed to entertain and it succeeds gloriously. Miss Day introduces the classic song, "It's Magic" and while not first-billed, steals the show from Jack Carson (the first of three successive teamings), Janis Paige, S.Z. Sakall and a great cast. It's a case of mistaken identity, but what is most memorable is the ease with which Miss Day seems to acquit herself on film. She's a natural - funny, real, and gorgeous. There's a bit of the late Betty Hutton in her performance but ultimately she proves herself to be one of a kind.
The rest of the titles each have their high points. "My Dream is Yours" has lots of grit in this variation of "A Star is Born" with Day's star rising and for good reason. My favorite song is her heartfelt rendition of "I'll String Along With You" - flawless. Other highlights include a sequence in which she and Carson team with Bugs Bunny.
"I'll See You in My Dreams" is the wonderful bio of lyricist Gus Kahn and contains a trunkload of classic tunes sung perfectly by Day, co-star Danny Thomas and Patrice Wymore in a knockout performance. It has much more grit than the typical biography and Miss Day is exceptionally good as Kahn's wife Grace. Michael Curtiz has directed the film in black and white which seems to make it more serious than many films of this mileau.
"On Moonlight Bay" (1951) and it's sequel 1953's "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" are like a couple of Currier and Ives pictures brought to life. Warm-hearted and filled with a score of great tunes, they lovingly capture an era that might have been or at least was in memory. Miss Day, co-star Gordon MacRae and "family" - Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp, Billy Gray and Mary Wickes, seem like a family. Loosely based on Tarkington's "Penrod" tales, it had critics carping that it wasn't "Meet Me In St. Louis" and it isn't. On its own terms it is just as delightful filled with charm and genuine warmth, never forced and never trite.
The weakest link in the collection is probably "Lucky Me", the first technicolor musical and subject to critical pans at the time of its release.
Miss Day and a fine supporting cast including Bob Cummings, Nancy Walker, Phil Silvers, Eddie Foy Jr and Martha Hyer, give it their all. The songs may not be memorable but they are energetically rendered and there are enough chuckles sprinkled throughout to keep the film going.
One will come away from this 12 hour marathon of Doris Day films feeling extremely good, exhilirated in fact, and possibly wishing that Hollywood still made the kind of feel-good movie that Doris specialized in during her 7 years at Warners. Feeling that way in this day and age is something not to be scoffed at. If someone could bottle that indefinable quality that Doris Day possesses and share it with the world, we'd all benefit.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Doris Day Collection, Vol. 2 (Romance on the High Seas / My Dream Is Yours / On Moonlight Bay / I'll See You in My Dreams / By the Light of the Silvery Moon / Lucky Me) (1948)
Doris Day, America's sweetheart of the '40s, '50s and '60s, returns to DVD on April 10 with six more new to DVD titles as Warner Home Video releases The Doris Day Collection Volume 2, following the success of 2005's first collection. Volume 2 features six more new-to-DVD titles, focusing on Miss Day's golden years at Warner Bros., where her film career began. The collection contains her blockbuster screen debut Romance on the High Seas, as well as such audience favorites as My Dream is Yours, I'll See You in my Dreams, On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Lucky Me - films which contain a treasure chest of musical standards that include "It Had to be You," "Makin' Whoopee," "I'll String Along With You," "'Ain't we Got Fun" and dozens more.
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