I love this movie so much

Simply Perfect

Sadly Over-hyped

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Doris Day's perky optimism was synonymous with the post-war optimism of the country following World War II, and it's no wonder she became popular and successful rather quickly. In Romance On The High Seas, her film debut, Day plays a struggling singer who daydreams about world travel by milling around a travel agency weekly. In so doing, she makes the acquaintance of Janis Paige, who isn't given much to do in the film, and her rich uncle played by S.Z. Sakall. Paige makes a proposition with Day to impersonate her on a cruise, so Paige can spy on her husband played by Don Defore, who will think Paige is a long ways away. Meanwhile, Defore hires a private detective, Jack Carson, to tail his wife impersonated by Day on the cruise. Complications ensue when Day and Carson fall for each other. Before the fadeout, Day has time to sing a few songs most notably of which is the Oscar-nominated "It's Magic". Incidentally, another Day smash won; "Buttons and Bows" from the Bob Hope/Jane Russel film: The Paleface. Ray Heindorf's musical score was also nominated.Julius and Philip Epstein wrote the fast-moving script with I.A.L. Diamond. Director Michael Curtiz keeps the film and its flimsy plot moving at a brisk pace and wisely rounded up able supporting players who add to the fun. Oscar Levant as Day's wisecracking, would-be, pianist beau, Eric Blore as the ship's doctor, Grady Sutton as the ship's radio operator, Franklin Pangborn as the busy-body hotel clerk in Rio, and John Berkes as the sneaky drunk on either side of Carson and Defore are all a delight. Busby Berkeley is listed as a choreographer, but there were not any production numbers typically associated with his style. Possibly Berkeley's work was edited out. Look fast for later horror hostess Vampira as a ship passenger. **1/2 of 4 stars.

Doris Day makes her screen-debut as a band singer who gets a free cruise to South America and Jack Carson is the private detective who tails her and naturally falls in love with her spunky charm. Day seems an oddly misplaced tomboy here, wearing fancy dresses and hairdos that look as if they've been dropped down on her from the heavens. Encumbered by the dressy satins and pearls, Doris looks as though she might be more comfortable in an old pair of dungarees, but she makes this insipid plot worth wading through (especially when she sings). The settings are fake-exotic, and it all peters out by the end, but Doris, wonderfully street-smart under her thick pancake make-up, still provides a lot of sparkle. **1/2 from ****

Despite getting third (or fourth, depending on which source you look into) billing, ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS is Doris Day's show from the moment we get the first image of her -- or her back, as she stands pensively in front of the travel agency she is about to enter. Featuring a story that wouldn't have a need to exist had there been a little communication between its catalysts -- Janis Pauge and Don DeFore --, a married couple who even before their marriage is consummated see infidelity in all the wrong places; she from insinuations coming from the none-too-subtle secretary/blond bombshell her husband has hired (Leslie Brooks, in a nice but pat performance), he from the looks Paige gives the other men around her. Paige, from a random situation that stems from the moment she overhears Day's antics in the travel agency where they've crossed paths (Day plays Georgia, a lounge singer who has a thing for imagining elaborate trips to exotic locales she can't afford or as she states, "hasn't been to/didn't go to"), is amused at this, and decided to concoct a plan to send Day into the cruise she is slated to go on, to stay home and see if her husband will in fact, cheat on her. Paige's husband, also suspicious of his wife, sends a detective (Jack Carson) to do surveillance on her, unsuspecting that Day is impersonating Paige (rather badly, but what would he know? We do, and it's a great, breezy delight to see Day and Carson, who from here on remain on screen, play against each other, neither aware of the other's identity. An extremely silly comedy of errors, with cracking lines basically handed on a silver platter to Paige (who churns them out with real verve), also marking Doris Day's first appearance, and she basically saves this kind-of unmemorable feature from an otherwise different fate (of course, keeping in mind that director Michael Curtiz had brought Bette Davis and Joan Crawford into delivering fantastic performances in THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX and MILDRED PIERCE).

Day's feature film debut is in this Technicolor musical-comedy. She plays a singer posing as a society girl on a South American Cruise, falling in love with the private detective (Carson) who was hired to follow her. Story is certainly out of style now, but is enjoyable thanks to some funny moments with the cast and Day's singing, most memorably `It's Magic!'