Zaubernächte in Rio

Watching Romance on the High Seas I could have sworn that the Brothers Warner hijacked one of the plots of an RKO Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film. It's got that kind of silliness in the plot, the usual case of mistaken identities and false suspicions that characterized the Astaire- Rogers films.

Don DeFore and Janis Paige are a couple each of who swears the other is cheating. When a mix-up from a travel agency in passport photos where Paige's is exchanged for Doris Day's she contacts Day and offers to pay Day's way on a South American cruise if she just travels in Paige's name. She wants to catch DeFore cheating.

Of course DeFore goes one better. He hires private detective Jack Carson to go on the trip and catch Paige cheating. Of course he latches on to Day.

If you are a fan of Astaire-Rogers films you know exactly where this one is going. Romance on the High Seas has all the ingredients of one of their films except the dance numbers.

It doesn't lack for a good musical score though. Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn came up with a good one where Day sings several songs, including the Academy Award nominated, It's Magic. It's Magic lost that year to Buttons and Bows. It's Magic happens to be a favorite one of mine of Doris Day hits.

Doris firmly establishes her image in this one. She's so radiant and sings so well, I can't believe she was a third choice for this film behind Judy Garland and Betty Hutton.

If you hear violins coming from some unknown source it will be the magic when you're watching Romance on the High Seas.

Fortune certainly smiled on the talented Doris Day when she landed her first movie role in this typical late-Forties musical comedy confection. She looks great, sounds terrific and acts with confidence, supported by the best that Warner Brothers could muster (except for the annoying Oscar Levant, an all-time UNfavorite of mine). And, as always, the Warners music department and sound technicians provide a wonderfully lush treat for the ears.

Turner Classic Movies, bless 'em, occasionally hauls this one out of their vaults and it's fun to see it uninterrupted and causing one's TV screen to glow with that particularly cool, yet warm at the same time, three-strip Technicolor that Warners seemed to specialize in before Warnercolor's less vibrant tones decorated the studio's color output. Of course the clothes, the elaborately formal sets, and those hairdos (Could any woman back then achieve those coiffures without the aid of a platoon of hairdressers?) all are quintessentially Hollywood just before the Fifties demanded that everything look very modern and somewhat more sleek. But as a way to enjoy a bit of still very entertaining nostalgia, this one is hard to beat!

Doris Day was a huge radio and recording star when she appeared in "Romance on the High Seas". However, she was not a movie star...as this is her first film. Some of this shows...particularly her makeup as she is very freckly...which I thought was quite cute but which the studios hid in subsequent movies. She went over very well regardless and Warner Brothers soon signed her to a seven year contract...and she soon became a mega-star in pictures.

The plot is a bit silly. Elvira Kent (Janis Paige) suspects her husband, Michael (Don Defore), is cheating on her. And, he suspects the same thing of her. So they each come up with a plan...she pays Georgia (Doris Day) to pretend to be her and take a cruise while she stays home and secretly keeps an eye on him. And, he hires a detective (Jack Carson) to take the cruise and follow Elvira and prove she's been cheating! But there's a problem...the detective slowly begins to fall in love with the woman who he THINKS is Elvira!

The plot is quite slight...but the picture excellent for many reasons. Carson and Day are simply terrific and Day sings some very lovely tunes. The picture also is quite romantic...and fun and made more so by the presence of some wonderful character actors (S.Z. Sakall, Franklin Pangborn and Oscar Levant). All in all, this is the sort of fun picture Warner Brothers could make best...and you can't help but enjoy it.

By the way, while Defore and Paige receive higher billing, clearly Doris Day was the star or at least co-star of the film. I guess the studio just didn't have much faith in her drawing power...but that wasn't to last!

It's hard to believe 'Romance on the High Seas' is Doris Day's first flick. She's awesome in a role originally intended for Betty Hutton--and everyone has a great time poking fun at manners and morals in this breezy sea breeze of a farce.

When Day and Jack Carson aren't coming up with one-liners, she takes time to sing some nifty tunes--among them, 'Put 'Em in A Box', 'It's You Or No One' and, of course, 'It's Magic'. Her rendering of the latter song in a Cuban nightclub is one of the highlights of the film--and her career. Never has she expressed the simple emotions of the lyric more beautifully with a honey of a voice that is always directly on pitch, warming the heart with great phrasing and tone. And her comedic skills are already in evidence here.

Especially enjoyable is her first night on board the cruise ship when she and Carson mistakenly dress up. "Nobody dresses on first night shipboard," Carson tells her. Posing as a society lady, she asks in cultivated tones, "Really? Don't they get chilly?" She turns and peers into the dining room. "This I gotta see!" she says in her own voice. She uses the cultivated tones to disguise herself as society lady (Janis Paige) whose identity she has taken.

The slim plot revolves entirely around the mistaken identity theme and it's all played for laughs with lots of punch lines. Doris has an amusing scene with the fabulous Eric Blore as a doctor who comes to check on her "illness" and ends up feeling weak when she checks his pulse.

Janis Paige, Don de Fore, S.Z. Sakall, Oscar Levant and the usual Warner Bros. stock players are all adept at this sort of thing. Highly amusing comedy with some great songs--easy to take and always good for a few laughs. Doris Day at the peak of her form.

One of the delights of "Romance on the High Seas" is the remarkable debut of Doris Day. Having replaced an indisposed Betty Hutton, Day stepped into this role with all the zest and zip that she brought to her total career.

It's rather amazing to me how accomplished Day was in her initial screen effort: her comedic work, singing, and general enactment was like that of a seasoned professional. All the infectious Day sparkle and spirit was there from the beginning, after only a brief period as a band singer.

Ably assisted by the multi-faceted Jack Carson, pretty other-woman Janis Paige, vulnerable foils Don DeFore and Oscar Levant, and top character actor S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall, this Warner Bros. musical bounces along merrily. Fetching songs, a witty script, nice settings in Rio and Cuba, and a stylish specialty number by Avon Long keep things moving along right to the kaleidoscopic finale staged by Busby Berkeley.

"Romance on the High Seas" is a pleasurable way to spend an evening. As Doris's song goes, "It's Magic."