It's a Great Feeling

Poor Doris Day, working in the Warner Brothers studio commissary hoping for her big break in films. It might be coming due to the fact that no director wants to work with Jack Carson any more. So Carson gets the idea he's going to direct the next film he does with Dennis Morgan. And since no leading lady wants to work with him, the team needs a fresh face.

Morgan and Carson did a series of films at Warner Brothers who were trying to create a Crosby-Hope tandem of their own. They were good,but not as good. It really helped Bing and Bob to have two of the top rated radio shows in the country where every week you could guarantee that the two of them would have a jab or two at the other's expense. And they guested on each other's show innumerable times. This provided a built in publicity machine that Morgan and Carson couldn't possibly compete with.

This was the last of their films as a team and Warners did something here that Paramount couldn't do for Bing and Bob. That was have the boys play themselves and try to get a leading lady. At Paramount that job was sewed up by Dorothy Lamour.

Dennis Morgan had a pleasing Irish tenor voice. Unfortunately Warners also didn't do as well by him as Paramount did by Crosby in the way of songs. If you can remember any of the songs from any of the Morgan- Carson films, God Bless You. The ones that Bing sang made it to the top of the charts.

That being said, Morgan and Carson were fine performers in their own right and the film is a nice piece of nostalgia seeing all the cameo appearances by various stars working at Warner Brothers at the time. All the Crosby-Hope monkeyshines are done well by them.

Try as they may, Doris Day gets fed up and just wants to go back to Gurkey's Corners, Wisconsin and marry fiancée Jeffrey Bushdinkel.

But you got to watch the movie to learn about Jeffrey Bushdinkel.

Doris Day became an old hand at comedy by the time her career was over, but this early musical comedy with Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson is one of her funniest jobs. She plays a waitress at the Warner studio who wants to break into movies. Aided and abetted by Carson and Morgan, she gets her chance at stardom but not before a series of misadventures that are really an excuse to trot out some of the big Warner stars for brief cameos. She gets to warble a couple of so-so tunes but it's her comedy scenes with Bill Goodwin (as the studio head she's trying to impress) that display her true comic gifts, batting her lashes and giving him a silly grin. It cracks me up every time! Dennis Morgan has a nice duet with Day and there are some other standard tunes thrown in, but it's an amiable piece of entertainment, nicely packaged in technicolor. Danny Kaye has an unbilled cameo at the train station--and Irving Bacon does a comic turn that's quite amusing. Guest stars include Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, Jane Wyman, Sydney Greenstreet, Patricia Neal, Eleanor Parker , Ronald Reagan and Edward G. Robinson. The "surprise" ending is a fun twist. And if that's not enough, there's S.Z. Sakall ("Cuddles") for even more laughs.

This is a terrific little film. Light entertainment, nothing to think about, just sit back watch the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age and enjoy. Any movie with Dennis Morgan AND Jack Carson has to be good, and Doris Day pretties up the whole thing. Lots of cameos by Hollywood's best and lots of talent. I recommend this movie when you're tired and stressed and just want a good movie to relax to. The other great thing about this movie is you never know who will show up. Gary Cooper and Dennis Morgan sitting at a drug store counter, Coop sipping Coke, Dennis prattling on and Coop just saying "Yup." Just goes to show you don't need to say a lot, especially a lot of "F" words to show your talent. Nobody in Hollywood today comes up to these stars in terms of talent and class.

For anybody who loves Golden Age Hollywood, Doris Day (very early on in her film career) and musicals, all of those apply to me, are very likely to find a lot to enjoy about 'It's a Great Feeling'. 'It's a Great Feeling' is not quite "great", but it is "good".

Admittedly the story is best forgotten. It is paper thin and cobbled together, with a shopworn concept (even in 1949) and parts being on the improbable side. The songs are very pleasant and beautifully performed by mainly Doris Day and Dennis Morgan, but, aside from the title song and the lovely duet "Blame My Absent-Minded Heart", they're of the inoffensive but not particularly memorable kind. Some of the pacing could perhaps have been tightened in places.

However, 'It's a Great Feeling' looks beautiful in colour and evokes a real sense of nostalgia in how it's all produced. As said, the songs are performed beautifully, while David Butler's direction is some of his more competent and engaged.

'It's a Great Feeling' excels in the script, which is funny and witty as well as fairly gentle in places. It particularly shines in the scenes between Doris Day and Bill Goodwin, which certainly showed that even early on in her film career Day had a gift for comedy.

While Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson are amusing and likable enough as themselves, it's Day in every way who shines the most, so graceful and charming as well as being a natural comedienne and an amazing singer. Along with Day, the biggest joy is the cameos. Most are very short and there are perhaps a little too many but they certainly hit more than they miss, don't think any of them missed actually, though it does help to have knowledge of who the cameos are.

Some great scenes, especially "Blame My Absent-Minded Heart", Irving Bacon, the Maurice Chevalier impression and a corker of a twist ending that nobody expects in a million years. The best of the cameos are Gary Cooper, Edward G. Robinson and particularly the pricelessly crazy one from Joan Crawford.

Overall, good fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox

This was really a picture to promote new talent Doris Day at the time by her studio, Warner Bros. Dennis Morgan & Jack Carson play themselves, trying to get Day (who plays a studio waitress) into the movies. The story and songs (except Cafe Rendezvous) are totally forgettable. The fun part are cameos from nearly every Warners actor at the time including Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, Danny Kaye, Gary Cooper, Sydney Greenstreet, Patricia Neal, Joan Crawford, Eleanor Parker, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn and even directors David Butler (who directed this), Raoul Walsh (High Sierra, White Heat), Michael Curtiz (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca) & King Vidor (Beyond the Forest, The Fountainhead). Tailored for Day fans or classic film buffs. 2 1/2 stars out of 4.