Doris Day Movies

This 1953 musical is very much a vehicle for Doris Day, in the title role, as a wild cowgal who can outshoot and outsing any boy on the range. When an actress arrives in Deadwood and uses her feminine charms on Jane’s secret love, Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), Jane tries to mend her tomboy ways. Not exactly up to the feminist code of honor, this is still energetic and Day is very perky. Of course, one could almost detect a homosexual undercurrent with the cross-dressing Jane, but this was Hollywood in the 1950s, so we best not. This won an Oscar for Best Song–”Secret Love,” by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster. –Rochelle O’Gorman

The huge popularity of the nostalgic On Moonlight Bay prompted this 1953 sequel, which recaptures the first film’s small-town, post-WWI spirit. Because young lovers Doris Day and Gordon MacRae are already together, the movie needs some sort of trumped-up conflict to separate them for a while; it comes with MacRae’s decision to postpone their wedding until he gets his financial legs. Yawn. But don’t worry, the subplots abound, including younger brother Billy Gray pilfering a prize Thanksgiving turkey, and dad Leon Ames suspected of romancing a visiting French music-hall star. Naturally there are vintage songs, including umpteen renderings of the classic title song (you won’t need the bouncing ball to sing along) and Day and MacRae casually bopping out new lyrics to “Ain’t We Got Fun.” Also returning for the sequel are Rosemary DeCamp as the patient mother and shameless scene-stealer Mary Wickes as the bossy maid. And check it out: future talk-show host Merv Griffin cheerleading during the finale at an outdoor ice rink. Day and MacRae twinkle so aggressively that they sometimes resemble salesmen for a particular kind of Hollywood backlot America that probably never existed, but the whole thing is almost impossible to resist. –Robert Horton