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.

The screen musical changed a lot during the 1940s. Thanks to Rodgers and Hammerstein's successes on Broadway, and the popularity of pictures like The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St Louis, we moved permanently from the backstage, diagetic-singer musicals of the 30s to the bursting-into-song, integrated musicals that we most commonly think of in the genre today. It took a while however for the new format to fully establish itself as the norm, and so in the late 40s we still get these odd little pictures that are neither one thing or the other.Romance on the High Seas, like virtually all musicals up until the 1960s, is a romantic comedy, and as romantic comedies go its credentials are pretty impressive. The screenplay, a rather neat comedy of errors, was penned by Julius and Philip Epstein (Casablanca!), with additional dialogue by IAL Diamond (Some Like it Hot!!). But perhaps this is its first failing. It comes across as the kind of comedy that could be built up to stand on its own. The decision to do it as a musical slows the comedy down somewhat, making it only fairly funny when it could have been hilarious. Add to this the fact that no-one seems able to have agreed what kind of musical it's supposed to be. At times it is a Doris Day showcase, at others an anyone-can-joiner, with Jack Carson piping up for a calypso number, and then there is "Tourist Trade", sung by Avon Long and choreographed by Busby Berkely, which is a nice little addition but sits oddly with the rest of the production.This was the screen debut of Doris Day, in a role originally intended for Betty Hutton. More relaxed than Hutton, Day brings out the feeling of the song with her face more than her body, which probably more than anything else helps to give her songs a natural feel, flowing out of her understated acting style. Like virtually all musical stars from this period, she has a certain eye-catching raunchiness, but the major difference being that you can't really believe she could be fooling around with men. In this respect she is one of the few stars who really seems to fit in with the straight-laced Production Code. While it came across that someone like Betty Grable has sex on the brain even if she doesn't say it out loud, you really get the impression that Day expects nothing more than a few kisses followed by a walk up the aisle.The trouble with Day here is that she wasn't really a great comedy actress. She could pull her weight in a funny environment, but she wasn't really funny in her own right. Her co-star Carson was a great comedy actor, but the role doesn't really demand much of him, and seems to have been written for more of a standard romantic lead. Still, it's nice to see jolly Jack get the girl for once. The more typical comedy stooge part goes to Don DeFore, but while he seems to know what he is doing he is just a little bit boring. Janet Paige plays a stereotypical society lady, but like DeFore is rather dull. The standout performances come from the smaller roles, as we see Oscar Levant at his cynical best, or the brief but welcome appearance by 30s regular Eric Blore.The director is Michael Curtiz, not a man one would associate with musicals or comedies, and yet he got assigned a fair few of them around this point in his career. Curtiz was very skilled at bringing out clarity in plot and character, using his camera to lead us through the story. His introduction of Day involves one of his trademark manoeuvres. We see Paige go into the travel agents, after which a group of people walk across the screen. The camera then follows these people, coming to rest on Day looking in the window. Our attention has been drawn to her, although because the camera was "carried" with that group of extras the move doesn't seem obtrusive. But Curtiz's approach to the story seems a little too mechanical, as if he were actually filming a serious marital drama. He doesn't give enough time or pacing to the comedy scenes, and this is especially apparent at the finale in Rio where the characters all begin bumping into each other.In short Romance on the High Seas is bit of a mess, at least structurally. It's perhaps best then to focus on the nuts and bolts of the production. Few contemporary-set pictures at this period were in Technicolor, the medium normally being reserved for period pieces. Still, a nice job has been done with contrasting light shades of grey, brown and turquoise, bringing some harmony to the stark 1940s interiors. An honourable mention must also go to the bizarre and extravagant costume design of Milo Anderson, as usual setting standards in surreal womenswear (Paige's assortment of hats can resemble everything from lampshades to liquorice allsorts). And finally there are some nice tunes here by that slightly bluesy musician Jules Styne, with memorable Sammy Cahn lyrics. They may be rather jumbled as far as the whole picture is concerned, but each one is nicely presented, and a couple such as "It's Magic" and "Throw 'em in the Deep Blue Sea" really stick in the mind. Indeed, Romance on the High Seas is a picture whose parts are greater than the whole would have us believe.

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).

It's the sort of script that Hollywood would have called a "merry marital mixup" back when, but with a little more stuff on the curveball than usual: A suspects B and B suspects A of infidelity, so A hires C to impersonate A on a cruise, while B hires private detective D to trail A, but D thinks C is A... There are some good lines, and director Curtiz, as was his wont, keeps things moving. Janis Paige is a hoot in a series of increasingly bizarre hats, and the unusual dullness of the Warners leading men (I mean, Don DeFore?) doesn't hurt that much. Doris even manages to look enraptured opposite the slightly snarky Jack Carson, and sings "It's Magic" three times. Even Carson sings, and not badly, though it's a somewhat xenophobic mock-Trinidad specialty number that's embarrassing by today's standards. Doris, in her film debut, is assured and pleasant, and so is the movie, in a studio-manufactured kind of way.