Product Details

• Actors: Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Jack Smith, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp
• Directors: Roy Del Ruth
• Writers: Booth Tarkington, Jack Rose, Melville Shavelson
• Producers: William Jacobs
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: July 8, 1994
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302728371
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,061 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

America's love affair with clean-cut, tomboyish, freckle-faced Doris Day got a boost with On Moonlight Bay, a period piece from 1951. The film's masterstroke: put Doris in an old-timey musical full of small-town family values and vintage songs. Another inspiration: pair off Doris again with that chesty-voiced man's man and future Rodgers and Hammerstein stalwart, Gordon MacRae (they'd already made Tea for Two and The West Point Story). The story is drawn from Booth Tarkington's Penrod tales, although the movie is also under the sway of Meet Me in St. Louis. The WWI-era family is anchored by parents Leon Ames (the pop from St. Louis) and Rosemary De Camp, with echt-Fifties boy Billy Gray (later of Father Knows Best) as Day's bratty younger brother. Mary Wickes, cinema's eternal sassy housekeeper, provides comic relief. So does radio crooner Jack Smith, who would later host You Asked for It on TV for many years, as Day's maladroit suitor (he's really funny--too bad Preston Sturges never got a hold of him). The material is so relentlessly wholesome you might have to pinch yourself that anybody really believed it, but audiences sure wanted to. The film's popularity prompted a sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, with most of the cast intact. --Robert Horton

Product Description

sical about a family that moves to a small Indiana town and their tomboy daughter who begins a romance with the neighbor across the street, who bears radically unconventional views on love and money.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A MELODIC SAIL ON MOONLIGHT BAY, December 12, 2001

By 

Paul Brogan (Concord, NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On Moonlight Bay [VHS] (VHS Tape)

By 1951 Doris Day had become one of the most valuable assets at Warner Brothers. She was their number one female box-office draw and as a follow-up to her hugely popular 1950 musical with Gordon MacRae, "Tea for Two" the pair were teamed up again (their 3rd teaming in fact) in the technicolor "On Moonlight Bay".

Loosely based on the "Penrod" tales by Booth Tarkington, "Bay" is a nostalgic, lovingly created look at small town Americana, a world that might not have existed quite as it is depicted but a place we'd like to believe really was.

Doris Day is a tomboy, more at home on the baseball field or fixing a car than in a dress. The arrival of the boy next door changes some of that, though not all. Her precocious brother Wesley is the devil incarnate. Mom and Dad spend a lot of time scratching their heads in bemused wonderment at their youngsters antics, and the family maid is erascible but likeable. It's all tied up with gorgeous technicolor photography and a lot of lovely music.

Some critics have carped that it's Warners version of "Meet Me in St. Louis" but "On Moonlight Bay" can stand on its own merits thanks to a great cast and some genuinely sweet and funny moments.

Doris is perfect as Marjorie, effectively balancing the tomboy and blossoming young lady elements of her character and singing in that gorgeous voice that is distinctly her own. Gordon MacRae is stalwart as the object of her affection and it's obvious that the two have a genuine feeling for one another. They remained good friends until his untimely passing. Their rendition of "Till We Meet Again" is outstanding.

It's easy to believe that the cast is really a family. Leon Ames and Rosemary DeCamp as the parents are warmly winning. In 1984 I had the pleasure of joining Miss DeCamp and her husband, a retired California Judge at an awards dinner and we talked about this film among others and she glowed as she discussed the on-set atmosphere and interactions of the cast.

Bill Gray (of "Father Knows best" fame) is delightful and funny as Wesley, and who could have played the family maid better than Mary Wickes. This was the 1st of 4 on-screen roles opposite Day who was a lifelong friend. In addition Wickes did a very funny guest shot on Day's CBS Television series in 1969.

"On Moonlight Bay" was such a huge success for Warners that two years later they reteamed most of the cast for an equally popular sequel, "By the Light of the Silvery Moon".

Take a sail on Moonlight Bay and you'll be surprised at how much you enjoy the trip.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On Moonlight Bay Is A #1, April 27, 2004

By 

Chris "Chris" (Leeds, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Moonlight Bay [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Marjorie Winfield(Doris Day) and her family move to a new town so her father George Winfield (Leon Ames) can be living closer to the bank that he works at along with his wife Mrs. Winfield (Rosemary Camp), Wesley Winfield (Billy Gray). Their she meets and falls in love with William Sherman (Gordon MacRae) at first her parents are all for it until they find out that he doesn't support marriage and that he hates banks. Which Mr. Winfield is the president of the Town Bank! So they have a lot of fun with everything fun that they do! Their are a lso a lot of other fun songs that are being sung like Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee, And On Moonlight Bay. This is one Movie Musical that you are for sure to enjoy!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Innocent romantic classic!, April 3, 2003

By 

Veronica L. Rivera (Glendale, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On Moonlight Bay [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Outspoken college boy, William Sherman (Gordon MacRae) falls for tomboy Marjorie Winfield (Doris Day) in this fun romantic musical set in a small Indiana town in the early 1900's. After accidentally shooting him and missing in the barn, Marjorie gives up baseball and embarks on a series of romantic adventures with the handsome William.
Their romance is sweet and innocent from beginning to end. They share their first date at the Moonlight Bay amusement park where they enjoy a canoe ride, dance a two-step, win a kewpie doll, and share their first kiss. They sing beautiful songs together and to each other like "Cuddle Up A Little Closer," "Till We Meet Again," and many more.
They also face opposition from Marjorie's father and a near elopement as they find themselves being separated by William's enlistment in the army during WWI.
The nostalgic atmosphere created by the period music, clothes, and sets is unforgettable from the houses to the streets to the old fashioned school house. If you want to get lost in an old-fashioned romance and bring to life the feeling of old town Americana, then this movie is it!!