I didn't recognize Sig Arno at first, since he wasn't speaking gibberish, but there were many other pleasantly nostalgic parts of this movie. Under the direction of Roy Del Ruth, the writers took the "Penrod" movies that Warners had made in the mid-twenties and remade so nicely in the early thirties, filed off the serial numbers, and filled them with nostalgic songs -- usually with lyrics by Gus Kahn or Otto Harbach -- for Doris Day to sing. Clearly designed on the lines of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, no one thought too hard about the casting, with the result that it is perfectly cast. With Leon Ames as the father, Rosemary DeCamp as the mother, Mary Wickes as the maid-of-all-work, and Gordon Macrae as the singing Campus Radical (1917 model) for whom Miss Day has the hots.
Review of On Moonlight Bay
