Young at Heart is a 1954 film, directed by Gordon Douglas.
It was a remake of the 1938 film Four Daughters, and it starred Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Alan Hale,
Jr and Dorothy Malone and was the first of five films that Gordon Douglas directed Frank Sinatra.
When song-writer Alex Burke (Gig Young) enters the lives of the musical Tuttle family, each of the three daughters falls for him.
His personality is a match for Laurie Tuttle (Doris Day), both she and Alex seemingly made for each other.
Soon they are engaged, although, when a friend of Alex', Barney Sloan (Frank Sinatra) comes to the Tuttle home to help with some musical arrangements, complications arise.
His bleak outlook on life couldn't be any more contradictory to that of Laurie's and Alex's, and although the family welcomes Barney into their lives, a feeling of genuine self-worth escapes him, even after both he and Laurie fall in love and marry.
Barney, with a black cloud perpetually hanging over his head, decides one evening to kill himself by driving on a snowy night into traffic with his headlamps turned off.
Barney lives, and with a new found affirmation of life, finally writes the song he had been working on, finding his self-esteem in the arms of Laurie.
The character of the self-destructive Barney Sloan was originally written to die at the end of the film when Sloan drives into on-coming traffic during a snow-storm.
Sinatra, whose characters in his two previous films - From Here to Eternity and Suddenly - perished at the end, thought Sloan should live and find happiness.
Sinatra's growing influence in Hollywood was enough to have the ending re-written to accommodate. Just the opposite would happen a decade later when Sinatra had the ending of Von Ryan's Express changed.
One of the most popular and successful American multimedia stars to emerge since the end of WWII and the most forward-looking heroine in popular culture of the 1950s and 60s.Day entered films in 1948 after a brief but highly successful singing career as a band vocalist, and for the next two decades virtually defined the wholesome blonde girl-next-door type in musicals, dramas and innocent but sly sex farces.
Day became an immediate star with her debut film, "Romance on the High Seas" (1948), and was one of the last stars developed under the old studio system by Warner Brothers, starring in such nostalgic light musicals as "On Moonlight Bay" (1951) and "I'll See You in My Dreams" (1952).
She also showed promise in drama ("Storm Warning" 1950) and raucous comedy (at her most tomboyish in the cult classic "Calamity Jane" 1953) when given a chance. Day's rich alto voice and supple dramatic phrasing also enjoyed considerable success on the pop singles ("It's Magic", "Secret Love") and album charts through the 40s and 50s.
After her screen career petered out in 1968, Day immediately embarked on the mild TV sitcom, "The Doris Day Show", which opened with "Que Sera Sera", typecast her as a bright career woman and stayed high in the popularity ratings for the length of its five-year run.
It was only after the death of Day's husband-manager Marty Melcher that it came out that he had entrusted the majority of Day's substantial earnings to a lawyer who flagrantly squandered them.
Day's income from her show supported her lengthy court battle,
and since the close of her series she has been largely retired, devoting most of her energies to pet adoption and animal rights advocacies.
Doris Day and Gordon Macrae
"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" is the tuneful follow-up to the very popular 1951 hit for Warner Brothers, "On Moonlight Bay".Like its predecessor, it recalls another time and place in America, directly after World War I, bathing it in a nostalgic warmth and glow in stunning technicolor and reassembling most of the cast from the earlier film.
The characters and story are very loosely based on the "Penrod" series of stories written by Booth Tarkington.
Marjorie and Bill, the sweethearts of the piece, are played by Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, in their 5th and final on-screen pairing.
They harmonize beautifully and play their scenes with genuine and totally unaffected warmth and believability. Watching Day, it's easy to see why see held the lofty position within the industry that she held for so long.
Her natural likeability and never cloying manner are soothing and when she sings, as she does frequently, one is transported to a safe and comfortable haven. The songs include the title tune, "If You Were the Only Girl in the World" and "Ain't We Got Fun" to name but a few.
Video clip from the film
The remaining members of Marjorie's family are back from the earlier effort and seem to be more a family than ever before.
Leon Ames is part bluster/part patriarch, while Rosemary DeCamp, as usual, is better than much of the material Hollywood generally gave her to work with.
Billy Gray is appropriately rowdy but skillfully avoiding the obnoxious elements as Wesley and Mary Wickes, as she is prone to do, shines in every scene she plays, a natural treasure as one of the most unique character actresses in film history.
If you look quickly in the beautifully staged skating sequence near the film's conclusion, you'll spot Merv Griffin talking through a megaphone and urging everyone to skate with their sweetheart.
Doris Day was responsible for getting Griffin a contract at Warners, which launched his career. In 1970, she made her first ever talk show appearance on his program.
Lucky Me is a fun musical which opens with Doris Day's dynamite opening number, "The Superstition Song", which she sings while bouncing down the streets of Miami!
A True Star Performance! Only Doris could have gotten away with this, and she was brilliant.
She played Candy Williams, a singer-actress who was appearing in a travelling show, "Parisian Pretties" which bombed in Miami.
Stranded, she meets a New York songwriter, Cummings, who is casting a new Broadway show.
He pretends to be someone else to court Candy, but falls in love with her.
During the proceedings, Doris Day sings most of the numbers including her chart hit, "I Speak to the Stars".
The highlight is "I Wanna Sing Like an Angel" and "Love You, Dearly," another lovely ballad.
Phil Sivers was wonderful and had a great number with Day called "Men!"
The other actors gave Miss Day able support and everyone seemed to work well with each other.
Lucky Me was the next to last film under Doris Day's Warner Brothers contract. Although she has stated that she didn't believe in the project to the same extent that she'd believed in some of her prior films, you would not of know it while watching her performance.
I Speak To The Stars!
The 1956 version of "The Man Who Knew Too Much " unfolds like a beautiful book, methodically and compellingly. Stewart plays an American doctor and Day is his wife, a retired singer.
They are vacationing with their young son, Hank, in Morocco, when they become embroiled in an International incident involving a planned assasination.
Their son is kidnapped and taken to London. Day and Stewart follow, where they attempt to get some answers and to locate their son, on their own, without the help offered by Scotland Yard. The film reaches it's exciting climax during a concert at Albert Hall in which Day suddenly realizes what is about to occur.
Without giving away some of the intricate plot twists and turns, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" is like a breathtaking ride on a state of the art rollercoaster.
You cannot help but get caught up in the plight of Stewart and Day.
James Stewart and Doris Day seem like a real married couple, so easy and comfortable is their onscreen chemistry.
They banter and interact convincingly but there is also a strong indication that there may be some tensions lurking beneath the outer veneer.
Both actors play their roles with expertise and Day, in particular, shows range and versatility in her performance.
Que Sera Sera~Trailer from the movie!
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