Thursday, April 4, 2013


Day 19

Classic Kids, or films the kids in your life have to see by 13 or else!

On Moonlight Bay (1951)


Based on the stories of Booth Tarkington, This movie is pure corn, but what fun.  Doris Day and Gordon MacRae sing the title number, and the supporting cast are equally in good voice: Mary Wickes (best Housekeeper ever!), Billy Graham, and Leon Ames,  the dad in EVERY movie, it seems
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Plot:  On Moonlight Bay focuses on the characters of Marjorie Winfield (Doris Day), and her family.  The Winfields have just moved to a small town in Indiana, and next door to a young man named William Sherman (Gordon MacRae).  Marjorie and William end up being a couple but only after some major obstacles.   Don’t worry…. they all end up ‘happily ever-after’.  Joelle and Jacki love the little boy in this film played by Billy Gray, from Father Knows Best fame.  What he can do with a spit ball is impressive.  

Themes:  Family, gender roles, musical genre, pre WWI era

Media literacy questions:  How did Warner Brothers create the impression of a pre-war, small town?  Why do the other characters keep trying to make Marjorie more ‘feminine”?
Although this film is meant to take place in 1916, what about the film actually suggests the era of production, 1951?  What were your favorite scenes and why?  How would they make this movie today?


*Honorable mention, the follow up film “By the light of the Silvery Moon” (1952)

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