1953’s By the Light of the Silvery Moon, a sequel to Warner Brothers’ hit 1951 nostalgic musical On Moonlight Bay (which I wrote about for this column three years ago), isn’t quite as winsome as its predecessor, but with the same cast reprising their roles, and a story set largely between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it makes equally appropriate holiday viewing. Set in a small Indiana town in 1919, Marjorie (Doris Day) is preparing to marry her fiancé Bill (Gordon MacRae) upon his return home from serving in World War I. But the war has changed Bill, who now believes that they should wait longer until he has achieved some financial stability.
That newly-formed tension between Marjorie and Bill, whose relationship has matured from their courtship of the first film as they approach the next step, serves as the core emotional through-line running the course of By the Light of the Silvery Moon, but similar to its predecessor (albeit set over a more condensed period of time), it is largely a loosely structured series of vignettes. Again based on Booth Tarkington’s Penrod stories, By the Light of the Silvery Moon also contains subplots involving Marjorie’s parents, George (Leon Ames) and Alice (Rosemary DeCamp), and her pesky little brother Wesley (Billy Gray). A chunk of the film set over Thanksgiving, for example, involves Wesley scheming to avoid having to take his pet turkey Gregory to the butcher to be turned into their Thanksgiving dinner. And a series of misunderstandings soon prompt Wesley, Marjorie, and the family maid Stella (the reliably great Mary Wickes) to believe that George is having an affair with Renee LaRue (Maria Palmer), and actress seeking to lease the town’s theater for a play whose story involves divorce. The messiness of small town gossip and its subsequent resolution comes to a head in the film’s beautiful wintry climax set at a picturesque skating rink.
By the Light of the Silvery Moon boasts vibrant Technicolor photography and performances of a track list of beloved standards, including “Ain’t We Got Fun,” “Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee,” and the titular love song. Even when working with occasionally middling material (and even if a 30-year-old mother on her third marriage playing an 18-year-old ingenue somewhat stretches plausibility), Day is always charming to watch. Her character retains some of her tomboyish from the first film, as seen in an amusing sequence in which she must fix her and Bill’s broken down car. And here, she’s working with some people who bring out the best in her: director David Butler, whose films she appeared in five times (culminating in 1953’s Calamity Jane) and leading man MacRae. This was the fifth and final time Day and MacRae were paired together on screen, despite the couple’s continued popularity. MacRae was reportedly belligerent on set and difficult to work with. Future TV host and creator Merv Griffin was discovered by Day and cast in this film, some believe as the first step in grooming him to be MacRae’s replacement (as it stands, Griffin just has a brief cameo as an announcer during the skating rink scene). By the Light of the Silvery Moon’s saccharine depiction of post-war life may be a hard pill for some to swallow, but if you don’t mind peering through rose-colored glasses, Day and MacRae share the kind of wholesome chemistry that’s just right for this nostalgic view of young love and family trials and tribulations in middle America.
By the Light of the Silvery Moon is available to rent on all digital platforms. You can also watch it online here. Runtime: 101 minutes.
Katie at the Movies 