TheLittleSongbird
Being a fan of Doris Day, particularly in 'Calamity Jane', her outings with Gordon McRae and her comedies and who considers Michael Curtiz a talented director with 'Casablanca' and 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' masterpieces, 'Romance on the High Seas' was met with high expectations.High expectations that were mostly met, even though all have done better. The story is slight and silly with a few to many mix ups. The ending itself is a bit rushed and the build up slightly tedious. Most of the songs are great, but two don't work. "Run, Run, Run" leaves a bad taste in the mouth and "Cuban Rhapsody" feels really out of place.Doris Day however captivates in her first film role, that was initially intended for Betty Hutton. She has a lot of charm and her singing is as gorgeous as ever. The songs more than do her and her songs, especially "It's Magic", and they are beautifully staged.Jack Carson is a charming and witty leading man, while Janis Page steals every scene she's in. SZ Sakall is amusingly curmudgeon and avoids being irritating, while Oscar Levant is just about tolerable.Curtiz, while not in his comfort zone, directs more than admirably. The production values truly enchant, while the script has non-stop fun and wit, making one laugh more than once. The mix ups entertain, and the film goes along at a snappy pace, petering out only at the end.Overall, has a few faults but mostly a winner. 8/10 Bethany Cox
MartinHafer
Doris Day was a huge radio and recording star when she appeared in "Romance on the High Seas". However, she was not a movie star...as this is her first film. Some of this shows...particularly her makeup as she is very freckly...which I thought was quite cute but which the studios hid in subsequent movies. She went over very well regardless and Warner Brothers soon signed her to a seven year contract...and she soon became a mega-star in pictures.The plot is a bit silly. Elvira Kent (Janis Paige) suspects her husband, Michael (Don Defore), is cheating on her. And, he suspects the same thing of her. So they each come up with a plan...she pays Georgia (Doris Day) to pretend to be her and take a cruise while she stays home and secretly keeps an eye on him. And, he hires a detective (Jack Carson) to take the cruise and follow Elvira and prove she's been cheating! But there's a problem...the detective slowly begins to fall in love with the woman who he THINKS is Elvira! The plot is quite slight...but the picture excellent for many reasons. Carson and Day are simply terrific and Day sings some very lovely tunes. The picture also is quite romantic...and fun and made more so by the presence of some wonderful character actors (S.Z. Sakall, Franklin Pangborn and Oscar Levant). All in all, this is the sort of fun picture Warner Brothers could make best...and you can't help but enjoy it.By the way, while Defore and Paige receive higher billing, clearly Doris Day was the star or at least co-star of the film. I guess the studio just didn't have much faith in her drawing power...but that wasn't to last!
mark.waltz
When you've got a song like "Put Em' in a Box, Tie it With a Ribbon, and Throw Him in the Deep Blue Sea" and have it sung by Doris Day, you know you've got a star in the making. Having taken a "Sentimental Journey" already with the big bands, Day was a natural for movies, and to be billed as "Introducing", you know that Warner Brothers had major plans for this big star. Gone off the box office list at Warners were Davis and Crawford and on was this perky blonde whom the Warner Brothers realized about her screen charisma, "It's Magic!". The story is a silly one; Society queen Janis Paige is so sure that her husband is cheating on her, she hires Doris to take her place on a cruise, not realizing that her own husband has hired a private investigator (Jack Carson) to follow her, believing she too is foolin' around. Everybody ends up on the ship together later on to create more confusion, and Day worms her way into everybody's hearts not only with her plucky personality but by singing those two songs as well as the energetic "I'm in Love, I'm in Love..." Not only does Carson fall for her, so does Paige's cuddly uncle (S.Z. Sakall, in one of three movies he appeared with Doris in). "It's Magic" is also performed in Portugese as part of America's love affair with all things Latin. The irony of Paige and Day appearing together would follow them over the next decade or so when Day took on Paige's role in the movie version of "The Pajama Game", then got to work with her once again in the amusing "Please Don't Eat the Daisies". The ironic choice for director here is Michael Curtiz, best known for Errol Flynn swashbucklers and serious dramas, not fluffy musicals. It was a success for everybody concerned and lead to a lengthy film career for Ms. Day who dominated the box office for almost 20 years.
Alex da Silva
Mr (Don Defore) and Mrs Kent (Janis Paige) suspect each other of having affairs so they set traps to catch each other out. The main part of the film is set aboard a cruise ship where Georgia (Doris Day) is pretending to be Mrs Kent (on Mrs Kent's instruction while the real Mrs Kent stays behind to spy on her husband) and detective Peter Virgil (Jack Carson) is hired to watch who he believes to be the real Mrs Kent by Mr Kent, who thinks that his wife is going on the cruise with someone else. Things get confusing for all those involved but everything works out in the end.There are 9 song breaks with the song "Its Magic" (identical chorus to "That's Amore") repeated 3 times - too much. The 2 songs not sung by Doris Day are terrible, while the other songs span the musical spectrum from bad to sentimental codswallop.As for the cast, they are fine with the acting honours going to Janis Paige. I thought that she was more interesting to watch than Doris Day. S Z Sakall who plays "Uncle Lazlo" is irritating and just precisely who's uncle is he? Oscar Levant who plays "Oscar" seems to be one of those permanently dislikeable people - a bit like Frank Sinatra - arrogant beyond reason - but I kind of like him in this film! The story gets a bit frustrating as every mix up that you can imagine gets thrown in which makes it tedious at times, especially at the end. The film is nothing great - it's a colourful time-filler with some interesting fashion to watch, some amusing dialogue, way too many complications and some rubbish songs. It's lightweight fluff.
AD
