It's a Great Feeling (1949)

A waitress at the Warner Bros. commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when two actors agree to help her.

Director:

David Butler

Writers:

Jack Rose (screenplay), Melville Shavelson (screenplay) (as Mel Shavelson)

Stars:

Doris Day, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dennis Morgan	...	Himself
Doris Day	...	Judy Adams
Jack Carson	...	Himself
Bill Goodwin	...	Arthur Trent
Irving Bacon	...	RR Information Clerk
Claire Carleton	...	Grace
Mazzone-Abbott Dancers	...	Dancers (as The Famous Mazzone-Abbott Dancers)

Storyline

A waitress at the Warner Bros. commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when two actors agree to help her.

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Plot Keywords:

waitress | hollywood | studio | spoof | assumed identity | 

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Taglines:

Guest stars galore!

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Genres:

Comedy | Music

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

1 August 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

Two Guys and a Gal

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Patricia Neal, still wearing the black fur-trimmed evening gown from The Fountainhead (1949) came directly from that set to film her ballroom scene cameo.

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Goofs

The information man at the train station obviously has a great memory, knowing detailed information for remote destinations, and he instantly memorizes the fare for Gurky's Corners, and then the time it leaves, but he can't remember how he got that information just minutes earlier and has to go through each of the books to get the right document.

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Quotes

Publicity man: Now, listen boys, send a couple of cameramen over to Pasadena. We want some cheesecake on Yvonne Amour. You know, 'I love America' with legs crossed.
Reporter: What do I tell them? They want a biography.
Publicity man: Yvonne Amour. Born in the shadow of the Eiffel tower.
Reporter: How to you know?
Publicity man: It's a big tower!
Publicity man: Her father. A colonel in the French Foreign Legion. Killed sixteen years ago in Northern Afghanistan. Let's see them check that!

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Connections

Featured in Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star (2002)

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Soundtracks

That Was a Big Fat Lie
(uncredited)
Music by Jule Styne
Lyrics by Sammy Cahn
Sung by Doris Day
Also sung by Jack Carson

User Reviews

Had a good feeling watching this film

For anybody who loves Golden Age Hollywood, Doris Day (very early on in her film career) and musicals, all of those apply to me, are very likely to find a lot to enjoy about 'It's a Great Feeling'. 'It's a Great Feeling' is not quite "great", but it is "good".

Admittedly the story is best forgotten. It is paper thin and cobbled together, with a shopworn concept (even in 1949) and parts being on the improbable side. The songs are very pleasant and beautifully performed by mainly Doris Day and Dennis Morgan, but, aside from the title song and the lovely duet "Blame My Absent-Minded Heart", they're of the inoffensive but not particularly memorable kind. Some of the pacing could perhaps have been tightened in places.

However, 'It's a Great Feeling' looks beautiful in colour and evokes a real sense of nostalgia in how it's all produced. As said, the songs are performed beautifully, while David Butler's direction is some of his more competent and engaged.

'It's a Great Feeling' excels in the script, which is funny and witty as well as fairly gentle in places. It particularly shines in the scenes between Doris Day and Bill Goodwin, which certainly showed that even early on in her film career Day had a gift for comedy.

While Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson are amusing and likable enough as themselves, it's Day in every way who shines the most, so graceful and charming as well as being a natural comedienne and an amazing singer. Along with Day, the biggest joy is the cameos. Most are very short and there are perhaps a little too many but they certainly hit more than they miss, don't think any of them missed actually, though it does help to have knowledge of who the cameos are.

Some great scenes, especially "Blame My Absent-Minded Heart", Irving Bacon, the Maurice Chevalier impression and a corker of a twist ending that nobody expects in a million years. The best of the cameos are Gary Cooper, Edward G. Robinson and particularly the pricelessly crazy one from Joan Crawford.

Overall, good fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox