It's a Great Feeling

Doris Day became an old hand at comedy by the time her career was over, but this early musical comedy with Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson is one of her funniest jobs. She plays a waitress at the Warner studio who wants to break into movies. Aided and abetted by Carson and Morgan, she gets her chance at stardom but not before a series of misadventures that are really an excuse to trot out some of the big Warner stars for brief cameos. She gets to warble a couple of so-so tunes but it's her comedy scenes with Bill Goodwin (as the studio head she's trying to impress) that display her true comic gifts, batting her lashes and giving him a silly grin. It cracks me up every time! Dennis Morgan has a nice duet with Day and there are some other standard tunes thrown in, but it's an amiable piece of entertainment, nicely packaged in technicolor. Danny Kaye has an unbilled cameo at the train station--and Irving Bacon does a comic turn that's quite amusing. Guest stars include Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, Jane Wyman, Sydney Greenstreet, Patricia Neal, Eleanor Parker , Ronald Reagan and Edward G. Robinson. The "surprise" ending is a fun twist. And if that's not enough, there's S.Z. Sakall ("Cuddles") for even more laughs.

So much is made of how Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan were supposed to be Warner Bros. answer to Hope and Crosby that people miss the point that they actually made a rather enjoyable team in their own right. In fact, just keep your eyes on Jack Carson and you'll end up wondering if he stole from Hope or if Hope stole from Carson! Yeah, they weren't as big as their contemporaries, but so what? I really like them together. They teamed in several 1940s comedies at Warners and "It's a Great Feeling" is probably their best film and definitely my personal favorite. Not only are Carson and Morgan in top form here, but there's several cameos of WB stars that really make this a lot of fun. It's nicely directed by David Butler who interestingly enough directed Hope & Crosby in "The Road Morocco" seven years earlier. Butler also has a small cameo along with a few other Warner's directors which is just a nice little addition to the fabric of the film while a young and beautiful Doris Day makes for a great icing on the cake! So when all's said and done this is a really enjoyable little comedy. And at 85 minutes it certainly doesn't overstay its welcome. IMHO, "It's a Great Feeling" is a must for any fan of forties comedy fare. Just because Carson & Morgan won't make you forget Hope & Crosby doesn't mean they can't be memorable. I've always been a big fan of the so called "light musical comedies" of the 40s and this is one of the best. Highly recommended!

Doris Day was already a singing sensation by the time she made her first film alongside her at-the-time sweetie-pie Jack Carson. She shared the screen with Jack in her second and third films, and their chemistry was so fantastic, those early films are always a pleasure to watch. In her third film, It's a Great Feeling, Doris plays a waitress with dreams of stardom. She has a character name, but virtually everyone else in the film plays themselves, which is pretty cute. Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan-playing themselves-have ulterior motives when they offer to help Doris start her acting career, and along the way, we're treated to cameos by Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Michael Curtiz, Danny Kaye, Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Ronald Reagan, Edward G. Robinson, King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, Jane Wyman, and Errol Flynn.

Chalk full of well-known songs like "Blame My Absent-Minded Heart" and "That Was a Big Fat Lie", you'll be entertained from start to finish. It shows a funny, delightful side to the golden age of Hollywood, and it's adorable to see big stars making fun of themselves. For example, Joan Crawford, fresh from her Oscar for Mildred Pierce, slaps Jack Carson across the face, mimicking her famous slap from her earlier film. Rent this one when you're in the mood for something light and fun, and I guarantee Doris and Jack will give you a great feeling.

Poor Doris Day, working in the Warner Brothers studio commissary hoping for her big break in films. It might be coming due to the fact that no director wants to work with Jack Carson any more. So Carson gets the idea he's going to direct the next film he does with Dennis Morgan. And since no leading lady wants to work with him, the team needs a fresh face.

Morgan and Carson did a series of films at Warner Brothers who were trying to create a Crosby-Hope tandem of their own. They were good,but not as good. It really helped Bing and Bob to have two of the top rated radio shows in the country where every week you could guarantee that the two of them would have a jab or two at the other's expense. And they guested on each other's show innumerable times. This provided a built in publicity machine that Morgan and Carson couldn't possibly compete with.

This was the last of their films as a team and Warners did something here that Paramount couldn't do for Bing and Bob. That was have the boys play themselves and try to get a leading lady. At Paramount that job was sewed up by Dorothy Lamour.

Dennis Morgan had a pleasing Irish tenor voice. Unfortunately Warners also didn't do as well by him as Paramount did by Crosby in the way of songs. If you can remember any of the songs from any of the Morgan- Carson films, God Bless You. The ones that Bing sang made it to the top of the charts.

That being said, Morgan and Carson were fine performers in their own right and the film is a nice piece of nostalgia seeing all the cameo appearances by various stars working at Warner Brothers at the time. All the Crosby-Hope monkeyshines are done well by them.

Try as they may, Doris Day gets fed up and just wants to go back to Gurkey's Corners, Wisconsin and marry fiancée Jeffrey Bushdinkel.

But you got to watch the movie to learn about Jeffrey Bushdinkel.

This is a terrific little film. Light entertainment, nothing to think about, just sit back watch the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age and enjoy. Any movie with Dennis Morgan AND Jack Carson has to be good, and Doris Day pretties up the whole thing. Lots of cameos by Hollywood's best and lots of talent. I recommend this movie when you're tired and stressed and just want a good movie to relax to. The other great thing about this movie is you never know who will show up. Gary Cooper and Dennis Morgan sitting at a drug store counter, Coop sipping Coke, Dennis prattling on and Coop just saying "Yup." Just goes to show you don't need to say a lot, especially a lot of "F" words to show your talent. Nobody in Hollywood today comes up to these stars in terms of talent and class.