Romance On The High Seas (1948)

When her husband (Don DeFore) bows out of their South American vacation because of business, his wife (Janis Paige) suspects he's having an affair. So she stays behind and sends a proxy (Doris Day) in her place on the cruise ship to pose as her and stays behind to spy on her husband. Meanwhile, the equally suspicious husband hires a private detective (Jack Carson) to go on the cruise and spy on his wife. Oh, what a tangled web they weave as mix-ups galore take place. Warners didn't have much luck with female musical stars in the 1940s. MGM had Judy Garland, Fox had Betty Grable, Universal had Deanna Durbin and Paramount had Betty Hutton. This was Doris Day's feature film debut and she became one of Warners' biggest stars right out of the gate. By the time Day gets around to singing the Oscar nominated It's Magic, you realize you've just seen a star being born. This is the closest Warners got to the look of an MGM musical in style and quality. Its script is clever, its leads attractive and the songs first rate. Day would have to wait another five years before she got another musical as good (CALAMITY JANE). That jack of all trades ("What couldn't he direct?") Michael Curtiz keeps the farce moving quickly along. With Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall, Eric Blore, Franklin Pangborn, Fortunio Bonanova and Avon Long.