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
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