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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the People Who Brought You Casablanca!, 15 Nov 2007
This review is from: Romance on the High Seas [DVD] [1948] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
"Casablanca" has "As Time Goes By," and "Romance on the High Seas" has "It's Magic!"
And it truly is! This Michael Curtiz comedy, starring a young starry-eyed Doris Day playing opposite a delightfully funny Jack Carson has everything that used to make you want to go to the movies: Excellent music, excellent comedy, and excellent dancing (Busby Berkeley numbers, yet!). The story, which is perfectly ridiculous and ridiculously perfect, is too complicated to go into here, and totally irrelevant. It is merely the framework for ninety-nine minutes of sheer entertainment.
Catch the scene at the bar in Trinidad between Jack Carson and Oscar Levant and an anonymous pie-eyed patron! High Farce at its best. And guess what? The movie has extra features that are actually worth seeing: i.e., a Loony Tunes "I Taw a Putty Tat!" cartoon with Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird, and a specially-made trailer with Doris Day and Janis Paige that actually makes you want to watch the film again.
This DVD brings back memories of a gentler time when going to the movies was fun!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's NOT magic, 4 May 2009
This review is from: Romance on the High Seas [DVD] [1948] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
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.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's Sheer Magic, 23 Feb 2008
This review is from: Romance on the High Seas [DVD] [1948] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
As a soldier back in 1951 I walked miles to see this new singing sensation. The film in the UK was retitled "It's Magic" and it certainly was and is. Doris Day never fails in her musical films to give a fabulous performance, I'm just jealous of Jack Carson
Bob Loader
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