Doris Day

IT'S A GREAT FEELING

Warner Bros., 1949.  Directed by David Butler.  Camera:  Wilfred M. Kline.  With Doris Day, Dennis Morgan, Jack Carson, Bill Goodwin, Irving Bacon, Claire Carleton, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn, Sydney Greenstreet, Danny Kaye, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman.

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

Movie producer Arthur Trent asks directors Raoul Walsh, King Vidor, Michael Curtiz and David Butler to direct his new film, Mlle. Fifi, which is to star Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson, and all turn him down because they do not want to work with the egotistical Jack.  In desperation, Trent gives Jack the directorial assignment.  Dennis and Jack consider each other to be "great guys but big hams."  Although Jack begs Dennis to do the film with him because he is broke, Dennis has been offered a show on Broadway, and decides to accept that offer.

When no waitress will take Jack's lunch to his bungalow because he is such a wolf, Judy Adams, an aspiring actress, eagerly offers to make the delivery, planning to take the opportunity to audition for him.  Judy, who comes from a small town in Wisconsin, discovers that Jack also grew up there, and soon Jack offers her a role playing his real-life pregnant, poverty-stricken, secret wife.  He promises that if she can convince Dennis to sign a contract with him, he will give her a part in the film.  Although Judy's portrayal of heart-breaking poverty is so convincing that Dennis agrees to appear in Jack's film, Jack reneges on his promise to Judy.

Later, when no actress will agree to star in the film, Dennis suggests that Jack use an unknown—Judy. They hurry to the train station and prevent Judy from returning to Wisconsin to get married.  Knowing how much Trent likes to discover new talent, Jack and Dennis constantly place him in proximity to Judy, but only succeed in making him think he is crazy because every woman that he sees looks the same.

Jack then directs Judy in a screen test, but his inexperience results in a film in which Jack's voice comes out of Judy's image.  Jack and Dennis then decide to pretend that Judy is a famous French star named Yvonne Amour.  During her performance, however, Judy trips and loses her wig, and the ruse fails.  Grace, an older woman who lives in Judy's building, then convinces Jack and Dennis that the best thing for Judy would be to return home and marry her fiancée.  The men allow her to overhear them making a job offer to another actress, and the furious Judy takes the next train home.  Trent, who has suffered a nervous breakdown, is also on the train and, late that night, hears her singing in the lounge car.  Trent offers to put her in pictures, but Judy, who has had her fill of promises, slaps his face.  Hearing the story, Jack and Dennis hurry to Judy's hometown to stop the wedding, but they are too late, as Judy marries a man who looks exactly like Errol Flynn.

American Film Institute Catalog