I just watched this film again on TCM, and it just isn't very good. Doris Day considered it her best performance, and it might well be. It showcases both her acting and her singing; I've always considered her almost criminally undervalued as both an actress and a singer. It certainly has plenty of MGM gloss and great production values. If you look at the trivia file here on the film, you will see that it was heavily censored for things which today would not be censored, but celebrated.
However, it's a chore, not a pleasure, to watch, and the blame rest largely on James Cagney's shoulders. I realize that I'm in a minority in considering Cagney a very limited talent. He's very effective when the film matched his talents, as a hyperkinetic song and dance man in Footlight Parade, or a hyperkinetic thug in his early gangster films, or a hyperkineitic psycho thug in White Heat, or even a hyperkinetic business exec in One, Two Three. But it's all variations on a theme (there's also the sentimental streak in some of his films, but the less said of that, the better) and in this film it degenerates to mannerisms and attitude. His performance is painfully one-dimensional.
Without Cagney, I might rank it a six. Day is great; the production looks good; but overall it really is a formula picture, and not the best formula to boot.
However, it's a chore, not a pleasure, to watch, and the blame rest largely on James Cagney's shoulders. I realize that I'm in a minority in considering Cagney a very limited talent. He's very effective when the film matched his talents, as a hyperkinetic song and dance man in Footlight Parade, or a hyperkinetic thug in his early gangster films, or a hyperkineitic psycho thug in White Heat, or even a hyperkinetic business exec in One, Two Three. But it's all variations on a theme (there's also the sentimental streak in some of his films, but the less said of that, the better) and in this film it degenerates to mannerisms and attitude. His performance is painfully one-dimensional.
Without Cagney, I might rank it a six. Day is great; the production looks good; but overall it really is a formula picture, and not the best formula to boot.