The romantic comedy/musical Romance On The High Seas starring Doris Day starts with the wedding of socialite Elvira (Janis Page) to Michael Kent (Don DeFore, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo). While walking down the aisle she sees him making eyes at someone, and likewise, he believes she flirts with someone on her way to the alter.

Janis Paige & S.Z. Sakall © Warner Bros. Pictures

Three years later the couple still have not had a real honeymoon because of Michael and his Uncle Lazlo's (S.Z. Sakall, Yankee Doodle Dandy) business. And each one is still very jealous of the other. When Michael cancels their third anniversary trip, Elvira decides to catch him in the act of cheating.

Janis Paige & Don DeFore

© Warner Bros. Pictures

Elvira goes to a nightclub and hires the singer, Georgia Garrett (Doris Day), that she met in the travel office, to pose as her on the cruise. When Elvira returns home and Michael tells her he can take the trip if she will wait two days, she knows she can't because she's not really going on the trip and refuses to wait for him.

Michael gets suspicious and hires Peter Virgil (Jack Carson, Destry Rides Again) to go on the cruise and tail Elvira. Peter charges him a hefty fee and then agrees.

There's often comedy in this film, like when Michael is interviewing Peter and several calls arrive from men hiring him to spy on their wives. One call results in a single gun shot. 

Doris Day & Oscar Levant © Warner Bros. Pictures

As Georgia is seen off at the ship by Oscar (Oscar Levant, An American in Paris), he's worried his number one singer and gal, is meeting someone on the ship. Otherwise, how could she have afforded it? It's quite predictable that Peter and Georgia get together. In the beginning he talks to Georgia several times, and calls Michael to let him know there's no problem.

However, a problem does arrive when Oscar shows up at one of the ports, and Georgia can't be seen by him since she's posing as Elvira. When Oscar does find her, Peter, of course, thinks Oscar is the other man and wires Michael that there is trouble. Things get more complicated as the ship sails on.

Doris Day & Jack Carson

 © Warner Bros. Pictures

Several of the scenes in the movie offer opportunities for Day to sing songs, such as "It's You or No One" and "I'm In Love." The film and another song she introduced in it, "It's Magic," became huge hits respectively, and immediately catapulted Doris Day to super-stardom as a recording star. Cinematographer Elwood Bredell did a swell job high-lighting Howard Winterbottom's magnificent sets and Milo Anderson's stunning costumes.

Both Page (Please Don't Eat the Daisies) and Day are so beautiful in this Technicolor print they look like the most luxurious piece of candy in a Swiss candy shop. And they're both pros in the comedy routines as well.

Elvira, camped away at a near-by hotel, hasn't caught Michael doing anything naughty. Keeping Michael company is Uncle Lazlo with one amusing quip after another, like, "When a woman is married she has to flirt twice as hard to prove she's still got it."

As expected, everything blows up in one big comedy routine at a Rio hotel. There's nothing profound about Romance On The High Seas, the movie is a lighthearted comedy with plenty of opportunity to listen to Doris Day sing.

Director: Michael Curtiz

Writer: I.A.L. Diamond - additional dialogue, Julius J. Epstein & Philip G. Epstein - screenplay

Cast: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Doris Day, Oscar Levant, S.Z. Sakall  

Rating: Not Rated

Classic Movie Guide Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Run Time: 90 minutes

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Format: Technocolor - standard version

Photo credits: Warner Bros. Pictures