My Dream Is Yours

source: My Dream Is Yours

Movie history was made with this 1949 film. Whoever expected that Jack Carson, who was robbed of supporting Oscar nominations for "Mildred Pierce," in 1945 and for "A Star is Born," 9 years later, would wind up with the girl by the end of this reviewed film. The girl being of all people Doris Day. While it's certainly not a flaw in a picture, Carson, always the abrasive, go-getter type, was not exactly your leading man in films. A flaw in this film is where a child is screaming mommy, mommy at the airport, while his widowed mother, Day, goes to Hollywood with Carson, her new promoter to seek a career as a singer. This is certainly an emotional scene, but Day soon acts as if the child never existed, and it's not until 40 minutes later that the child reenters the film. Otherwise, we have a good story here where Day is constantly being prevented from success. Some of the reasons are even comical. Lee Bowman, as the conceited singer, really shows his true ways at the very end of the film. There was a brief period in the film where I actually thought we were going into "A Star is Born," when Day finally makes it and Bowman, her beau, is hitting the bottle. S.Z. Sakall doesn't offer much in the movie. Of course, he fractures the English language once more with his line "Alcholics Unanimous." Selena Royle, his wife in the film, is given little to do. Eve Arden is back with Carson, and she is given some of the biting lines. Adolph Menjou, as the radio producer, also offers very little here. It doesn't take much to realize that Day didn't at first succeed given the type of sings she was singing. They were absolutely awful, but the title song "My Dreams is Yours" was memorable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie - I thought Doris Day/Jack Carson were especially great and who cannot mention the great Eve Arden who is always a jewel as well as Cuddles!! The movie is great entertainment and I loved it. While this movie is over 50 years of age, it still is current and upbeat and fun. The pace of the film is quick and lively; the singing is great and the storyline good. I wish the films of today would be a repeat of My Dream is Yours - I know that times have changed, but music is music and it seems that musical pictures are a thing of the past and what a shame that is but then I guess musical talent such as Doris Day/Judy Garland, etc. are no longer available. That, too, is a shame.

My mom often tells me about how, growing up in Galena Park, Texas, the local cinema was the hot place. Among her favorite flicks there were Vincent Price's stuff (deliberate camp); among her least favorite flicks were Doris Day's stuff (the wholesome girl next door). Watching "My Dream Is Yours", I can see why she had no respect for these sorts of movies. This one is an infantilizing story of a cute-and-nothing-else woman getting her break into show biz. I only knew about the movie because one of the Looney Tunes DVDs showed a scene from it in which Bugs Bunny, Doris Day and Jack Carson tell a boy to wake up to the tune of Franz Liszt's "Second Hungarian Rhapsody". The truth is, Liszt must be spinning in his grave knowing how they misused his song here. And the people behind the Looney Tunes cartoons should have known better than to let their greatest creation get used in this swill. But as it is, the Bugs Bunny scene is really the only scene worth watching; in fact, if you watch only that scene, you just might come away with a good impression of the movie. As for me, I watched the movie only to heckle it like Mike, Servo and Crow do to the crummy movies sent them by Dr. Forrester on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (the truth is, "MST3K" would have a field day with "MDIY"). Among my jeers were: (as Jack Carson picks up a phone): "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" (as Jack Carson and Doris Day are about to board the plane): "Hey, I bet Mohammed Atta* is one of your fellow passengers!" "My dream is yours..." "Yeah? Well, my nightmare is this movie!" OK, so I think that I've done as much as I can to describe how stupid this movie was, so I'll now look at it from another angle. I watched this hunk o'junk a few hours after I went to see "Grindhouse". The only similarity between the two movies is that they're both escapism. But the Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino double feature was blatantly absurd, and quite proud of being as gross as possible; it comes out very honorable as a result. This one, on the other hand, believes itself to be as much a masterpiece as "Citizen Kane". I would just like to say that this movie reaches that one's quality about to the extent that "Ishtar" does. In fact, it makes you feel like you're turning into one of the zombies from "Grindhouse". In fact, while Doris Day's character was supposed to be cute, I just prefer to believe that she was uglier than any of those zombies. In conclusion, unless you're one of those people who thinks that any hokey movie turns into a masterpiece just because a bunch of people start singing, you'll definitely want to avoid this movie. In fact, one thing that you could do is rent the movie but go straight to the special features and watch the Looney Tunes cartoon "A Ham in a Role", in which the Goofy Gophers torment a Shakespearean actor. Stick with that one and avoid "My Dream Is Yours" (except maybe the Bugs Bunny scene). *In case you've forgotten, Mohammed Atta was one of the 9/11 hijackers. If you consider it illogical to mention him and "Grindhouse" while reviewing this movie...well, I consider this movie as much a piece of crap as any of the 9/11 hijackers, and I think that I speak for at least most of my generation when I say that we far prefer gross-out exploitation movies to anything starring Doris Day.

What a waste of my time. This dull film provided the 25 year old Doris Day with an opportunity to pay her bills and pad out her c.v. Apart from that, it serves no purpose at all, and shouldn't belong in the Day canon. Bring on the 1950's.

One of the best of Doris Day's early Warner Brothers films is My Dream Is Your's. In this one she's a World War II widow with a young son who is also a singer looking for a big break in radio. In a sense My Dream Is Your's was dated before it hit the theaters in 1949. That thing known as television was starting to spread across the land and someone looking for a break in radio that year would have had to have one's head examined. As many of radio's top personalities were moving to television, there were more opportunities in radio than ever before. This film was done at the tail end of radio as it ended its thirty year run as an entertainment media. It took several years for radio to redefine itself as a news/entertainment media that it is today. Still the plot is a nice one. Doris has two men to choose from here, an egotistical radio singer that makes the ladies swoon as Frank Sinatra did played by Lee Bowman and a talent agent who discovers Day and sticks with her played by Jack Carson. Some of Doris's finest words of praise about her co-workers in her memoirs were written about Jack Carson. This part may have been closer to the real Carson than the usually egotistical blowhards Carson took a patent out on in Hollywood. Doris went out with him a few times in her early days at the studio and she describes him as a sweet, kind, lovable man who unfortunately drank a little too much. Her scenes with Carson show the real affection she had for him though. Harry Warren made a return visit to the studio where he wrote so much lasting movie music in the Thirties. He wrote the title song which sold a few platters for Doris back in the day(no pun intended) and a few other new songs. Several of his old songs got into the film as well they should because the studio owned them already. One was a nice ballad called I'll String Along With You that Dick Powell introduced and Doris sang as a lullaby to her son. That record also sold pretty well for her. The new songs had lyrics by Ralph Blane. Jack Warner, not to be outdone by Louis B. Mayer, got a couple of his animated stars to appear in My Dream Is Your's with Day and Carson the same way Jerry Mouse danced with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. It's done in a very charming child's dream sequence and not to be missed by animation fans of that wascally wabbit known as Bugs Bunny. My Dream Is Your's also boasts one fine set of character players, as good as you'll find in any film. You can never go wrong with a film that has Adolphe Menjou, S.Z. Sakall, Eve Arden, and Edgar Kennedy all at their finest. This was in fact the farewell film for Edgar Kennedy and you can see how ill he is in his scenes as Doris's uncle. Maybe if My Dream Is Your's had been done a year later we would have been talking about Carson getting Day a break on television. But the film would have been just as good.

The cast, the film's swiping at radio and film, that it was a musical (something that would fill some people's heads with dread but count me as a fan) and that it was directed by Michael Curtiz are reasons enough to see 'My Dream is Yours'. While all have done better work, most of the film has enough to make it a very well done worthwhile film. Adolphe Menjou is pretty wasted and does little with his role, that if given more to do in material and given more screen time could have been really juicy. The satirical elements do fare very nicely and induces a great deal of amusement, but there are parts that could have had more bite, some of it was a little too on the safe, gentle side. 'My Dream is Yours', as has been noted, is not perfect but has a lot that works. However, 'My Dream is Yours' is a beautiful-looking film, the colour is lavish and the production and costume designs as elegant as can be. Curtiz directs admirably once again, again more proof that he could direct musicals very competently and was undervalued. Very memorable songs help, especially the lovely "I'll String Along With You". Choreographically it's exuberantly witty and graceful, with one of the highlight scenes being the sheer dazzling delight that is the animated sequence. 'My Dream is Yours' is scripted with much nostalgic charm, a pleasant wit that does bite with Eve Arden and it avoids being too sentimental or saccharine. The story is nothing special, but is light on its feet and has such a warm heart that one cannot help being endeared to it. Doris Day has a natural sweetness and sassy spunk that suits her down to the ground, and her singing as always is heavenly. Jack Carson is somewhat unconventional as a leading man in the type of role he has here, but he displays immense likability here. Eve Arden is classy and sharp in wit, and while it is a samey role for him it is the curmudgeonly role that SZ Sakall excels in very well. On the whole, very pleasant and fun, well worth catching. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Doris Day's second feature may have been written expressly for the hot new talent, what with a feisty character similar to her own personality involved in familiar circumstances. Radio show producer Jack Carson loses his temperamental star and has to find a new and exciting singer, 'accidentally' hearing perky Doris delivering a ditty and giving her a break. Playing a single mom and working girl, Day eventually goes to Hollywood yet doesn't forget her old chum, who has become a romantic partner. Extremely minor offering from Warner Bros. overdoses a bit on Day's natural spunk, though she does have a few nice numbers and works very comfortably with Carson. This is the movie with the elaborate Bugs Bunny dream sequence, which doesn't have a lot to do with what's going on but is colorful nevertheless. ** from ****

Warner Brothers made two very, very similar films--one after the other and with the same two stars. In fact, they are so similar, I could easily see viewers confusing the two pictures. "My Dream is Yours" and "It's a Great Feeling" BOTH star Doris Day as a young woman hoping to be discovered and a fast-talking guy, Jack Carson, promises to make her a star. However, "It's a Great Feeling" is more of a comedy and "My Dream is Your Dream" is a bit more of a romance. Both are about equally good in my opinion. Martha Gibson (Day) has a lovely voice--and Doug (Carson) is determined to try to get her on the radio. However, again and again, Doug is either unable to get her an audition or folks insist she must be a 'name' before they'll put her on the air. Eventually, Doug is able to get Martha a break--when Gary (Lee Bowman) shows up drunk for his show--and after that, her career takes off. But, one problem persists--she's a single mom and Doug insists on finding her the perfect man. Towards the end of the film, there is an odd animated sequence where Bugs Bunny, Tweety and a bunch of birds appear. Even odder are Day's and Carson's outfits and choreography for this sequence. Unfortunately, the sequence falls flat, as there were much better live-action/cartoon hybrids from the period--such as with Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry Mouse or Esther Williams swimming with Tom and Jerry. This one in "My Dream is Yours" just seems pretty pointless and unnecessary. Fortunately, although this slows down the film and isn't needed, the acting and singing are good throughout the film and it is enjoyable and worth seeing. It won't change your life, but it's nice.

When radio singer Lee Bowman refuses to renew his contract, talent scout Jack Carson ventures out to look for a new star. He finds Doris Day - a significant improvement! The story is similar to "A Star Is Born". How Ms. Day goes undiscovered for so long with such a striking voice is not convincing. Day is a single parent (in the film, it is stated that she lost her husband during World War II), which helps set up the film's highlight - a cute dream sequence for her son features an animated Bugs Bunny. The soundtrack isn't exceptional, but Day performs the songs well. "My Dream Is Yours" is colorful and routine. **** My Dream Is Yours (1949) Michael Curtiz ~ Doris Day, Jack Carson, Eve Arden