Movie Review: "How My Miscreant Younger Brother Influenced My Relationship"

Ok.  Truth is that the name of the movie is not How My Miscreant Younger Brother Influenced My Relationship but I do think that if I had been the creative writer responsible for naming it that's what On Moonlight Bay would be known as.   Or alternatively, It Started with a Spank.

hmmm.  Perhaps not.  But you must admit you're interested now, right?

After a long and tiring week at work (in a fairly new and higher role for me) I was looking for something to do which was low effort for maximum enjoyment.  The answer was a girls movie night.

So I made a cheese and fruit platter, set my blender to go on the pina coladas and invited some girlfriends over to paint nails and watch a movie.

 I set up 'the nail bar' which is just a nice way of saying I put out all of my nail polishes for them to peruse and choose.  (I really do need to get some more reds and less pinks and purples in my nail polish collection!)  I donned my pretty mint and white polka dot housecoat and I set my stereo to play Billie Holliday.   Wise Husband had sensed an overload of 'girl stuff' and had escaped to work to study so we had the house to ourselves.

Sassy D and PoisonedKitty arrived and we started the movie.

These two particular girlfriends are both historical costumers so the first 10 minutes of the movie were punctuated with comments about the costumes, hair styles etc. being entirely wrong for the time and the awful tendency of old movies to depict clothes and styles from earlier time periods with a distinct flavour of the (then) current day.   And they are entirely right but I suppose this won't matter a great deal to those outside of the group of historical costumers.

The movie follows the romance of two young people in the early 1900s, tomboy Marjorie (a very young Doris Day) and college boy Bill (Gordon McRae).

Where does the younger miscreant brother, Wesley (Billy Gray), come into the picture?  Their first meeting is caused by Wesley's misdeeds and tomfoolery.  Their wooing is troubled by his cheekiness.  Their love letters are hijacked by his thievery and relations between her father and Bill (already strained) are made disastrous by Wesley's self-serving lies.

You would hope that Wesley gets his comeuppance but the little rotter gets through the whole movie without a single spank.  Alas, the same can't be said for Marjorie.

Though the movie is set about 1915, in a world threatened by war, this romantic comedy stays lighthearted and full of laughs.  Don't expect any war scenes or tearjerker moments, the story stays focused on the lead couple and their bumbling relationship.

Do expect to see pretty outfits on Doris Day, including the sweetest tartan Winter ensemble....

Do expect a little bit of singing and dancing but not so much that it will be overbearing or out of place.   I really must put a word in for Gordon McRae's singing voice here... Doris Day is not the only actor in this picture who can hold a tune nicely!

I really enjoyed the movie and will be trying to hunt down it's sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon to see if the loveable Wesley will ever fall prey to the natural consequences of his shenanigans.