It's a Great Feeling
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
David Butler
Dennis Morgan
Doris Day
Jack Carson
Bill Goodwin
Irving Bacon
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
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 fiancé. 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.
Director
David Butler
Cast
Dennis Morgan
Doris Day
Jack Carson
Bill Goodwin
Irving Bacon
Claire Carleton
Mazzone-abbott Dancers
Harlan Warde
Jacqueline De Wit
Raoul Walsh
King Vidor
Michael Curtiz
David Butler
Gary Cooper
Ronald Reagan
Jane Wyman
Maureen Reagan
Sydney Greenstreet
Ray Heindorf
Danny Kaye
Joan Crawford
Edward G. Robinson
Eleanor Parker
Patricia Neal
Errol Flynn
Ray Montgomery
Janet Barrett
Buddy Gorman
Cosmo Sardo
Wendy Lee
Robert Cherry
Ralph Littlefield
Alfredo Nunez
Henry Mirelez
Ruben Yuriar
Nita Talbot
Eve Whitney
Carol Brewster
Sue Casey
Joan Vohs
Lois Austin
Frank Cady
James Holden
Mark Strong
Jean Andren
Forbes Murray
Tom Dugan
Victor Holbrook
Al Billings
Mickey Mcmasters
George Sherwood
Bunty Cutler
Peter Meersman
Rod Rogers
Olan Soule
Georges Renavent
Jan Bryant
Dudley Dickerson
Sandra Gould
Edward Clark
Shirley Ballard
George Calliga
Albert Petit
Carli Elinor
Paul Bradley
Eugene Beday
Waclaw Rekwart
Albert Pollet
Marcel De La Brosse
Crew
Milo Anderson
Sammy Cahn
Wilfrid M. Cline
Herschel Daugherty
I. A. L. Diamond
Stanley Fleischer
David Forrest
Alex Gottlieb
Ray Heindorf
Natalie Kalmus
H. F. Koenekamp
Mitchell Kovaleski
Frank Mattison
William Mcgann
Irene Morra
Leroy Prinz
Phil Quinn
Lyle B. Reifsnider
Jack Rose
Mel Shavelson
Jule Styne
Dolph Thomas
Perc Westmore
Photo Collections
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Song
Articles
It's a Great Feeling
It's a Great Feeling, a musical satire of the movie business in general and Warner Bros. studios in particular, was the brainchild of screenwriter I.A.L. Diamond, later to win fame as Billy Wilder's chief collaborator. Frequent costars Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson play themselves, and the movie's conceit is that Carson is such an egomaniac that no director or leading lady wants to work with him on the actor's next film. This provides an excuse for rare cameo appearances by Warner's stable of directors including David Butler (the director of It's a Great Feeling), Michael Curtiz (director of Romance on the High Seas), King Vidor and Raoul Walsh. Adding to the authentic (if exaggerated) atmosphere are many views of the studio lot, plus creatively scripted appearances by Warner stars Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Sydney Greenstreet, Danny Kaye, Patricia Neal, Eleanor Parker, Ronald Reagan, Edward G. Robinson and Jane Wyman. Day's songs in the film include "At the Cafe Rendezvous," "That Was a Big Fat Lie," "Blame My Absent-Minded Heart" and the title tune, which won an Oscar nomination as Best Song.
Day plays a waitress in the Warner commissary who is, of course, a natural for the spot as Morgan and Carson's leading lady. When the two male stars try to outdo each other in vying for her affections, she gets fed up and returns to marry good old Jeffrey Bushfinkle -- who just happens to look a lot like Warner's star Errol Flynn! Day wrote in her autobiography that the "great ending," as the happy couple turn to face the camera and the groom is revealed as Flynn, was for her the movie's most memorable moment.
Day also wrote that she owed a huge debt of gratitude to Jack Carson, who acted with her in her first three movies, which also included My Dream Is Yours (1949). "He helped me enormously with my technical indoctrination into movie acting," she wrote. "He taught me dozens of tricks about how to move to precise camera marks without actually looking for them, how to handle myself in close-ups so that my face or profile rather than the back of my head would be in a shot, how to sustain the evenness of a performed scene.... Since we were also going together, we'd often discuss some of these things in the evening, and there's no doubt that my relationship with Jack helped me considerably in my early going."
Producer: Alex Gottlieb
Director: David Butler
Screenplay: Jack Rose, Mel Shavelson, from story by I.A.L. Diamond
Cinematography: Wilfred M. Cline
Art Direction: Stanley Fleischer
Original Music: Jule Styne, Howard Jackson (uncredited)
Editing: Irene Morra
Costume Design: Milo Anderson
Principal Cast: Dennis Morgan (Himself), Doris Day (Judy Adams), Jack Carson (Himself), Bill Goodwin (Arthur Trent), Irving Bacon (RR Information Clerk). Uncredited Guest Appearances: David Butler, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Michael Curtiz, Sydney Greenstreet, Ray Heindorf, Danny Kaye, Patricia Neal, Eleanor Parker, Ronald Reagan, Edward G. Robinson, King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, Jane Wyman.
C-85m.
by Roger Fristoe
It's a Great Feeling
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was Two Guys and a Gal. Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn's song "It's Great Feeling" was nominated for an Academy Award. The picture marked the screen debut of actress Nita Talbot.