This charming and delightful Warner Bros riposte to MGM's Meet Me in St Louis is an elegantly designed but slight musical comedy that beautifully evokes its early-20th-century setting. It features an almost identical family - Leon Ames plays the father in both films - and Doris Day shines as the tomboyish heroine, surrounded by warm-hearted character players such as Mary Wickes and Rosemary DeCamp. Based on the novel Alice Adams and the "Penrod" stories by Booth Tarkington (The Magnificent Ambersons), this was so popular that the same cast was reunited two years later for an equally perky sequel, By the Light of the Silvery Moon.

The Winfield family moves into a new house in a small town in Indiana. Tomboy Marjorie Winfield begins a romance with William Sherman who lives across the street. Marjorie has to learn how to dance and act like a proper young lady. Unfortunately William Sherman has unconventional ideas for the time. His ideas include not believing in marriage or money, which causes friction with Marjorie's father, who is the local bank vice president