Shine on Harvest Moon

When this film was made, "ghost singers" did not get screen credit for dubbing: Ms. Sheridan's singing voice was that of my (deceased) mother-in-law, Lynn Martin. (Incidentally, Lynn Martin was also the voice of Rita Hayworth in "Gilda" !!) We were delighted to catch "Shine on Harvest Moon" on 7/24/2000 on Turner Classic Movies: now we at last have a wonderful copy of my wife's mother's talented voice!

Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan, as singing duo Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, are wonderful portraying the Broadway stars who had to struggle just to perform together.

The beautiful Ann Sheridan does a fine job portraying a women who loves her partner but is willing to make a sacrifice for what she believes will help his career.

Kudos to the production crew for a visually enjoyable movie. Add in a few good musical numbers and you have a fun, uplifting movie with an occasional bittersweet moment thrown in for good measure.

And, with all due respect to Lynn Martin, who did the vocals for Ann Sheridan, I personally would like to have heard Ann Sheridan sing in this movie. Perhaps a special edition will surface one day for Shine On, Harvest Moon.

The comment posted before mine was unfortunately inaccurate. Lynn Martin did provide the vocals for Ann Sheridan in this film. While the studio had trusted her untrained but acceptable voice in a great number of dramas, thrillers and minor musicals before this, they were not ready to let her tackle a major musical with her own voice. The whole idea of a voice double is to sound as similar as possible to the person on screen. Lynn Martin was the perfect choice, even a certain nasal tone, but a much more polished sound. If you have the chance to hear her in quite a few low-budget musicals she sang in at other studios, you will recognize her immediately. She did not have to change her voice much to be a great match for Ann Sheridan and this is why she was chosen. Personally, as much as I love Ann Sheridan, i think she sounded much better with a professional singing voice.

A lot of well-known actors and actresses sang in scores of films but were dubbed just once or twice - that is not unusual at all. The same happened to Dorothy Lamour, Carole Landis, Shirley Temple and Patricia Morison (of KISS ME KATE fame) among others. So this is not even a factor.

(But it is true that Lynn Martin NEVER dubbed Rita Hayworth at any point.)

Offered as a biopic of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, this is stereotypical Hollywood nonsense about their bad luck, with a total of four songs written by the principals out of twenty-one. Ann Sheridan as Miss Bayes has her singing dubbed by Lynn Martin, and Dennis Morgan as Norworth presumably doing his own. Jack Carson and Marie Wilson pop up every quarter of an hour or so as a magician and his assistant, and Irene Manning yearns for Morgan and also sings some songs. The movie is in black and white until the final medley, and moves right along.

In reality Norworth was Bayes' second of five husbands, she prospered as a comic singer, and became the star of Ziegfeld's first two Follies; she walked out on the third and returned to vaudeville, while Norworth, after their divorce, carved out a very successful career as a Broadway performer. Miss Bayes died in 1928 at the age of 47; Norworth in 1959 at the age of 80, having had nothing to do with this movie but selling his name.

My main reason for watching the movie was Ann Sheridan. I loved watching her on the big screen. The song Jack Carson sang to Marie Wilson eked me too. Did not like it. It also was worth watching for the period clothes. All in All, Not Bad. It was also an education on the way Music was sold then. Something like In the Good old Summertime with Judy Garland.Marie Wilson really played a Great part as she was very Intelligent. She was really Typecast most of the time. I believe she played same type of Character on the Radio too. The Color was a Great idea. I think all Musicals should be in Color,especially 42Nd st. Even Dennis Morgan clothes looked better in Color.