"Moonlight in Vermont" was another of the many "B" musicals made by Universal during the war years, targeted towards the younger crowd. Like others of the genre, this movie is fast-paced, breezy, and upbeat, with plenty of song and dance, comedy, and "hep" talk.
The storyline starts out along typical lines: a poor country girl (Gloria Jean) goes to a music school in Vermont to study. From that point, however, there's a pleasant twist. Instead of the girl becoming a Little Miss Fixit and saving the school, the kids in the school head for the girl's farm and help harvest the crops, supposedly saving the farm in the process. As was typical of these "B" musicals, the story is inserted into the song and dance almost as an afterthought, rather than the other way around.
Of course the young viewers cared little about plot subtleties; they weren't there for the story (which is passable) or the acting (which is excellent), The comedy, singing, and dance routines were the main attraction. While the song of the same name as the movie isn't performed, there is plenty of other music. Gloria Jean sings four songs, including Rogers and Hart's popular "Lover". While Donald O'Connor doesn't appear with Jean in this one, his replacement, singer/dancer Ray Malone, is very good, performing a couple of energetic O'Connor-like dance routines, accompanied by the equally energetic Jivin' Jacks and Jills (who appeared in several other Universal pictures, including Jean's "Get Hep to Love", "What's Cookin'?" and "Mister Big").
This is one of the better of Universal's efforts in the "B" musical category. It's tough to find a copy of this movie, but you can order it directly from Gloria Jean on her website. While IMDb policies forbid the posting of URL's, you can find the address by doing a web search of "Gloria Jean Schoonover". It's definitely recommended.
