Inside jokes are hilarious

Today I rewatched an old favorite, "It's a Great Feeling," with Jack Carson, Doris Day, and Dennis Morgan. I love this film in part because it's one huge inside joke; Doris Day is a young girl from Gurkey's Corners, Wisconsin who's in Hollywood to become a movie star, and she's discovered by Morgan and Carson, who play themselves. As do a host of other Warner Bros. stars, such as Edward G. Robinson, Joan Crawford (whose scene I just adore, it's so funny), Gary Cooper ("Yep"), Sydney Greenstreet, Danny Kaye, Patricia Neal, Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman (and daughter Maureen Reagan), and directors Michael Curtiz (who famously said, "Bring on the empty horses!" the title of David Niven's autobiography), King Vidor, and Raoul Walsh. The running joke is that no one at Warners' wants to work with Jack Carson because he's "such a ham." Which he sometimes was, but I love him for it. He was so great in "Mildred Pierce." I love his line, "Oh, boy, I'm so smart it's a disease."

Doris Day goes through various adventures trying (with help from Jack and Dennis) to win the attention of studio head Arthur Trent. In the end (and I have to spoil the ending because it is so damn cute) she winds up going home to Wisconsin to marry her fiance, Jeffrey Bushdinkle, played in a wee little cameo by...Errol Flynn. I fall out laughing every time I see that. The movie overall is really funny, and I highly recommend it, if you should happen to come across it on TCM.