This film, its sequel By the Light of the Silvery Moon and Calamity Jane are among Doris Day's personal favorites of her own films. Interestingly, in all three, she plays tom-boyish characters who blossom into "might perty" young ladies.
This movie proved to be so popular that the studio immediately green-lit By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) which is a direct sequel with all the actors playing the same characters. This was very unusual at the time.
The film is a direct descendant of Life With Father (1947) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), both of which nostalgically depict middle class family life at the turn of the twentieth century. The main titles in particular are nearly duplicative of those in Life With Father (1947), and composer Max Steiner uses several cues from the earlier film in the exposition sequence. Both films also feature a visiting aunt in the final act of the plot. Warner. Bros. cast Leon Ames as the family's easily exasperated patriarch, a role nearly identical to the one he played in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Other similarities to the M-G-M musical include the young lovers tentatively navigating a darkened house following their first date; the heroine falling for 'the boy next door' (or, in this case, across the street); an acerbic, outspoken housekeeper; an idyllic midwestern setting (in this case, Indiana); the liberal use of period songs incorporated into the story; an extended side plot involving a precocious younger sibling with a vivid imagination who rejects age-appropriate pursuits for mischief that causes constant rifts in the family; a bespectacled, awkward neighbor suitor who doesn't interest the heroine; the coverage of four seasons, beginning in summer and ending in spring, with the younger sibling taking the reins during autumn; and both families are in the throes of moving to a new home.
The success of this film helped catapult Doris Day into the Top Ten Box Office Stars list for 1951. She would make the list nine more times, ascending to the #1 position by the early 1960s.
The exterior of the Winfield family's house, built on a Warner soundstage, was later repainted and used as the family home in another film, 1954's Young at Heart, which co-starred Doris Day and Frank Sinatra.