Seeing an opportunity, Elvira pretends to take the trip alone, but in fact sends singer Georgia Garrett (Doris Day), a woman she'd met at the travel agency, in her place and under her name.

Michael, however, is suspicious over Elvira's supposed willingness to go on the trip alone, and so hires private detective Peter Virgil (Jack Carson) to see if she is sneaking around behind his back.

Her personal life was in some turmoil at the time, as her second marriage, to musician George Weidler, was ending, and this, combined with her evident nervousness, led her to deliver a notably teary, emotive version of Embraceable You at the audition.

Earlier, at Universal-International, he had received his initial writing credit on a low-budget mystery before moving on to Warner Brothers, where he wrote Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946), a comedy that featured Jack Carson, one of the four main performers in Romance.

"[10] An anonymous review in small-town Texas newspaper The Kaufman Herald, published in late 1948, asserted that "seldom does a film musical come along which gives all of its stars a chance to shine so much ... Miss Day impresses for her ease and command before the cameras.

Doris Day, who had already achieved a small measure of fame with dance bands and on records, is a vocalist who can act, sing sweet and look pretty all at the same time.

"[13] In later years, Village Voice critic, Molly Haskell, asserted that "whenever I remember [Doris Day's] roles...it is as one of the few movie heroines who had to work for a living.

"[14] In Romance on the High Seas, Day's first film character, Georgia Garrett, is indeed a poor, working-class chanteuse whose favorite pastime is dreaming of ocean voyages she thinks she'll never enjoy.