This lightweight 20th Century-Fox Technicolor musical stars
Dan Dailey as Bill Carter, a widowed comic strip illustrator and
June Haver as Jeannie, the title character, a glamorous Broadway star. When next-door-neighbors Bill and Jeannie fall in love, Bill's son Joe (
Billy Gray) seethes with resentment. Fortunately, Joe's schoolmate (and erstwhile sweetheart) Kitty (
Mary Jane Saunders) convinces the boy that the world would be a sorry place without couples, using Noah's Ark as an example. This provides the cue for an extended animated cartoon sequence, courtesy of UPA Studios (then under contract to Columbia: Fox's house cartoonists at Terrytoons weren't quite up to the assignment). Naturally, the film finds time for a few engaging song-and-dance interludes, performed by Dailey and Haver. What really makes
The Girl Next Door click is the unforced camaraderie between
Dan Dailey and little
Billy Gray. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide