THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP

Bob Cummings with the three smart girls.

THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP (1939). Director: Henry Koster.

In this inferior sequel to Three Smart Girls, the "girls" are now young ladies with romantic problems. Their parents (Charles Winninger; Nella Walker) are back together and Joan (Nan Grey) is happily affianced to Richard (William Lundigan of Andy Hardy's Double Life). Unfortunately sister Kay (Helen Parrish) has fallen in love with Richard herself, a rather interesting situation that, unfortunately, never becomes entertainingly melodramatic. Sister Penny (Deanna Durbin) keeps throwing Harry Loren (Robert Cummings) in Kay's direction, to take her mind off Richard, but Harry rather rudely makes it clear that his interest is strictly in Penny. Durbin [It Started with Eve], the sole name to appear above the title, showing how her status had grown, gives a good performance, as does Winninger, and the rest are all more than competent.

Verdict: Pleasant if forgettable. **1/2.

CAN'T HELP SINGING

Deanna Durbin and some spectacular scenery

CAN'T HELP SINGING (1944). Director: Frank Ryan.

When Caroline (Deanna Durbin),  a senator's daughter, learns that he disapproves of the man she loves and hopes to marry -- the opportunistic Lt. Robert Latham (David Bruce) -- she runs off into the wild west after him. Along the way she runs into some colorful characters, as well as a new romantic interest in the form of Lawlor (Robert Paige). Can't Help Singing has some pleasant tunes by composer Jerome Kern (especially the title tune), and Durbin and Paige [Fired Wife] make a very good team. Durbin, whose voice seemed to get even better as she got older, also became a bit double-chinned and puffy, but was still attractive. The handsome production boasts beautiful photography [Elwood Bredell and W. Howard Greene], and some good performances from the leads, along with Ray Collins [Hideout] as Durbin's father; Akim  Tamiroff (out west!) and Olin Howlin/Howland as two likable scoundrels; Bruce as the lieutenant; and Jay Novello [Atlantis, the Lost Continent] as a "sucker."

Verdict: One of the better Deanna Durbin musicals. ***.

NICE GIRL?

Franchot Tone, Deanna Durbin, Robert Stack

NICE GIRL? (1941). Director: William A. Seiter.

Small-town girl Jane Dana (Deanna Durbin) has a perfectly swell, handsome boyfriend in Don Webb (Robert Stack of The Tarnished Angels), but wanting to appear more sophisticated, she makes a flagrant play for an older man, Richard Calvert (Franchot Tone of Honeymoon), which only makes her seem like an idiot. That's basically the plot of this dull movie that hasn't enough drama or laughs to make it even worth sitting through -- not even Durbin's singing can save it! There are some good actors in it, including Robert Benchley [The Bride Wore Boots] as Jane's father; Helen Broderick as a housekeeper, Cora; and Walter Brennan (almost looking young) as a mailman who has a hankering for Cora. Ann Gillis and Anne Gwynne play Jane's younger sisters, and we've also got Elisabeth Risdon from the Mexican Spitfire movies and Kenneth Howell from the Jones Family series in much smaller roles.

Verdict: This picture is so slight it hardly seems to exist. *1/2.

THREE SMART GIRLS

THREE SMART GIRLS (1936). Director: Henry Koster.

Dorothy Craig (Nella Walker) has been divorced from her wealthy husband, Judson (Charles Winninger) for years, when she discovers that he's keeping company with a marriage-minded gal named Donna (Binnie Barnes). Her three daughters, who haven't seen their father in ten years, jet from Switzerland to New York City -- along with nanny-maid Martha (Lucile Watson) -- to break Judson and Donna up and reunite their parents. Three Smart Girls sort of glosses over the fact that there's no excuse for a father not to see his own daughters in a decade, but as he's played by the "lovable" Winninger, it's made more palatable, if not quite excusable. You have to wonder why Judson would have the slightest interest in seeing his wife again let alone remarrying her. The three sisters are Joan (Nan Grey of Dracula's Daughter), who falls for her father's associate, Bill (John King of Charlie Chan in Honolulu); mousy Kay (Barbara Read), who is unaccountably pursued by Lord Michael Stuart (Ray Milland); and Penny (Deanna Durbin), who is the youngest and most high-spirited of the bunch. Universal obviously put the publicity push strictly behind Durbin, giving her several song numbers to showcase her glorious voice, and letting the other two gals sink or swim. Grey had quite a few credits before Three Smart Girls, while this was the first picture for Read, who had a few later credits. Except for a short, this was also Durbin's first movie. Whatever its flaws, Three Smart Girls is amusing, entertaining and well-acted by all, with Barnes especially good as Donna, and Alice Brady [Beauty for Sale] scoring as her mother. Mischa Auer is quite funny as a man hired by the girls to romance Donna. Followed by Three Smart Girls Grow Up.

Verdict: Cute picture with a winning Durbin and others. ***.

IT STARTED WITH EVE

Odd pair: Laughton with Durbin

IT STARTED WITH EVE (1941). Director: Henry Koster,

Deana Durbin and Charles Laughton in the same movie? But then, Laughton also did a film with Abbott and Costello, no snob he. In this engaging picture, Laughton is Jonathan Reynolds, a supposedly dying millionaire who wants to meet his son, Johnny's (Bob Cummings), fiancee, Gloria (Margaret Tallichet) before he kicks off. As Margaret isn't available and time is of the essence (or so it seems), Johnny importunes aspiring singer and hat check girl Anne Terry (Deanna Durbin) to pretend to be Gloria for a few hours. But Reynolds rallies and Anne finds she must keep up the deception a bit longer, especially if she wants a chance to meet the old man's show biz connections. And then the real Gloria shows up with her harridan of a mother (Catherine Doucet) ... Laughton and Durbin actually play well together, and this is one of the latter's better performances, possibly because of the company she's keeping. This kind of material was Bob Cummings' bread and butter and he's fine, and Laughton is excellent in an unusual role for him. Durbin did a lot of movies but It Started with Eve isn't just a "Deanna Durbin Movie," although she delivers the requisite song numbers [and does them well]. Mantan Moreland has a funny bit or two as a porter, and Guy Kibbee and Walter Catlett are terrific as the Bishop and Reynold's nervous [and we can assume inept] doctor. Anne comes off a bit self-centered at times, and it's interesting that the fiancee, usually a nasty person in these movies, actually seems kind of nice and sympathetic, even if her mother is a horror. Tallichet gave a fine performance in Stranger on the Third Floor; she was married to William Wyler.

Verdict: Amusing and pleasant romantic comedy with music. ***.

LADY ON A TRAIN

David Bruce and Deanna Durbin

LADY ON A TRAIN (1945). Director: Charles David.

Nikki Collins (Deanna Durbin) is on a train a few minutes from Grand Central Station when she sees a man being murdered from the window. [Agatha Christie used a similar premise -- on an English train, of course -- 12 years later, and did a lot more with it.] Unable to explain the situation with any intelligence to the police due to her "cute" ditsyness, she decides to take her problem to a well-known mystery writer, Wayne Morgan (David Bruce), but his girlfriend (Patricia Morison) objects to her presence. Learning the identity of the murdered man, she attends the reading of his will, and is mistaken for his paramour as in Something in the Wind. [And this takes place at Christmas time as in Durbin's Christmas Holiday.] The actual paramour is Margo Martin (Maria Palmer), a singer at the Circus nightclub, where some of the action  takes place. And so on. This is a fairly dull comedy-mystery, but at least the identity of the murderer may come as a slight surprise. Edward Everett Horton nearly walks off with the picture as an apoplectic employee of Nikki's father; Elizabeth Patterson gives Durbin a good whack in the face at one point when she thinks she's gotten all of the dead man's money; and William Frawley [Fred Mertz] is funny as a desk sergeant who thinks Nikki is nuts. Otherwise, there are only a couple of chuckles in this. Dan Duryea, Ralph Bellamy and Allan Jenkins are also in the cast, and dour George Coulouris seems to be in another movie entirely. Durbin warbles "Silent Night," "Give Me a Little Kiss" [in the nightclub], and "Night and Day" and does a fine job with all of them. Her acting is only so-so, however. Durbin later married the director.

Verdict: Some nice things but it isn't very good all told. **.

SOMETHING IN THE WIND

O'Connor, Durbin and Dall

SOMETHING IN THE WIND (1947). Director: Irving Pichel.

When Donald Read (John Dall of Rope) discovers that his late grandfather was making payments to a certain "Mary Collins," he mistakenly assumes that the lady in question is a pretty young radio singer (Deanna Durbin) and that she was grandpop's mistress. Actually the Mary Collins who received the checks for all those years was the singer's aunt, who had been dumped by the society-conscious old man many years before; the whole check business is more or less innocent. Young Mary is virtually kidnapped by the Read family and brought to their mansion, where she decides to torment them by not revealing the truth. Even though Donald has a fiancee, Clarissa (Helena Carter), he is drawn to Mary even as his brother, Charlie (Donald O'Connor) wants Clarissa for himself. Further muddying the waters is larcenous Uncle Chester (Charles Winninger), who hopes to exploit the situation for his own benefit. Something in the Wind is amiable enough, with Dall and Durbin making a better romantic pairing than expected; the trouble with the movie is that it isn't really that funny, and while Durbin is competent, she isn't exactly a skilled comedienne. Her singing is lovely, however, and she even manages to acquit herself admirably doing a duet from Verdi's Il trovatore with tenor Jan Peerce (who plays a singing cop and is quite good as well as in fine voice). Margaret Wycherly adds a touch of class as the grandmother who wants to size up her late husband's cutie. O'Connor is as adept and exuberant as ever, but his novelty song numbers are not that amusing. Helena Carter later appeared in such films as Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye with Cagney and in the sci fi not-so-classic Invaders from Mars.

Verdict: Mostly for Durbin fans but not bad. **1/2.

FIRST LOVE

Stack and Durbin

FIRST LOVE (1939). Director: Henry Koster.

"A flat tire on an $8000 automobile -- that's impossible!" -- Barbara

Connie (Deanna Durbin) is the poor relation of the wealthy Clinton family, with whom she goes to live after she graduates from a girls' school. Her uncle (Eugene Pallette) has as little to do as possible with his wife (Leatrice Joy) and spoiled children Barbara (Helen Parrish) and Walter (Lewis Howard), the latter of whom does nothing all day but sit around looking bored and sleepy. Barbara is a little jealous of Connie, and the film takes a Cinderella twist when she conspires to keep Connie away from a ball held by the family of Ted Drake (Robert Stack of Written on the Wind). However, the servants in the household conspire to make sure Connie gets to the ball while the others are delayed for hours. Durbin is quite good in a film clearly tailored for her particular talents, and she does a creditable job with "One Fine Day" from Madame Butterfly, although she's definitely no Renata Tebaldi. The movie has a strange, almost mean-spirited sequence with Connie's old teacher Mrs. Wiggins (Kathleen Howard, who is also very good) warning her away from the life of an old maid schoolteacher,  a whole bunch of whom weep during Butterfly as Wiggins predicts. This was Robert Stack's first movie, and he looks handsome if a little odd. Jack Mulhall and Mary Treen are also in the cast.

Verdict: Durbin fanatics will enjoy; all others beware. **1/2.

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (1944). Director: Robert Siodmak.

Now here's a weird one. Someone got the idea of taking a serious novel by Somerset Maugham (The Razor's Edge and many others) and casting Gene Kelly and, of all people, Deanna Durbin in the leads -- talk about epic miscasting. True, neither of these actors exactly disgrace themselves, it's just that you can imagine what a wholly different picture this would have been with different leads. But in any case, it wouldn't have been much good. Lt Mason (an effective Dean Harens) has just been jilted by his fiancee when he meets up with a singer named "Jackie" (Durbin), whose real name is Abigail but who changed it after her husband, Robert (Kelly) was convicted of murder. Most of Christmas Holiday consists of flashbacks as Jackie pours out her story [seemingly at the drop of a hat] to the kind lieutenant. Robert remains a shadowy character, however, and we never really learn the details of his crime nor anything about his victim. We do get to know his strange mother (Gale Sondergaard), who does the best she can with another underwritten role. Richard Whorf, who later became a director, plays a reporter named Simon, and Gladys George is cast as Valerie, who runs the club that Jackie sings at. Kelly does no singing or dancing, but Durbin gets to warble "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" and "Always," the film's signature tune. There's an interesting segue from a Beethoven concert to a dance club, but Christmas Holiday has the gall to use Wagner's liebestod from "Tristan and Isolde" to try to add dramatic heft to this kitsch. It doesn't work, although, ironically, the best scene in the movie has Kelly and Durbin listening to the music and being, quite understandably, moved by it. Durbin did seven more films before retiring four years later. Harens did two more films and then had a long list of credits in television.

Verdict: With these leads the fare should be much lighter. **.