37 responses so far ↓

• 1 Mark // Dec 5, 2011 at 6:47 pm

  Actually, while Judy rightly became one of the iconic figures of 20th century popular culture, during their (approximately) contemporaneous film careers at Universal and MGM, I think Deanna may have been the bigger star. At her peak, she was a genuine worldwide “phenomenon,” as beloved in Asia as she was in Europe and South America, and even more so in Russia, and she didn’t do badly in the U.S. either

  In any case, I think they were both wonderful talents, and both deservedly became top tier much beloved stars.

• 2 Mark // Dec 5, 2011 at 6:58 pm

  I should also add that in defense of the “wildly overrated” reaction to Deanna’s early vehicles, it should be pointed out that at the time they were released, there had been no such thing as an adolescent female movie star.

  Although there had been films that featured adolescent actresses, such as Bonita Granville’s Oscar-nominated turn in 1936′s THESE THREE, as popular culture’s first “Teen Idol,” it was Deanna Durbin and her films that first proved the viability of what we would now refer to as the “Tween” female star, as an enduring box office attraction and a critically admired commodity.

  The proliferation in subsequent decades of Hayley Millses, Sandra Dees and, more recently, Hillary Duffs and Lindsay Lohans, suggest that adolescent females were always big box office, but this was hardly the case. It took Deanna Durbin to first prove they could be, and at the time, this aspect of her films (and her onscreen maturation, which had never been successfully accomplished by any child star before), were rightly considered to be fresh and innovative to the film industry and the public at large.

• 3 John DiLeo // Dec 5, 2011 at 10:14 pm

  Good points, Mark. Thanks so much for writing. You managed to mention THESE THREE, one of my all-time favorites. Yes, it’s hard today to appreciate the freshness of those early Durbin vehicles, so imitated were they in the years to come. Durbin’s peak years coincided with Garland’s years as a team with Mickey Rooney, while Garland’s peak years, starting with MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, began as Durbin’s career began a slight decline. Too bad Deanna never got a shot at a big MGM musical.

• 4 Mark // Dec 6, 2011 at 12:38 pm

  Isn’t THESE THREE a terrific movie? Granville slams across one of the most malevolent performances by adult or child in film history and she’s matched by Marcia Mae Jones as her frightened “vassal,” Rosemary Wells.

  As for your comments on Deanna, I agree. It would have been great to see her in a first class MGM musical. I also might have enjoyed seeing Judy in a “comedy with music” that was as top notch as the best Durbins at Universal.

  If the reports are to be believed (and I see no reason to doubt them), Deanna turned down many opportunities most musical actresses would have given their eye teeth for. From the film and London stage productions of KISS ME KATE, to originating the roles of “Laurey” and “Eliza Doolittle” in the original Broadway productions of OKLAHOMA! and MY FAIR LADY, to, on her 15th birthday, declining the urgings of Executives at the Metropolitan Opera to arrange an audition for that company, she certainly had her pick of dream jobs, if she’d chosen to accept them.

  What I find fascinating about Deanna’s stardom at Universal is the degree of devotion she inspired in worldwide audiences. It wasn’t enough that she was a “Number One” star at the British box office for four years running, the British also held a weeklong “Deanna Durbin Festival” during which her films were shown exclusively on one of their largest theatre chains.

  In Japan, her prewar popularity was so great that a member of the Japanese Diet took to the floor of that forum to publicly denounce the Japanese people for supporting her pictures so fanatically, reminding them that every ticket purchased was money in the pockets of the hated Americans.

  During the War, it was widely reported that the family albums found on Japanese POWs contained special sections devoted to Deanna, but no other Hollywood stars are mentioned.

  And after the War, General MacArthur specifically chose her 1943 vehicle, HIS BUTLER’S SISTER, as the first American film to be shown in Japan, where it played to packed houses despite ticket prices that were three times higher than those for other films.

  In Europe, Benito Mussonlini wrote a personal letter to her in his personal newspaper Il Popolo, in effect asking her to serve as an example to American Youth to reject FDR’s efforts to bring the U.S. into the “European Conflict.” False reports that Deanna had died were among the most widely circulated by the Axis powers during the War as a means of demoralizing Allied troops, and IT STARTED WITH EVE was the first American film selected to be shown in Paris following D-Day, where police riot squads had to be called to contain the crowds swarming to the theatres to see it.

  Mme David would have quite a story to tell if she ever chose to do so.

• 5 John DiLeo // Dec 7, 2011 at 8:39 am

  Hi Mark,

  Thank you for all those fascinating tidbits about Deanna’s worldwide popularity. I became particularly aware of her ongoing popularity when my book SCREEN SAVERS came out. I got in touch with the Deanna Durbin Society, which is international, because I figured that her fans would be pleased that I had written such a large piece about IT STARTED WITH EVE. Their magazine devoted a half-page to me. I also had contacted Deanna directly when I was in my 20s (in the 80s), just a fan letter. She responded and, as you might have guessed, I have her letter framed.

  Though it seems plausible, even logical, that she would have been offered OKLAHOMA!, it seems a stretch to believe the same about MY FAIR LADY. Hadn’t she been away just a bit too long by then?

  I write an extensive piece about THESE THREE in my upcoming book SCREEN SAVERS 2, which should be out very, very soon. Stay tuned.

• 6 mark // Dec 7, 2011 at 2:08 pm

  Hi John:

  No, I don’t think Deanna would have been away too long for MY FAIR LADY. In her 1983 interview with David Shipman, she mentioned that when Alan Jay Lerner came to her home to audition the score for her, the show was “in an embryonic stage, just a few songs written.”

  She also mentioned that this was before she left for Paris (“I had my ticket to Paris in my pocket.”) so I’m guessing it was some time in the early 1950s. Among other sources, in his memoir Stanley Holloway confirms that she was sought for the role of Eliza.

  In any case, Deanna said that the prospect of doing MY FAIR LADY on Broadway was the only one of the many post-retirement offers she received that “seriously tempted” her to make a comeback.

  I’m glad you’ve received such a favorable response to your book and your chapter on IT STARTED WITH EVE. I’d like to read it some time and will definitely keep an eye out for it.

  That’s great that you’re doing a write-up on THESE THREE in your latest book. It gets some exposure on Turner Classic Movies, but I suspect it isn’t as well known as the 60s version, THE CHILDREN’S HOUR. Personally, I prefer the ’36 version.

  And since this is a blog devoted to Deanna I’ll close by noting that Marcia Mae Jones said that of all the child performers she worked with in her career, Deanna was her favorite co-star.

• 7 John DiLeo // Dec 7, 2011 at 10:41 pm

  Thanks, Mark, for all that info on Deanna’s brush with MY FAIR LADY. Really fascinating. Are you a professional film historian?

  You can read my IT STARTED WITH EVE chapter as a separate download for just 99 cents, if you have Kindle, Nook, or iPad.

  I, too, much prefer THESE THREE over THE CHILDREN’S HOUR. I had a good time comparing them in my new book. And, yes, Marcia Mae Jones is terrific in the earlier version.

• 8 Mark // Dec 9, 2011 at 8:07 pm

  Hi John:

  No, I’m not a professional film historian, but, as someone who’s just downloaded your book and has enjoyed reading some of your previous blogs, I’m very flattered that someone of your talent thought I might be one.

  Over the past several years, I have occasionally appeared as a guest on an overnight talk show hosted by a friend of mine to discuss movies. music, theatre, etc., but that all came about more or less by “accident,” and it’s as close as I’ve ever gotten to the professional side of film/music criticism.

  Anyway, as far as Deanna’s “post retirement” offers are concerned, until he retired from MGM in the late 1960s, Joe Pasternak apparently pursued her with some determination to make a film comeback, and, in an early 1970s interview, stated that he was planning to visit her and had been authorized by a Las Vegas hotel to offer her a blank cheque to appear in concert for one night. (I admit this one sounds farfetched, but, if memory serves, that’s what he said.)

  Among the other films/offers she reportedly declined were a remake of Columbia’s 1934 Grace Moore smash, ONE NIGHT OF LOVE* , a concert tour with the noted conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, the film versions of KISS ME KATE and THE STUDENT PRINCE, a film version of LA BOHEME , and the title role in the 1960s Lionel Bart musical, MAGGIE MAY.

  I’m really looking forward to reading SCREEN SAVERS. It looks to be both a “fun” read and a very informative one!

  *Ironically, 13 year-old “Edna May” Durbin’s (the name by which host Wallace Beery introduces her) performance of the title song of this film on a 1935 broadcast of radio’s SHELL CHATEAU HOUR, reportedly caused the temperamental Miss Moore to ruefully comment: “That little girl is a better singer than I am!” It would’ve been fun to see Deanna in a remake of this classic musical.

• 9 John DiLeo // Dec 9, 2011 at 11:28 pm

  Hey Mark,

  It’s a shame that Universal never gave her a shot at one of the classic operettas, though I guess MGM and Jeanette MacDonald snagged most of the biggies for themselves. But THE STUDENT PRINCE would have been ideal. And it’s nice to imagine what Deanna might have been like in KISS ME KATE. I should look again at I’LL BE YOURS (which I don’t remember very well) because THE GOOD FAIRY is one of my favorite movies.

  Hope you enjoy SCREEN SAVERS and anything else of mine that you read. Keep our conversation going whenever you like.

  Best,
  John

• 10 Mark // Dec 10, 2011 at 10:08 am

  Hi John:

  I don’t know whether you’re aware that, following the prolonged and troubled production history of THE AMAZING MRS. HOLLIDAY (which apparently didn’t suit director Jean Renoir’s European “create as we go” style), producer Bruce Manning suggested abandoning HOLLIDAY and starting a new film: an Americanized version of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW with Deanna as the daughter of a Texas gas station owner.

  According to Deanna, she, Manning and Renoir were all agreeable to the idea, but Renoir left Universal shortly after, citing the flare up of an old World War I injury. If they’d completed the film, it might have provided some insight to how Deanna would have fared with KATE.

  While I would’ve loved to see Deanna in KATE, for Kathryn Grayson’s sake, I’m glad that she was able to do th film, since I consider it both her best film and her best performance.

  As for THE STUDENT PRINCE, unfortunately, Deanna would’ve had to co-star with troubled tenor Mario Lanza, a prospect both Kathryn and Jane Powell apparently adamantly refused to accept. Apparently only the deeply religous Ann Blyth was willing to put up with Lanza’s uber-temperamental behavior. MGM had been attempting to do a musical version of PRINCE since at least the late 1930s, at one point announcing as a debut vehicle for their latest Durbin wannabe, Betty Jaynes, to co-star either Nelson Eddy or Allan Jones.

  Widespread rumors that Deanna would be co-starred in a film with Lanza (who apparently was very eager to co-star with her) began as early as the early 1950s, and Deanna was reportedly also considered for the role of “Dorothy Caruso” in THE GREAT CARUSO (another role Blyth played).

  It got to the point where Deanna herself issued a denial that she was working on a project with Lanza, stating that she had only met him once at a party and that reports that MGM was attempting to arrange her signing thorugh her agent were false because she didn’t have one.

  Among the properties Universal/Universal-International purchased as starring vehicles for Deanna were the film rights to the Broadway hits BLOOMER GIRL and SONG OF NORWAY. I think they may also have bought the rights to ONE TOUCH OF VENUS for her. I could see her doing a terrific job with any of these roles. Proposed orignal film projects included an “opera film” to be made in Italy, and a co-starring Western musical with John Wayne which Yvonne DeCarlo eventually did, opposite Rod Cameron.

  Let me know what you think of I’LL BE YOURS. I’ll reserve my comments on it for another time.

  I’m looking forward to reading SCREEN SAVERS. and I’ll let you know my thoughts on some of your critiques as I get through them. I really enjoy your naturalistic writing style: it’s entertaining as well as informative, not always the case with film criticism.

  Take Care,
  Mark

• 11 John DiLeo // Dec 10, 2011 at 5:01 pm

  Thanks, again, Mark, for all those delicious tidbits of behind-the-scenes info regarding Deanna’s career. A Texan SHREW sounds like a lot of fun, as does a film of BLOOMER GIRL. I guess we just have to be grateful for the best of the films that she did make.

  I’m glad she wasn’t talked into the thankless Blyth role in THE GREAT CARUSO. I’m not much of a Grayson fan but I agree that she was never better than in KISS ME KATE. More than Blyth or Grayson, I think Jane Powell was the closest to Durbin in terms of vocal talent, star quality, a flair for comedy, and a natural screen presence.

  Thanks, too, for your good words about my writing.

• 12 Mark // Dec 10, 2011 at 6:04 pm

  You’re welcome, John:

  I’m glad you’ve enjoyed them. I agree with your high opinion of Jane Powell, who I had the great pleasure of meeting and chatting with personally for a few minutes several years ago, when she appeared on a local talk show to promote her autobiography. She was (and still is) a beautiful and charming lady, and like Deanna Durbin, I think her talents have been largely underrated through the years, even by devoted film buffs.

  (Incidentally, I was pleased with your high praise for her beautifully judged performance in SEVEN BRIDES in your essay on the film in SCREEN SAVERS.)

  Still, though I like and admire them all, when I put on my “critic’s hat,” I have to admit that as singer/actress/screen presence, I think Deanna Durbin was in a class by herself, and easily the finest young soprano Hollywood ever produced.

  The knowing warmth, spontaneity, confidence, and humor with which she imbued her vocals and her acting were unique among Hollywood’s classical vocalists. She evinced none of the heavily formal vocal stylings of her adult operatic contemporaries (e.g., MacDonald, Moore, Pons, Stevens), nor any of the nervous, occasionaly arch and shrill mannerisms displayed by every one of her talented “Teen Soprano” successors. (Most obviously manifested from a vocal standpoint, in an ominpresent fluttery, vibrato.)

  Where these gifts came from is a mystery to me, as Durbin seems to have had less prior professional experience/training before becoming a movie star than any of her enduring child star contemporaries, male or female, singing or non-singing, and is generally recalled as having been quite shy and introspective much of the time, offscreen.

  In his memoir, EASY THE HARD WAY, Joe Pasternak admiringly commented: “Deanna’s genius had to be unfolded but it was hers and hers alone, always has been, and no one can take credit for discovering her.” He may have been right, or, as the late British film critic/historian David Shipman observed of Durbin’s performance in 100 MEN AND A GIRL: “That a fifteen year-old child should have had such a clarity in singing and masterly musicianship is remarkable, but combined with a similar instinct for acting, is nothing of miraculous.”

• 13 John DiLeo // Dec 11, 2011 at 1:30 pm

  I would say that Durbin had the purest vocal sound of any of her competitors, the least mannered soprano voice of them all. As much as I enjoy MacDonald in several of her movies (especially NAUGHTY MARIETTA, in which she’s also quite funny), sometimes her singing can be distressing.

  I’m glad to hear that you share my respect for Powell’s acting ability. I sent her a copy of SCREEN SAVERS and she sent me a very sweet thank-you note. (I wanted her to know that someone out there was touting her dramatic gifts!)

  The problem with the opera stars (Moore, Pons, Stevens) is that none of them, not even Moore who was clearly the most successful in the movies, had the true cinematic star quality (or the prettiness) of a Durbin or a MacDonald.

  Best,
  John

• 14 Mark // Dec 16, 2011 at 2:49 pm

  I think Jeanette was a lovely lady who, both on stage and screen, managed her rather small, slightly brittle instrument with great intelligence. Her singing was usually quite stylized, and sometimes, for me, off-putting, but she always sang with warmth, and, of course, it didn’t hurt that she was a good actress and had great screen presence.

  My favorite of the Mac/Eddy teamings is probably ROSE MARIE. Although it’s often cited as the most arch of their vehicles (because of the iconically campy “Indian Love Call”), before she succumbs to Mountie Nelson and the Colorado Rockies, Jeanette is very funny as the temperamental diva who lights into tenor co-star Allan Jones for holding his climactic high notes as long as she held hers, fires and rehires beleagured manager Reginald Owen as her whims dictate, and in her “fish out of water” scenes as she tramps through the wilderness trying to find younger brother James Stewart before Eddy does.

  I also have to put in a word for her delightful performance of “With a Twinkle in My Eye,” from their last film together, 1942′s I MARRIED AN ANGEL.

  Although often cited as the worst of the Mac/Eddy films, this charming number, in which galpal Binnie Barnes teaches newly married earthbound angel Jeanette how to get what she wants from Nelson’s business associates without offending them with her brutal honesty, is well worth a look.

  Not only does it (and the extended scene that follows) give Jeanette a chance to revisit her more overtly sexy Precode Paramount image, but she and Barnes cut a mean rug, jitterbugging around the room with abandon (even more impressive given Jeanette’s floor length gown and high-heeled shoes!) before shuffling off into the next room.

  I think with the “legit’ opera stars, it was more a case of not being as deft and comfortable before the camera as their cinematic singing sisters. Hollywood’s idea of “glamour” may also have worked against performers like Stevens and Pons, who do often look quite attractive in publicity photos for their Metropolitan Opera roles.

  As for Deanna, one of my favorite comments on her naturalness and versatility as a singer and actress came from Professor Bernard F. Dick’s history of Universal:

  “Whether Durbin sang a popular song or an aria, she made it seem that such art was within everyone’s reach. But that was Durbin: she was the girl next door whose wholesomeness belied her talent. For her, performing “Un bel di” in FIRST LOVE (1939) was as natural as singing “Silent Night” over the telephone to her father in LADY ON A TRAIN (1945), one of her best movies.”

  Take Care,
  Mark

• 15 John DiLeo // Dec 16, 2011 at 10:52 pm

  Hey Mark,

  As I said, my favorite Jeanette perf. is in NAUGHTY MARIETTA, mostly because she is so genuinely funny. (I went so far as to include her perf. as one of my 100 GREAT FILM PERFORMANCES YOU SHOULD REMEMBER BUT PROBABLY DON’T, my 2002 book.) My favorite Jeanette movie is the exquisite LOVE ME TONIGHT. I, too, very much like the early sections of ROSE MARIE, wishing it would just continue being a movie about a diva and forget about Eddy and Stewart altogether. And there certainly are pleasures in I MARRIED AN ANGEL, but you can feel the hopelessness in MGM’s attempt at making MacDonald and Eddy more “1940s,” more “sophisticated.” Their time had passed and there was nothing to be done about it. But they surely had a good run. I’m also particularly fond of MAYTIME.

• 16 Mark // Dec 16, 2011 at 11:56 pm

  Hi John:

  I suppose MacDonald & Eddy were passe by 1942. Still, I think that with the right vehicle, they could have been successful in a contemporary setting. Just 4 years earlier they enjoyed great success in SWEETHEARTS, as a contemporary Broadway star team. It was also MGM’s first 3 strip Technicolor production.

  I think the main problem with I MARRIED AN ANGEL was its too overty sexy script. Rodgers and Hart had originally written it as a film project while they were under contract to MGM, but the idea was rejected by MGM and the Production Code because of, among other of issues, theshocking” conceit of an angel losing her “wings” after consumating her marriage.

  Rodgers and Hart took the script to Broadway, where it found a much more receptive audience, and, ironically, MGM chose to exercise its’ rights to the property and filmed it as vehicle for Jeanette and Nelson. It’s also possible that W.S. Van Dyke was not as comfortable with this material as the original choice, George Cukor would have been.

  Film historians have pointed out that, at the time of the Mac/Eddy split, the receipts of their films had fallen off only slightly, though I don’t know if this was actually the case.

  In any case, they were among a group of “aged” stars of that time (e.g., Garbo, Crawford, Shearer) who either left MGM of their own accord or were released to make way for younger, fresher faces like Greer Garson, Judy Garland and Lana Turner.

  Both MacDonald and Eddy appear to have been very savvy about their film careers, and went on to great success on radio, in concerts, and, in Jeanette’s case, in (limited) opera productons after their Metro days ended. As late as the early 1960s(?) a recording by the duo for RCA (“Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in Hi Fi”) became a Gold Record, proving the durability of their fervent fan base(s).

  In any case, it was Deanna Durbin (and the several follow ups her enormous success inspired) who was largely responsible for keeping classical vocals in films following the departure of MacDonald and Eddy. Even rival studios like MGM, Paramount and Warner Bros., followed the “Durbin model” in (usually) fashioning “comedies with music” for their talented young soprano starlets.

• 17 John DiLeo // Dec 18, 2011 at 1:07 pm

  Yes, Mark, MacDonald and Eddy were certainly victims of the MGM house-cleaning of the early 40s. Perhaps MGM could have kept them up to date, and moved them out of the young-lovers slot, by having them age gracefully in parent roles in musicals similar to HOLIDAY IN MEXICO or LUXURY LINER, passing the baton to Jane Powell but still being part of the scene.

• 18 Mark // Dec 19, 2011 at 4:03 pm

  Hi John:

  Have you ever seen THREE DARING DAUGHTERS (1948)? A re-imagining of Deanna’s THREE SMART GIRLS, it paired Jeanette with Jane Powell, who played the eldest of Jeanette’s three daughters, who, strongarmed by Jane, don’t approve of her recent marriage…to Jose Iturbi, of all people!

  Unfortunately, from what I’ve read, the film failed at the box office, despite a lovely duet between Jeanette and Jane of Edward Grieg’s “Springtide,” among other musical pleasures.

  Although Jane is often cited as appearing in the “same sort of adolescent ‘Little Miss Fixit’ roles” Deanna did, THREE DARING DAUGHTERS points up a significant difference between the two.

  While Deanna’s characters were usually perceptive enough to identify a real problem (her father marrying the wrong woman, her sisters paired off with the wrong men, her unemployed father and his musician friends needing an orchestra/sponsor to get work, etc.) and to devise a feasible solution(s) to it, as in THREE DARING DAUGHTERS, Jane’s characters usually believed there was a problem to be solved when there wasn’t one.

  While Durbin’s impulsiveness in attempting to solve the issues she faced led to some complications before the inevitable “happy ending,” most of her problems arose from the clueless adults around her who refused to take a “child” seriously.

  By contrast, Powell’s shortsightedness created problems where none had existed before, and which then had to be straightened out by the adults in her circle.

  In any case, they were both wonderful talents.

• 19 John DiLeo // Dec 20, 2011 at 8:36 am

  Hey Mark,

  The most bizarre thing about THREE DARING DAUGHTERS is that in in Iturbi plays himself. A fictional character for Jeanette, but Jose romancing her as himself! Nutty. While it’s nice to see MacDonald and Powell together, the film does feel like a stale remake of the much faster and funnier THREE SMART GIRLS.

  It seems disappointingly characteristic of the 1940s to depict teenagers in a self-dramatizing, condescending, even mocking manner. You see this in many of the Andy Hardy pictures (in which smug Lewis Stone is always right). A nice exception is smartie Diana Lynn in THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR.

• 20 Mark // Dec 20, 2011 at 3:58 pm

  Hi John:

  Agreed that it’s weird to see Iturbi playing himself as a romantic interest for Jeanette and a potential stepdad for her daughters, especially since Iturbi had a sizable role in Jane’s MGM debut, HOLIDAY IN MEXICO, in which her character developed a “crush” on him, and his own grandchildren played themselves onscreen!

  Diana Lynn is terrific in THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, and thank God she’s in it. I can’t believe how infantile the film’s adults believe “12 year-old” Ginger Rogers to be. What sort of memories do they have anyway?

  Love Lynn’s line to Rogers when Rogers starts cooing over the goldfish in Lynn’s aquairium: “Oh, knock it off! You’re not 12, even though you’re talking like you’re 6!”

  One element of the Universal Durbin films that I always found superior to the contemporaneous “teen” films produced by MGM was their lack of preachiness and self-aggrandizing qualities.

  The ANDY HARDY and BABES films were particularly susceptible to this “trap,” as in the scene in ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE when Andy attempts to apologize to his Dad for calling him a “small town judge” in the big city (New York). Andy says something like: “You shouldn’t ever forgive me, Dad. I don’t deserve to be your son! and Judge Hardy replies: “I don’t know if you deserve to be any decent American’s son!” Family values indeed.

  Then there’s the embarrassingly lachrymose speech poor Paul Whiteman has to deliver to Rooney’s aspiring drummer in STRIKE UP THE BAND. With lines like: “Teach a kid to blow a horn and he’ll never blow a safe!” YIKES!

• 21 John DiLeo // Dec 21, 2011 at 8:00 am

  Hey Mark,

  Smug, insufferable, piously meddling Judge Hardy is one of my least favorite characters in movies. And what actor was more boring than Lewis Stone (and not just as Mr. Hardy)? The “teaching” factor in the Hardy films dates them horribly, though I probably wouldn’t have liked them at the time either (except when Judy got to sing). Yes, Durbin’s films have stayed much fresher and more effortlessly pleasing.

  I love all the Rogers-Lynn scenes in MAJOR AND THE MINOR. I’m a big Rogers fan. I’ve written a nice piece about her work in PRIMROSE PATH in my upcoming book.

  Not to dump on poor Mr. Iturbi, but it’s hard for me to take him seriously as anyone’s love interest, whether he’s playing a character or himself!

  Best,
  John

• 22 Mark // Dec 21, 2011 at 3:51 pm

  Hi John:

  I don’t dislike Louis Stone as much as you do, but those more self-reverential, preachy and sanctimonious moments in the ANDY HARDY and BABES films always make me squirm, and, as “Judge Hardy” he, unfortunately, was often in the thick of them.

  And was there ever a more insufferably cocky “teen” than “Andy Hardy” after the first few films in the series. Since he almost always got his comeuppance for his arrogant behavior (e.g., almost flunking out of high school, not having a respectable girl to take to the Christmas dance, etc., etc.), but never seemed to learn his “lesson” in the next film, you have to wonder if he was the first film character to suffer from some sort of short term memory loss.

  And just what did all those lovely Metro gals (e.g, Ann Rutherford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Donna Reed, Bonita Granville, Esther Williams, etc.) SEE in him anyway?

  I like Ginger Rogers a lot, but less so in her post KITTY FOYLE period, when, with a few notable exceptions (THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR among them), she gave some “grand” performances that make me feel that her “Best Actress” Oscar win went to her head.

  That said, you can see that Ginger worked incredibly hard to prove to studio execs that she was more than the “wisest cracking dame in the chorus” or “Fred Astaire’s dance partner,” and if she was extremely proud of her recognition by the Academy, she had some reason to feel that way.

  It’s amazing how fresh and enjoyable the Durbin films remain given how much screen time is devoted to her. She’s not only almost always the central character of every film she made, she’s also usually the only musical presence, and she never had the luxury of appearing opposite a comparably popular co-star.

  With that kind of pressure on her from age 14 to 26/27, no wonder she took the money and bolted as soon as she could.

• 23 John DiLeo // Dec 21, 2011 at 10:18 pm

  Oh yes, Mark, Ginger got very “grand” after her Oscar win, and by TENDER COMRADE she seemed to have lost her sense of humor completely. But, for a spell, in TOP HAT, STAGE DOOR, BACHELOR MOTHER, PRIMROSE PATH, ROXIE HART, and THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, she was sublime. You’ll notice that I didn’t include KITTY FOYLE, which I’ve never liked.

  Too bad that when they teamed Deanna with Gene Kelly it wasn’t for a full-out musical!

  Happy Holidays!!

  Best,
  John

• 24 Mark // Dec 27, 2011 at 5:20 pm

  Hi John:

  Happy Holidays to you! Hope you’re having a great Holiday Season.

  I thought Ginger had a few good comic moments in her post-Oscar win period, most notably in a seldom discussed early 1950s film called FOREVER FEMALE, in which she co-starred with Paul Douglas and William Holden as a successful stage actress who refuses to admit she’s aging. But generally, her acting style after KITTY FOYLE became very “grand.”

  I prefer the earlier snappier Ginger of the Astaire/Rogers period and all those entertaining fast-paced “working girl” comedies (and a drama or two), though I can understand why she grew tired of these types of roles and wanted to branch out into heavier “dramatic” fare.

  It’s not at all unlike Deanna wanting to make films like THE AMAZING MRS. HOLLIDAY, CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY and LADY ON A TRAIN (a comedy, but a noir comedy), rather than making another “Little Miss Fixit Who Bursts Into Song” crowd pleaser. (By the way, did you read about the hit showings of CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY and LADY ON A TRAIN as part of San Francisco’s “mini noir festival?”)

  Actually, practically every successful “Girl Next Door” actress, musical, and non-musical, from Mary Pickford to Meg Ryan, has fought to break away from their established wholesome screen personas.

  I guess actors are never completely satisfied, ‘cuz men do it, too. (Ever see Sylvester Stallone’s “efforts” at comedy in films like OSCAR and STOP! OR MY MOM WILL SHOOT?)

  Take Care,
  Mark

• 25 John DiLeo // Dec 27, 2011 at 8:39 pm

  Hi Mark,

  Happy Holidays to you, too!

  It’s been a while since I’ve seen FOREVER FEMALE but I remember liking it. I guess you could call it Ginger’s shot at her very own ALL ABOUT EVE. THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY spoofs her grandness but it’s not always clear whether she was in on the joke or not.

  Yes, every good girl wants to go bad, especially when they hand out Oscars for it, as Donna Reed and Shirley Jones know so well.

  I saw CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY in Brooklyn about a decade ago and it hasn’t turned up anywhere around here (NYC) since then. I remember it as being an oddity, ditching the plot it begins with altogether.

  Best,
  John

• 26 Mark // Dec 30, 2011 at 5:01 pm

  Hi John:

  Hope you’re having a great Holiday Season!

  I’ll probably try to watch BACHELOR MOTHER within the next week or so, since it has both Christmas and New Year’s scenes and seems appropriate for the “season.”

  I saw CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY on the “big screen” at the Harvard Archives several years ago. I liked it (and Deanna’s performance in it) a lot, but thought her performance, and the film itself were limited in their ambitions by a somewhat murky and compromised screenplay. Understandable, I guess, given the Production Code standards of the time.

  Did you ever get around to watching THE GOOD FAIRY and I’LL BE YOURS. I’m currently debating the virtues of another Margaret Sullavan film and its’ remake (THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER vs. IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME)k on another film forum.

  Interesting that both Durbin and Garland, usually considered such disparate performers, were both considered appropriate “successors” to roles originated by Sullavan….who was pretty unique, I think.

• 27 John DiLeo // Jan 1, 2012 at 10:52 pm

  Hi Mark,

  Happy 2012!

  Watching BACHELOR MOTHER always sounds like a great idea to me. The New Year’s Eve party sequence is one of my favorite scenes of Golden Age romantic comedy.

  Don’t know when I’ll get a re-look at I’LL BE YOURS. I remember it as being lackluster, whereas the original is so sparkling, so enchanting.

  I like Judy and Van in GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME, and of course Buster and Spring and “Cuddles,” but not much of what surrounds them in terms of the screenplay and the way it’s only halfheartedly a musical. Ms. Sullavan is a tough act to follow, especially in her two best comedies.

  Best,
  John

• 28 Mark // Jan 10, 2012 at 5:56 pm

  Hi John:

  Hope you’re having a great New Year!

  I think I’LL BE YOURS is pleasant enough, but it certainly could have been more sparkling than it was.

  I thought Deanna was charming (in the sort of role she could have played in her sleep), and she had a good supporting cast, but among other flaws, I thought Adolph Menjou was horribly miscast in the Frank Morgan role of the amorous meat baron who tries to seduce her.

  Tom Drake was likeable, if a little bland, as Deanna’s romantic interest, but I liked William Bendix, and, as with Charles Laughton, thought he was another unconventional actor with whom she had surprisingly good chemisty.

  As usual, I thought Deanna’s song interludes were great, especially the soaring rendition of “Granada” and the lovely ballad, “It’s Dreamtime.” Deanna’s sensual and candid qualities are never better displayed than in this number.

  Actually, I think of IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME as being similar in structure to Deanna’s “comedies with music” at Universal. Unlike the Durbin vehicles, the music in SUMMERTIME is exclusively confined to “performance spots,” as opposed to eliciting feelings from the listeners and, at times, changing the listener’s attitudes toward Deanna and others.

  Even though I think “Veronica Fisher” is, as written, perhaps the most unadmirable character Judy ever played at MGM, I think SUMMERTIME is very entertaining on its’ own terms, with a talented and likeable cast and an enjoyable score of period favorites which Judy delivers with her usual inimitable verve.

  Still, to me, it can’t hold a candle to the non-musical original, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, and it missed a golden opportunity to create an original integrated musical out of the material, fortunately, later corrected with the charming early 1960s Bock-Harnick Broadway show, SHE LOVES ME.

  (Incidentally, the material for THE GOOD FAIRY/I’LL BE YOURS, was also later used for a Broadway musical when Universal sold the rights to the property it was turned into a musical called MAKE A WISH. Too bad Deanna wasn’t available to star in it.)

• 29 John DiLeo // Jan 12, 2012 at 4:35 pm

  Hi Mark,

  Frank Morgan is one of my favorite actors, so of course Adolphe Menjou would be a disappointment. (I do a piece on Morgan in AFFAIRS OF CELLINI in my 100 Great Film Perfs book.) And dull Tom Drake taking on a role played so charmingly by Herbert Marshall? Ugh! As I said, I saw I’LL BE YOURS but I have no memory of it. It has evaporated from my brain, but, after all, THE GOOD FAIRY is one of my all-time favorites.

  Yes, IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME should have been an integrated musical! Coincidentally, SHE LOVES ME is my all-time fave Broadway musical. Even 1940s MGM couldn’t have created anything better than the Bock-Harnick treatment. I’ve heard about MAKE A WISH but I’m unfamiliar with the material.

  Best,
  John

• 30 Mark // Jan 24, 2012 at 4:28 pm

  Hi John:

  For me, it’s not simply that the role of a dithering older gentleman is one that Morgan practically patented, it’s that the sophisticated and urbane Menjou, though an excellent actor overall (and excellent as Deanna’s down ‘n out Dad in ONE HUNDRED MEN AND A GIRL), is completely miscast in that type of role.

  Much of the charm of THE GOOD FAIRY (and I agree that it’s a film loaded with charm) derives from Morgan’s middle-aged butcher’s comic efforts to be a sophisticated roue: a role for which he’s completely unsuited.

  Now the dapper and erudite Menjou IS completely suited to play a lecherous old gotrocks with designs on poor Deanna…and that just doesn’t work, especially as Deanna’s “Girl from the Country,” while not streetwise, isn’t nearly as naive as Sullavan’s orphan, who’s making her first venture into the outside world.

  Anyway, I managed to watch THE GOOD FAIRY last week (after not seeing for at least a year) and enjoyed it as much as ever. Now I have to dig out my VHS copy of I’LL BE YOURS to compare the two…anew. lol!

  SHE LOVES ME is one of my favorite Broadway musicals. Bock and Harnick did a wonderful job integrating music into the plot, and I’ve been fortunate enough to see Barbara Cook sing her medley of songs from the show several times in concert. It always results in a standing ovation from the audience.

  Take Care,
  Mark

  PS I know how much you like IT STARTED WITH EVE and thought you might find the following negative review of the film from a first time viewer interesting:

  http://ishootthepictures.com/2012/01/23/my-deanna-durbin-punishment-part-iii-it-started-with-eve-1941-approach-with-caution/

• 31 John DiLeo // Jan 25, 2012 at 8:53 am

  Hi Mark,

  Good point about Menjou versus Morgan in terms of casting. If there had been supporting Oscar nominations for 1935, Morgan should have been a shoo-in for his hilarious turn. Sullavan’s radiant performance is among those I write about in my book 100 GREAT FILM PERFORMANCES YOU SHOULD REMEMBER…

  Thanks for the link. Another negative review of EVE came from Pauline Kael. She said you need the stomach of a saint to sit through it!

  Best,
  John

• 32 Mark // Jan 25, 2012 at 4:37 pm

  True, but Kael seldom liked anything, John,

  Unless it was a film that starred one of her unassailable favorites like Streisand, Gene Kelly, etc.

  If memory serves, she DID like THREE SMART GIRLS, or at least Deanna’s performance in it, but she didn’t seem too enamored of the movie soprano as a cinematic speices overall.

  I guess Kael’s comment that Deanna’s performance in CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY wasn’t “too objectionable” could be considered high praise, coming from her?

  A unique film critic, to be sure.

  Take Care,
  Mark

• 33 John DiLeo // Jan 26, 2012 at 8:50 am

  Hey Mark,

  Pauline Kael got to be a good friend of mine in the last five years of her life. One of our running gags was her teasing me about my love of Julie Andrews. You’re right, she didn’t care for the screen’s sopranos as a species, not Jeanette, Irene, Deanna, nor the next generation at MGM, and not Julie (though she was an opera fan). Pauline preferred Alice Faye.

  But I always found it interesting that Pauline reviewed a number of Deanna’s movies, which means she at least went to see them. But Deanna’s name never came up in any of our conversations.

  Best,
  John

• 34 mark // Jan 26, 2012 at 3:00 pm

  Hi John,

  Pauline must’ve been a fascinating lady to have as a friend. I hope she at least enjoyed your writing/criticism.

  Still, I find it interesting that she could rave about an overtly sentimental film like FOR ME AND MY GAL, but find a crisper and faster-moving film like IT STARTED WITH EVE to be nausea inducing. Oh well, at least you knew where you stood with her, from a cinematic standpoint anyway.

  Too bad you didn’t counter her teasing you about your affection for Julie Andrews by pointing out her cinematic sanctification of Barbra Streisand. Then again, maybe she wouldn’t have liked it.

  Haven’t decided whether I’ll check out the recent biography on her yet, but she was undoubtedly a hugely influential critic and (from what I’ve heard) a fascinating character as well.

  (And I like Alice Faye m’self…wonderful singer…pretty lady, what’s not to like? lol!)

  Take Care,
  Mark

• 35 John DiLeo // Jan 27, 2012 at 12:26 pm

  Hey Mark,

  Pauline only got to see my first book, the quiz book, but she liked it well enough to give me a blurb for the cover, which turns out to be the gift that keeps on giving. I’ll always be grateful for that. But she died before ever reading any of my film criticism, which does sadden me a little.

  I was surprised by her dislike of EVE because she and I usually agreed on romantic comedies.

  The new bio of her is well done. I’m in the picture of her 80th birthday (me and a lot of other people). It was bizarre to read a bio of someone that I knew.

  Best,
  John

• 36 Mark // Feb 1, 2012 at 6:21 pm

  Hi John:

  It’s a shame Pauline never got to read your film critiques. I imagine she would have enjoyed them very much.

  I’ll keep an eye out for Pauline’s biography. It sounds very interesting…no doubt, like its’ subject.

  I wonder if Pauline ever considered writing her own memoirs? There were rumors that Deanna considered writing hers at one point, but nixed the idea when she realized she’d have to do publicity for the book.

• 37 John DiLeo // Feb 1, 2012 at 9:37 pm

  Hey Mark,

  Pauline always said that her film criticism was her autobiography, that everything there was to know about her was in her writing.

  I could have given her pieces of my 100 GREAT FILM PERFORMANCES but I didn’t want her to see it until it was finished (which happened about two months after her death).

  Sorry Deanna didn’t get around to a book!

  Best,
  John

Leave a Comment