Deanna Durbin in “First Love” #OCanadaBlogathon

This is my third time participating in the O Canada blogathon. It’s also my third time writing about Deanna Durbin. If you visit my blog, you’ll realize that my love for Durbin runs deep. She was an international star who had the largest fan club in the world during her heyday. First Love was a milestone in Durbin’s career. It showed Durbin as a maturing young woman showcasing her first taste of romance. Loosely based on the Cinderella tale, First Love is a coming-of-age sweet romance.

The Plot
Durbin plays Connie Harding an orphan who we meet on her graduation day from Miss Wiggins’s boarding school for girls. After graduation she goes “home” to New York to live with relatives, the Clinton family, who don’t seem to care for her. They don’t even come to her graduation, but instead send a butler to pick her up. Sad and unhappy, Connie has nothing in common with the Clinton’s beautiful, socialite daughter, Barbara. In fact, Barbara despises Connie—and pretty much any female who she feels is competition—and seems to take pleasure in humiliating her at every opportunity. The rest of the Clinton family includes Uncle Jim (Eugene Paulette), Aunt Grace (Leatrice Joy), and Cousin Walter (Lewis Howard). The Clintons, in all their quirkiness somewhat resemble the Bullock family from My Man Godfrey (1936). Ironically, Eugene Paulette was the hapless father in that classic too.

Marcia Mae Jones and Deanna Durbin on graduation day

Barbara the bully
Barbara bullies Connie into helping her get the attention of Ted Drake (Robert Stack), a handsome young heir who all the debutantes in New York City are after. Connie makes a fool of herself, keeping Ted occupied at his country club while Barbara hurries to join his riding party after oversleeping. Connie is smitten by Ted almost immediately, but feels he’s out of her league. The Drake family is hosting a ball that the Clintons and other New York City socialites will be attending. When Connie gets invited to the ball, she can hardly believe it. The servants pull together and buy her a dress and new shoes. Her dreams of having a proper evening with Ted are dashed when Barbara concocts a lie about some relative coming to visit the evening of the ball. She suggests Connie stay home to greet him, which her Aunt Joy seconds. Connie is crushed. But the servants have a plan for her to get to the ball.

Robert Stack and Durbin

Six white motorcycles
The servants concoct a plan the keep Barbara, Walter, and Mrs. Clinton from getting to the ball until after midnight. Connie is escorted to the ball by six police officers riding white motorcycles (a servant’s brother is a cop). She even gets to ride in the Commissioner’s car! The butler (Charles Coleman) informs her that she needs to be home before midnight (just like Cinderella). At the ball, Connie, in a comical scene, is accidentally introduced as the singing entertainment. Her performance is a huge hit with the crowd. Her beautiful singing gets the attention of Ted, who asks her to dance. The two dance and talk the night away losing all track of time. Connie reveals that she was the girl that delayed him at the country club, which seems to intrigue Ted all the more. Ted tells Connie that he’ll be leaving for South America in a few weeks to carve out a life of his own. It’s at this point that the two kiss. While the two are caught up in the moment, Connie realizes that it’s after midnight. Remembering the butler’s warning, Connie runs away from Ted, losing her shoe in the process (more shades of Cinderella). While she is leaving, the Clintons show up. Barbara sees Ted holding a shoe and also spies a young woman she thinks looks like Connie leaving the ball. After a few more queries, Barbara is convinced that Connie is the girl everyone at the ball is talking about. So convinced is she that she rushes home to make sure. At first Barbara thinks she may be mistaken when she bursts into Connie’s room to find her asleep in bed. But when she spies a discarded shoe on the bedroom floor that is the match to the one she saw Ted holding, she rips the bed covers off revealing Connie dressed in her ball gown.

Stack and Durbin at the ball

Connie is reunited with her prince
Barbara tells Connie that Ted knew who she was all along and was just playing her for a fool. Connie is so hurt and humiliated that she packs her bags and takes the first train back to Miss Wiggins’s boarding school. She’s decided that she wants to become a teacher at the school. Miss Wiggins (Kathleen Howard) tries to talk Connie out of it by telling her, in the most unflattering terms, what the life of a spinster teacher is like. Connie doesn’t like what she hears, but she agrees to stay on. Miss Wiggins has Connie sing “Un bel di” from Madame Butterfly to make the spinsters cry. She tells her, “spinsters are only happy when they cry.” While Connie is singing the aria, Ted walks in with the missing shoe. When Connie sees Ted standing at the back of the recital hall, she falters a bit and then stops singing to run into Ted’s arms. A happy ending or as the screen tells us, “They lived happily ever after,” just like Cinderella!

Backstory: First Love is a delightful movie. It is successful in part because of Deanna Durbin’s winning on-screen personality and the wonderful supporting cast. The film was an important milestone in Durbin’s career. With five hit films under her belt as a juvenile star, Durbin was growing up right before the eyes of the American public. The year before, Durbin won a special Juvenile Academy Award. Would the public accept this older, more mature Durbin?

Durbin and Stack on the Universal lot during the filming of First Love

This film was also a milestone for Robert Stack. It was his first film and he got to give Durbin her first screen kiss. The publicity around this event was extraordinary. “The kiss heard around the world” was the word from the press. Durbin was so popular all over the world during the late 1930s. Anne Frank had a picture of Durbin and Stack from First Love on her bedroom wall in the family’s hiding place in Amsterdam; it’s part of the museum to this day. Durbin’s fan club was the largest of any star during her heyday.

Universal seriously considered filming First Love in Technicolor. Although it’s black and white cinematography by Joseph A. Valentine is superb—he was nominated for an Academy Award—this movie would have been wonderful in color.

Director Henry Koster, Durbin, and Producer Joe Pasternak

This was Durbin’s fourth film directed by Henry Koster—she had made only six films thus far—and produced by Joe Pasternak, the two men most responsible for Durbin’s screen success.

In Stack’s autobiography, Shooting Straight (1980), he relates that he auditioned for First Love with Helen Parrish, who Stack thought was “a beautiful girl.” Speaking of Parrish, this was her third Durbin film. She was her nemesis in Mad About Music (1938) and her older sister in Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939). Durbin and Parrish may have been antagonists on the screen, but the two were reportedly best friends in real life.

Other actors that frequently appeared in Durbin films include Marcia Mae Jones (Mad About Music, Nice Girl?), Charles Coleman (Three Smart Girls, Three Smart Girls Grow Up, It Started with Eve), Mary Treen (Three Smart Girls Grow Up), Kathleen Howard (Three Smart Girls Grow Up), Thurston Hall (Three Smart Girls Grow Up, Lady on a Train, Up in Central Park), Eugene Paulette (One Hundred Men and a Girl, It’s a Date), Samuel S. Hinds (It’s a Date, Spring Parade, Hers to Hold, Lady on a Train), Lucille Ward (It Started with Eve), Frank Jenks (One Hundred Men and a Girl).

Not so trivial trivia: Mary Treen and Samuel S. Hinds found screen immortality by appearing in the Frank Capra classic, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

This post is part of the O Canada Blogathon, hosted by Kristina of Speakeasy and Ruth of Silver Screenings . Click here to check out the other great posts in this annual blogathon.

Mad About Deanna Durbin in "Mad About Music"

This post is part of the 2016 O Canada blogathon hosted by Ruth of Silver Screenings and Kristina of Speakeasy.

Anyone who has visited my blog or follows me on Twitter or read my entry in last year’s O Canada Blogathon, is aware that my love for Deanna Durbin knows no bounds. Besides her beautiful voice, Winnipeg’s Golden Girl had a natural screen presence that made her appealing to just about everyone attending the movies in the late 1930s. Mad About Music (1938) was Durbin’s third feature film. It’s also one of her most enjoyable vehicles, featuring many familiar faces in supporting roles.

Sid Grauman, Gail Patrick, and William Frawley

In Mad About Music, Durbin plays Gloria Harkison a student at a girls-only boarding school in Switzerland. Gloria’s mother is the famous movie actress Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick). On the advice of her manager Dusty Turner (William Frawley), Gwen keeps the fact that she’s a widow with a teenage daughter a secret. Because Gloria can’t reveal her mother’s true identity, she invents a globetrotting explorer father who writes her letters and sends her photographs of his exploits. Of course Gloria writes the letters herself. She reads them out loud to her schoolgirl friends, much to their delight, except for the leader of the mean girls, Felice (Helen Parrish). Felice thinks that Gloria is a fake and that she’s been lying about having a father. Felice makes it her goal to expose Gloria as a liar. Gloria, on the other hand, is desperate to keep the tales of her “father” alive. Her desperation turns to inspiration as she enlists the help of an unsuspecting traveler.

Deanna Durbin reads a letter from her “father.”

Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall) is a composer on vacation in Europe who has planned a five-day stay in Switzerland, traveling with his private secretary and valet (Arthur Treacher). Richard has no idea the turn his life is about to take when he runs into Gloria at the train station. Gloria tells her roommate and best friend Olga (Marsha Mae Jones) that her father is arriving for a visit by train. Gloria asks Olga not to tell anyone, but Olga lets the cat out of the bag and not only is Gloria at the train station meeting her “father,” but all the girls from her school are there, including arch nemesis, Felice. With a bouquet in her arms, Gloria picks Richard out of the train passengers. She tells Richard, that “it’s an old Swiss custom to greet the most distinguished looking visitor on every train.” To keep the ruse alive, while her schoolmates are watching, Gloria insists on taking Richard to his hotel. By escorting Richard into the hotel, right up to the elevator, Gloria convinces her friends that Richard is her father.

Durbin and Jackie Moran

In the midst of Gloria’s subterfuge, she has a puppy-love romance with Tommy, a cadet from a nearby boys academy. While she’s pretending to be Richard’s daughter at the train station, Tommy is waiting for Gloria at a local sweet shop where he asked her out on a date. Gloria arrives late for their date due to meeting Richard at the train station and transporting him to the hotel. Tommy gives Gloria a huge box of chocolates which she brings back to school, telling her pals they’re a gift from her father.

Universal Studios version of a Swiss village on the back lot

When Annette Fusenot (Elisabeth Risdon), one of the instructors/administrators at the boarding school, hears that Gloria’s father is visiting, she and her sister and colleague at the school, Louise (Nana Bryant), invite him to luncheon. When Richard arrives at the school, he is determined to set the record straight and expose Gloria’ big lie. As he enters the school and sees the lineup of Gloria’s classmates to greet him, he changes his mind. Being the sophisticated and debonair man that he is, the girls are enthralled with “Mr. Harkinson’s” tales of adventure. Felice even seems to be coming around due to Richard’s graciousness and charm.

Herbert Marshall and Durbin entertain her schoolmates.

Gloria’s happiness comes to an end when Richard leaves for Paris. After losing her “father,” Gloria is longing to see her mother, who is currently in Paris on a publicity tour. Determined to visit her, Gloria runs away from school, boarding the same Paris-board train that Richard is on. Without a ticket, the train’s conductor locks Gloria in a small room. She tells the conductor that her father is on the train, but he doesn’t believe her. To get Richard’s attention, Gloria starts singing, which draws a crowd and eventually Richard who tells the conductor that she is indeed his daughter. Dusty Taylor tries to keep Gloria away from her mother fearing it will be the end of her career as a movie “glamour girl.” Richard is determined that Gloria gets to visit her mother by barging into the press conference she is having at her hotel. Upon seeing Gloria with Richard, Gwen tells the crowd of reporters that she has a 14-year-old daughter. At first, Gloria doesn’t want to acknowledge this fact, but when she sees that her mother wants it this way, she breaks down in tears and the two embrace.

Patrick, Durbin, and Marshall together as a family

Through all the confusion, it now appears as though the family has been reunited and that includes Richard! So of course, Gwen and Richard become a couple and Gloria not only has her mother back in her life, but a father too.

Summing Up
Mad About Music is an example of the Hollywood studio system at its best. Even with Durbin’s obvious talents, it took the geniuses at Universal to package just the right vehicles for her. Her first producer and mentor, Joeseph Pasternak (he produced 10 of her films, all at Universal) realized that Durbin was a true star and helped develop her God-given talent. It’s no secret that Durbin was unhappy toward the end of her film career, complaining that her roles were awful, even though she was still popular with moviegoers and was one of Hollywood’s highest paid actresses. After retiring, she resisted every attempt to lure her back into the spotlight. When Pasternak moved to MGM, he practically begged Durbin to come with him. She surely would have benefited from the strong musical units at that studio, but she would not be tempted. Instead she lived the rest of her days in relative obscurity in a small town outside of Paris, France.

In their review of Mad About Music, Variety said this about Durbin, “She has acquired more varied technique before the camera, without losing her ingenuous charm nor her luminous screen personality.”

Durbin’s impact on film audiences around the world cannot be understated. She was a favorite of Anne Frank. Durbin’s picture from a movie fan magazine still hangs in her bedroom at the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam. Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray admitted during his Special Oscar acceptance speech: “As a small schoolboy I was terribly interested in the cinema, became a film fan, wrote a letter to Deanna Durbin, got a reply, was delighted: wrote to Ginger Rogers, ah, didn’t get a reply. Then, of course, I got interested in cinema as an art form, and I wrote a twelve-page letter to Billy Wilder after seeing Double Indemnity. He didn’t reply either…Well, there you are.”

Way to go Deanna!

Backstory
Deanna Durbin is known for having a beautiful voice, but her movies aren’t typical musicals, but rather movies with music. Mad About Music is no exception. In between escapades, Durbin sings three new songs: “I Love To Whistle,” “Chapel Bells,” and “A Serenade to the Stars.” She also sings “Ave Maria” with the Vienna Boys Choir, although the boys seen singing on screen were members of Saint Luke’s Church choir of Long Beach, California.

Helen Parrish, Durbin, and Marcia Mae Jones ride (and sing) through the Swiss countryside.

Some of Mad About Music’s Familiar Faces
Herbert Marshall was still considered a leading man in Hollywood at the time of Mad About Music’s release. Ironically, he played the “husband” of Margaret Sullavan in The Good Fairy in 1935. Sullavan’s character picks his name out of the phone book at random and tells a lecherous meat packer, played by Frank Morgan, that Marshall’s character is her husband to avoid his advances.

Durbin celebrates her sweet 16 birthday with Arthur Treacher, Marshall, director Norman Taurog, and producer Joe Pasternak.

Marcia Mae Jones who plays Durbin’s best friend would be the head of the mean girls in the Shirley Temple feature, The Little Princess, the next year.

 Jones and  Durbin

Helen Parrish was to Durbin what Jane Withers was to Shirley Temple. Parrish also played Durbin’s rich, stuck-up cousin in First Love. Parrish could also be a good girl, playing one of Durbin’s older sisters in Three Smart Girls Grow Up. In reality, Durbin and Parrish were the best of friends.

Durbin and Helen Parrish, finally friends in Mad About Music

Arthur Treacher made a career playing butlers in the movies, including this one and several he made with Shirley Temple.

Durbin, Marshall, and Treacher

Jackie Moran, who played Durbin’s romantic interest in Mad About Music was discovered by Mary Pickford. After appearing in Mad About Music, Moran had a small part in Gone With The Wind, playing Doctor and Mrs. Meade’s younger son who wanted to join the Confederate Army so he could “kill all the Yankees” to avenge the death of his older brother. He and Marcia Mae Jones starred in several films for Poverty Row studio Monogram Pictures. In 1944, he exchanged flirtatious glances with Shirley Temple in Since You Went Away.

Jackie Moran and Durbin

William Frawley had a long show business career, that includes classic films like Lady on a Train and Miracle on 34th Street, but is best known today as Fred Mertz in the TV classic I Love Lucy.

Elisabeth Risdon and Nana Bryant who play sisters and teachers Annette and Louise Fusenot, respectively, were in the screwball comedy classic Theodora Goes Wild two years earlier. Risdon played Irene Dunne’s Aunt Mary. Bryant played Ethel Stevenson, the wife of Dunne’s publisher, .

Gail Patrick had played mean women in movies like My Man Godfrey and Stage Door, but gets to play a loving, if conflicted mother in Mad About Music. Rarely a sympathetic character in her early film roles, Patrick shows her versatility with her brief, but warm portrayal.

Mother and child reunion: Patrick and Durbin

Sid Grauman appears as himself in Mad About Music. In the film he says he’s saved a space for Gwen Taylor’s (Gail Patrick) hand and footprints at the Chinese Theater. In reality, it was Durbin who would have her hand and footprints memorialized in cement at the famous theater for Mad About Music’s premier.

Durbin with Grauman getting her footprints in cement at the Chinese Theatre