Blog Link: review of Because of Him

MC of the blog Happy Thoughts Darling posted a review of Because of Him recently. 

Check out the review here

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Deanna Durbin on DVD and VHS

Are you craving a Deanna Durbin film and wonder if it is available for home viewing?  We've put together a list of Durbin films  and explain which are currently available for home viewing and in what format. (Please note that all DVD information on this post refers to Region 1 DVDs)

DEANNA DURBIN ON DVD

Deanna Durbin made 21 feature films for Universal Studios and 1 short subject for MGM. Only 11 Durbin feature films are on DVD.

• Universal released The Sweetheart Pack in 2004. It is a set of six Deanna Durbin films on DVD: Three Smart Girls, Something in the Wind, First Love, It Started With Eve, Can't Help Singing and Lady on a Train. You can buy it at Universal Studio's website, TCM.com, Amazon.com or in stores.

• In August 2010, Universal banded together with Turner Classic Movies to release another set of Durbin films in the Deanna Durbin: The Music and Romance Collection. Five DVDs are in this set: Mad About the Music, That Certain Age, Three Smart Girls Grow Up, Because of Him and For the Love of Mary. These films are available as a set or individually at TCM.com and on Amazon.com.

DEANNA DURBIN ON VHS

VHS cover for 3 Smart Girls

Although there are only 11 official Durbin DVDs, there are 18 feature length Durbin movies on VHS. Some movies are available in both formats.

In 1995, Durbin's movies were made available for home viewing for the first time. According to this Washington Post article from January 24, 1995, Universal released four Durbin movies on VHS : Three Smart Girls, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Three Smart Girls Grow Up and It Started With Eve. Universal would later release more Durbin films throughout the late 1990s. They are available  for purchase at Amazon.com. 


Universal Studios owns the rights all Deanna Durbin feature films except one. After leaving Universal to work at MGM Studios, producer Joseph Pasternak bought Ms. Durbin's light comedy It's A Date (1940) from Universal and used it in a remake for his new employer. On September 1, 1998, MGM/UA released It's A Date (1940) on VHS.

VHS - MGM's release of It's a Date

Contact Universal for more information and to request that the remainder of Durbin's films be released on DVD.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment
100 Universal City Plaza Universal Studios, CA. 91608
General Phone: 818.508.9600
www.universalstudios.com

Contact MGM about It's a Date (1940)
MGM Studios
10250 Constellation Boulevard Los Angeles, CA. 9006
Phone for DVD Questions: 888-223-2369

Just for the sake of clarity, the following is a list of all Durbin films (and the short subject), whether they are officially available for home viewing and in what format: DVD or VHS. Click the titles for more information on the movie.

LIST OF DEANNA DURBIN FILMS

VHS cover for 100 Men & a Girl

EVERY SUNDAY(1936) 
Deanna Durbin's 11 minute short subject is owned by MGM and co-stars Judy Garland; you'll find it on the two following Garland films.

Available on DVD? Yes.  A bonus feature on For Me and My Gal (1942)
Available on VHS? Yes.  A bonus feature on Summer Stock (1950)

THREE SMART GIRLS (1936)

Available on DVD? Yes. In the Sweetheart Pack released in 2004
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1995


ONE HUNDRED MEN AND A GIRL (1937)
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1995.

MAD ABOUT MUSIC (1938) 
Available on DVD? Yes. Released in TCM's Deanna Durbin:The Music and Romance Collection in 2010.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1996.

THAT CERTAIN AGE (1938)
Available on DVD? Yes. Released in TCM's Deanna Durbin:The Music and Romance Collection in 2010.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1997.

THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP (1939) 
Available on DVD? Yes. Released in TCM's Deanna Durbin:The Music and Romance Collection in 2010.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1995

VHS cover for It Started With Eve

FIRST LOVE (1939)
Available on DVD? Yes. In the Sweetheart Pack released in 2004
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1996.

IT’S A DATE(1940)
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MGM/UA in 1998.


SPRING PARADE (1940)
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? No.

NICE GIRL?(1941)
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1997.

IT STARTED WITH EVE(1941)
Available on DVD?Yes. In the Sweetheart Pack released in 2004
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1995

THE AMAZING MRS. HOLLIDAY (1943) 
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by Universal in 1999.


HERS TO HOLD (1943)
Available on DVD? No.

VHS cover for His Butler's Sister

Available on VHS? No.

HIS BUTLER’S SISTER(1943)
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1996

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY(1944) 
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? No.


CAN’T HELP SINGING(1944)
Available on DVD? Yes. In the Sweetheart Pack released in 2004
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1997.

LADY ON A TRAIN(1945)
Available on DVD? Yes. In the Sweetheart Pack released in 2004
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1996.

BECAUSE OF HIM(1946) 
Available on DVD?Yes. Released in TCM's Deanna Durbin:The Music and Romance Collection in 2010.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by Universal in 1999.

VHS cover for Up In Central Park

I’LL BE YOURS(1947)
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by Universal in 1999.


SOMETHING IN THE WIND(1947)
Available on DVD?Yes. In the Sweetheart Pack released in 2004
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1998.


UP IN CENTRAL PARK(1948)
Available on DVD? No.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1998.


FOR THE LOVE OF MARY (1948)
Available on DVD?Yes. Released in TCM's Deanna Durbin:The Music and Romance Collection in 2010.
Available on VHS? Yes. Released by MCA/Universal in 1998.

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A Farce and a Drama: Thoughts on I’ll Be Yours (1947)

I’ll Be Yours (1947) is an uneven film which seeks to blend farce and high drama seamlessly but does not quite succeed, leaving the audience with the feeling of having seen two separate movies at once. (Tom has made his notes and outlined the plot here.)(Update: Mark has made some wonderfully perceptive points about this film in the comments.)

A FARCE AND A DRAMA

I’ll Be Yours is a Felix Jackson adaptation of The Good Fairy (1935) - the Preston Sturges adaptation of Ferenc Molnár’s play, A jó tündér. The play concerns a libertine woman who enjoys helping strangers. In both the original film and in Jackson’s adaptation, the protagonist is instead an innocent young woman who goes to the big city, helps others and potentially falls prey to lechers. But whereas the The Good Fairy makes its two leads guileless individuals who discover the complexities of life together, the Jackson script makes attorney George Prescott (Tom Drake)a grave character throughout and usherette Luisa (Deanna Durbin) a child-like figure who never grows up.

Because the two leads are locked into their respective modes, never changing, I’ll Be Yours feels a bit uneven as it tries to balance the improbable comic scenes involving carefree Luisa, and the scenes of hard-bitten, suspicious Prescott as he broods over society’s moral decay. These are people from two different genres who seem to live in parallel stories by happenstance. You wonder what attracts them to each other.

The schizoid tones in this film might be a reflection of the changing mood in movies after World War Two. The can-do spirit during the war years (typified by Durbin‘s brand) gave way to the slog of picking up the pieces of a broken, fatigued and increasingly cynical world... at least in the movies. Drake plays an attorney with high moral character and dramatic constancy - his expression askance at any offer; his brow furrowed during any inquisition; his voice raised in righteous indignation as he discovers his new employer's shady deals. The performance is something right out of Judgment at Nuremberg!

Luisa, however, is more concerned with shaving Prescott’s beard.

There is a dichotomy in the music as well. Musical director Heinz Roemheld brings together a score that seems left over from his work in silent films. Relentless music underlines the comic action, winking at the audience throughout the dialogue as if it were a Bugs Bunny short, a noisy score that is noticeably absent during the dramatic scenes involving Drake. The abrupt shift in tone unintentionally helps further drive a wedge between the two stories, making the perfunctory love scenes nearly implausible.

TWO STARS PLAGUED BY YOUTH

The busy, young Deanna Durbin, had a bit of time after the January release of her previous film Because of Him (1946) to give birth to her first child, Jessica Louise Jackson, on February 7, 1946 and recuperate for her next venture. I’ll Be Yours was filmed in mid-August to mid-October 1946 and released on February 2, 1947. This is her first post-pregnancy film and yet, that legendary Durbin youthfulness makes her appear about ten years younger than her twenty-five years.

By this time, Universal Studios’ "Little Miss Fix It" was having marital problems and had seperated from Felix Jackson the month before the release of I‘ll Be Yours. In addition to having written the screenplay for the film, Jackson was also the producer. Durbin blamed the constant close proximity to her husband, the resultant lack of conversation at home and Jackson’s ambivalence towards remaining married to anyone as the reason for their parting ways. The couple would divorce two years later. Much to her chagrin, the elixir of youth coursing through the star’s veins helped to proliferate the ingénue roles which were constantly thrown in Ms. Durbin‘s direction, despite her clearly adult personal life.


Tom Drake, born Alfred Sinclair Alderdice, was a theater-trained actor whose career in feature films would hit a dry patch not too long after I‘ll Be Yours. His best known movie, Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), was behind him, as was his first and only marriage. In a year he would star as the youthful version of composer Richard Rodgers in Words and Music (1948), but his acclaimed performance was overshadowed by Mickey Rooney’s dark and dramatic portrayal of lyricist Lorenz Hart. Within two years Drake would be out of his contract with MGM studios and would concentrate on theater and television.

Similar to the plight of his I’ll Be Yours co-star, Drake’s youthful appearance often slated him for insubstantial but charming film roles as the boy next door, which was a source of frustration for the Broadway performer. Drake’s cerebral presence, turned-down mouth and furrowed brow was far better suited to, for instance, his portrayal of crafty Leonard Vole in television’s Lux Video Theater production of Witness For The Prosecution (1953).

MISC. FACTOIDS

• I’ll Be Yours is not all gloom and missteps. The songstress gives a stirring rendition of “Granada” - words and music by Augustin Lara; sings a lovely ballad “It’s Dreamtime” and funny little ra-ra song “Cobbleskill School Song” - lyrics by Jack Brook music by Walter Schumann; and a beautiful waltz “Love’s Own Sweet Song” - lyrics by Catherine Chisho, Cushing and E.P. Heath , music by Emmerich Kalman.

• Deanna Durbin appeared with Frederic March in the Screen Guild Theater production of The Good Fairy in the radio broadcast from July 31, 1944. (Source: archive.org)
  
  

Deanna Durbin and Frederic March in "The Good Fairy" Listen to the radio program now: (Flash player required)
(Duration: approximately 30 minutes)







Download the MP3 file to your iPod or media player (right-click to Save)

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"Because of Him" (1946)

A lighthearted screwball comedy set in the world of the Broadway theater, with a top-notch musical score by Miklós Rózsa.


Deanna is a New York waitress dreaming of becoming a Broadway star. Her restaurant manager is played by Charles Halton who played the bank examiner in It's A Wonderful Life, my favorite movie.

Her favorite actor is famed British thespian John Sheridan (Charles Laughton), who is working on a new play, "Strange Laughter".

One day Laughton comes into her restaurant to eat, and Deanna cleverly schemes to get into the play. She also bumps into the playwright on the street (Franchot Tone), who is smitten by her at first sight.

Laughton is funny in this. I like the scene where he visits a bedridden Deanna and sees her shrine of photos of him on her dresser. He also teaches her how to faint properly. Also, it's funny when they both rehearse a scene and one of the characters in the play is named "Tony Randall" - the real actor was not famous yet.

Another funny scene comes during a rehearsal when Deanna breaks down and sobs uncontrollably. Everyone thinks she's trying impress with her acting abilities. But is she faking it? Ha ha. You have to see it!

The film's posters are a little misleading because it gives the impression it's a romance between Durbin and Tone. They really don't light any sparks until much later on in the picture, and even then it's on-again/off-again.


Highlights of the film include Deanna singing "Danny Boy" and "Goodbye", and seeing Laughton and Tone - two of the stars of 1935's Mutiny on the Bounty - reunited on screen.

For more about Because of Him (1946):

Amanda has written a great review at her blog, A Noodle in a Haystack

Laura has written a great review of Because of Him on her blog

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