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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For the Love of Mary (1948)

Originally posted on the blog Java's Journey

For the Love of Mary (1948) is a light RomCom which follows Mary Peppertree (Deanna Durbin), a White House switchboard operator who takes her job very seriously and is on familiar terms with people in all three branches of government, including the President of the United States (who personally wants to make sure that Mary gets married to someone... anyone, it seems, so he arranges her dates).

David Paxton (a very charming Don Taylor) interrupts the gaiety with his insistence on speaking with the President about the government's interference of business off the coast of Paxton's island. Mary, the effective gateway guard to the Executive branch, must encounter the tenacious Paxton throughout the course of the film.


What the movie lacks in . . . something, it makes up in showcasing just how far into outer space Deanna Durbin's star ascended. This movie was released in 1948.  At this point in history it is not common that a character in a movie gets familiar with the President of the United States.


The fact that the script allows Mary to be chummy over the phone with the revered leader of the free world suggests that Ms. Durbin was well-liked enough to get away with it. That's popular. Very popular. Mega-star popular.

In that sense, For the Love of Mary is almost a fitting last film for a leading lady whose characters have charmed guys from paupers to potentates. She's got the President (and the rest of the federal government) in her pocket as well.

After having played in one short film and twenty-one feature length movies in thirteen years (all starring vehicles), Ms. Durbin retired in her late 20s.

Since then, the star has famously refused all but one interview - a 1983 interview by David Shipman. I'm holding out hope that Ms. Durbin might be receptive to another interview, or even better, write her memoirs or autobiography.

Author Jeanine Basinger says this of Ms. Durbin's retirement:

There was an honest quality about her, and audiences felt it. Whatever motivated her to leave the business- the desire to be real and have a life that made sense- is the truth that audiences felt in her on-screen presence. Durbin connected right to audiences. She seemed to be one of them. The amazing thing about her was that it turned out to be true, She came down off the screen and proved it by rejoining them. Her defection wasn’t a ploy and was never rescinded. . . . Deanna Durbin, that most open and radiant of movie stars, remains more enigmatic than Garbo. She retired and led a normal life, the one thing that seems to have eluded almost every other movie star.

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