This blog was begun on the night of June 15, 2021 :
For tonight's film we turned again to our Deanna Durbin Collection, with "First Love"(1939), a rendition of the Cinderella story starring DD as an orphaned music student. When she loses her parents just before graduation, Deanna is taken in by her rich Uncle Jim Clinton, who lives in New York City with his family. She'd rather spend the Summer with her classmates, but old Miss Wiggins (Kathleen Howard), her vocal coach, persuades her to make the trip. "Who knows, you might become a Broadway star....or meet a handsome fella. Or you could stay here and end up an old maid, like me". Miss Wiggins uses humor to get her point across, but when DD gets to her Uncle's mansion, things aren't quite as expected.
First of all, there's no sign of Uncle Jim. In his stead as the defacto head-of-household is his bitchy daughter "Barbara" (Helen Parrish), a fashion model and debutante. DD knows of her cousin but wasn't aware she was such a shrew. Barbara bosses everyone, from the butler to the cook to her astrology-minded mother. The only one who answers back is her brother Walter, a lackadaisical lout whose life ambition is to recline.
"Now you know why Master Jim is never home", explains the butler to a chastened DD, meaning "if you had such a troop, you'd hide as well".
Upon seeing Deanna for the first time, Barbara orders her on an errand. "I'm late for my riding club! They'll leave without me and I'll miss Ted Drake! You.....Cousin! Get over there and stop him. Steal his horse, pretend to faint.......I don't care what you do, just hold him up til I arrive"!
Barbara has a crush on Ted (Robert Stack), as do all the society girls, but because Barb is famous she thinks she has the inside track. And......Barb always gets what she wants. Deanna is flummoxed at first, and begs off, saying "but I don't know anything about country clubs or horses. How do I even get there? How will I get inside"?
"Don't bore me with your questions! Just get over there and do as I say. Our driver will take you, now get going"!
Deanna does as she's told, and goes to the riding club, still unsure how to proceed. Seeing the handsome young Stack, though, provides an impetus. He's talking to some friends, so DD grabs a bowl of sugar cubes from a tea table and starts feeding them to his horse, leading it away from the stable. Her plan is to hide the equine until cousin Barbara shows up, but Stack catches her and she's embarrassed. Now we've got a classic rom-com set-up, where Shy Girl meets Dashing Young Man in a zany set of circumstances. Durbin tries explaining but stumbles, not only over her words but a steeplechase hedge too. Riders are approaching; horse hooves miss her head by inches. Stack sees this and comes to her rescue. Now she's in his arms, their eyes meet, but DD's quite the mess, with dirt on her face and clothes, and Stack's in a hurry to begin riding. So, after making sure she's okay he bids her farewell. Just then, cousin Barbara arrives and rides off with her beloved beau.
Back at the Clinton manse, Deanna has made friends with the servants, who commiserate with her over Barbara's tyranny. Uncle Jim comes home late that night. "Is she asleep"?, he inquires. "Oh good, peace and quiet". The next day, Barbara is bragging about attending the Drake family ball. "Everyone who's anyone is going to be there. Mother! I'm going to need a new dress. Order that Vionette I've been wanting"!
Barb's wish is Mom's command but she's preoccupied with the Zodiac and makes a faux pas. "Didn't you say your birthday was in December"?, she asks DD.
"Why yes, December 4th".
"I've done your chart. The ball is on an auspicious day for you, my dear. You should go too. You could sing for the guests. Who knows what it might lead to"? This is a Deanna Durbin movie, so of course she's gonna sing, but the last thing cousin Barbara wants is for DD to tag along. Of all the embarrassments! Mom's already suggested it, however, and it would be impolite to withdraw the invitation. "One must never be rude. It simply isn't done". Barbara isn't happy : "I'll not be her chaperone"! But it's too late. In this instance, Mom has the final say. DD's going to the ball, and we have some Cinderella matters to take care of. (A quick note on astrology, I'm an aficionado myself, so my comments shouldn't be taken as criticism).
First off, Deanna is going to need a dress for the ball. The servants act as her Fairy Godmothers in this regard, magically transforming her graduation skirt into a sparkling evening gown. Her carriage will be the family limousine and she's instructed to return before midnight : "to be here when Uncle Jim gets home, we wouldn't want him to think he's been forgotten". Everything is set, but at the last minute Barbara invents a lie, that DD can't attend after all. "They haven't made preparations for an extra guest". Deanna is heartbroken as the others leave without her. Lazy brother Walter gets in the last snide word : "I could've told you this would happen", he smirks.
Once again, though, the servants come to Deanna's rescue! The cook has a friend, a motorcycle cop. He just happens to be there that night, so he jumps on his bike and chases down the Clinton limo. Soon, the driver is being asked for it's registration, which he can't produce, so he and Barbara and her mom are all hauled off to jail on suspicion of auto theft! (I shouldn't have told you that but it's too good to withhold).
Back at the house, the Butler urges Deanna to go to the ball. "The problem's been taken care of", he tells her. She gets there looking radiant, and is mistaken for a well-known soprano. Once asked to sing, she mesmerizes the gathering, including Robert Stack. "I've seen that girl somewhere before", he says.
And there you have it. A Cinderella Story with DD in the title role, cousin Barbara as the Wicked Stepsister, Robert Stack as the Handsome Prince, and the servants as the helpful Godmothers.
I absolutely loved it, cause I'm a sucker for a True Love story, and if you believe in Fairy Tales you will love it too. Though I've given some spoilers, there's a lot I've left out, including other clever transfers from the Cinderella plot to match it with 1930s high society. As with all the Durbin movies we've seen, it's tailored to her charms as a sweetheart and amazing singer. Her roles are designed to draw sympathy, and again, you can see why see was the biggest female box-office star of her era.
Two Huge Thumbs Up, then, for DD and "First Love". Highly recommended, it's a classic of it's kind. ////
I also watched another Crime Doctor, this time in "Crime Doctor's Man Hunt"(1946). As the movie opens, Dr. Ordway is visited by a war vet suffering from amnesia. This causes a "fugue state" in which he wanders the streets in a trance, and always ends up at the midway of a city carnival. The Doc thinks the cross streets are important; the man keeps repeating their names. So he goes there to investigate, and spots an old house nearby. It's vacant and boarded up. As he approaches, two men emerge from the shadows. They're carrying a third, the soldier who was Orway's patient. He's dead now. Crime Doc fakes being drunk to avoid being pegged as a witness.
He goes back to the carnival and interviews the shooting gallery owner, noticing she uses air guns for her customers. Doc knows they're untraceable. "Did two men come here last night, tough looking gents? Is it possible you're missing a rifle"?
The next day, the late soldier's girlfriend (Ellen Drew) comes to Ordway's office. She's worried about her sister, "whom I haven't seen in three years. She's unbalanced and possibly dangerous. She may have hired those men to kill my fiancee". Ordway goes back in search of the two men, and finds them dead inside the rundown old house. Someone turned on the gas as they slept. Might it be the sister Ellen Drew just now talked about?
Ordway's gonna need help with this one, so he contacts William Frawley, the homicide detective for the city police. Fred Mertz as Top Cop! But he's not listening to the Crime Doc's fancy theories : "Whatta ya call that stuff? Psycho-ology? Sounds like a lotta malarkey to me". Mertz, I mean Frawley, thus hinders the investigation, as he steers it in a more "logical" direction. "I think it's that gal down at the shooting gallery", he proposes. "She's in cahoots with that kook with the crystal ball". He's referring to a fortune teller on the midway, who he believes is robbing customers. This goose chase will leave the real killer running wild, until Crime Doc - using his profiling techniques - pins him or her down at the end.
As always, Warner Baxter is excellent as the Holmesian Crime Doctor. The difference is that his clues all derive from the observed behavior of his suspects. From there he winnows them down until a single person fits the profile, very much in the same way the FBI later came to identify serial killers. It's an interesting approach to the crime thriller genre, which is why we love the Doc and his movies.
In this case, I thought I saw the culprit coming (and you may, too), but that doesn't spoil the fun of tracking him down (or is it her?). William Castle directs again, so you get lots of creepy lighting and spooky interiors. His "look" always rides just on the edges of horror. You can't go wrong with any Crime Doctor (or Whistler), so we're gonna give it Two Solid Thumbs Up. A well written 60 minute mystery. /////
Well, that's all for the moment. I've also been pounding episodes of "The Outsider". Man, it's some grim, gruesome stuff, binge-as-well-as cringeworthy! Have you heard of actor Ben Mendelsohn? You probably have, and I'm sure you've seen him as well. He stars, as Detective Ralph Anderson, and boy does he ever create a mood of low key dread as he tries to explain the inexplicable. For me, "The Outsider" is one of King's scariest books, and they're doing a number on it with this production. The acting is uniformly great, but it's Mendelsohn who leads the way as the troubled investigator. It's an absolute must-see for King fans.
Maybe in our next blog we should do some Top Ten SK books and movies. We haven't done a list in a while. I know it's hard to pare them down, but what would your's be? I'll try to finalize mine, and post 'em up next time. Have a great day. I send you Tons of Love as always!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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