Moviecut—Mad About Music

source: Mad About Music

Movie star Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick) has a secret daughter, 14-year-old Gloria (Deanna Durbin). Gloria lives in an all-girls boarding school in Switzerland. She never met her late navy pilot father but has fabricated a fictional living father to the other girls. She is forced to construct more and more elaborate lies until she picks Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall) at random to play the part. Luckily, he is willing to play along. This got four smaller Oscar nominations. Deanna Durbin is cute and sweet. She's showing off her operatic voice. The whistle song is pretty catchy although too much of it can be very repetitive. The story has some teen girl mayhem which reminds me of various Disney teen misadventures. It's a very touching story of family dysfunction with an emotional ending.

Widow Gail Patrick shows up at agent William Frawley's office, anxious to work for her and her babe in arms. Frawley tells her she can't be a young, glamorous movie star with a baby, so they park the infant in Switzerland. Fourteen years later, Miss Patrick (who was ten years older than Miss Durbin) is a successful glamor star, and her daughter is Deanna Durbin at a girls school in Switzerland, who makes up stories about her father, the explorer. After some issues with her fellow student, Miss Durbin is with them at the train station, and announces Herbert Marshall is her father. He goes along with the gag, but Miss Durbin keeps showing up, much to the confusion of his valet, Arthur Treacher. They part, but then Deanna learns her mother is going to be performing in Paris, so off she goes, only to run in again to Marshall. Little Miss Fix-it eventually fixes everything, sing "Ave Maria" and "I Love To Whistle", charms groundskeeper Christian Rub, and so does everything that her fans loved to see her doing. It's pleasant, it's fun, and will surprise no one.

One of Jane Powell's earliest films was "Delightfully Dangerous" and I was not exactly bowled over by it. Apparently, it was a remake of "Mad About Music" but instead of starring Powell, it starred Universal's big young singing star, Deanna Durbin. The film finds young Gloria at an exclusive girls school in Switzerland. It seems her mother is a Hollywood star who has dumped her there where she is very lonely. This is made worse by the school bully who inexplicably hates this sweet young lady. So, to combat boredom and being so alone, Gloria creates a fictional father...complete with all sorts of exploits. She tells the girls that he's a big game hunter in Africa...and the bully demands Gloria show that he's real, as the bully suspects Gloria's made him up...which she has. So, she could either come clean about him or continue with the lie...and so she doubles down and tells everyone he's coming for a visit! So, she then heads to the train station and convinces a total stranger (Herbert Marshall) to accompany her. He has no idea about the lie and her classmates, at least temporarily, are appeased. But this certainly can't go on forever...so what's next? This is an enjoyable film, though if you watch it there are two nagging problems that are bound to enter your mind. First, the man she convinces to be her father. He agrees to help her but there is no logical reason for this. Second, if you think about it, the idea of an adult man hanging out with a 14 year-old he doesn't even know AND tells everyone he's her father...well, that's mega-creepy! If you can manage to look past this, the film is enjoyable and fun...and weird.

One of Deanna Durbin's early films, and one that showcases her acting and singing abilities like few others do. Watch out for how her facial expression changes when Herbert Marshall is about to expose her storytelling and then re-considers, or when she sings the serenade to the stars and is about to burst into tears. She was definitely one of the best teenage actors Hollywood ever attracted. Her singing is awesome, too, especially Gounod's Ave Maria: I never heard it sung better. Herbert Marshall is perfect for the role of willing Ersatz-father, and it is a pleasure to see Gail Patrick cast against type. Still, it is Deanna's film - next to her, all others, no matter how experienced, are no more than supporting actors.

In another delightful Deanna Durbin vehicle, she stars as a lonely girl in boarding school who lies about her parents. Her mother is a famous actress in Hollywood, but since she isn't allowed to let her fans know she's old enough to have a teenaged daughter (orders of her manager William Frawley) she forces Deanna to keep it a secret. With no father to talk about either, Deanna makes one up. She forges letters and finds fake photographs, making up stories that her father is an explorer on safari, entertaining most of the girls in her school. One girl, Helen Parrish, doesn't believe her, and she humiliates Deanna by exposing one of the fake photographs. Spurred on, Deanna lies and pretends her father is coming to visit her at the school! Armed with a bouquet of flowers and all her classmates behind her, she goes to the train station to wait for an unsuspecting man traveling alone. In walks Herbert Marshall - and the stage is set. It's no wonder Herbert Marshall was cast as Shirley Temple's father in 1941's Kathleen, a film with a very similar premise. He's just delightful and perfect casting as a father figure. I love him in comedies, for he's so charming and sweet. He manages to make it look like he's amused without breaking character, with is a thin line to cross. Deanna's lovely voice is showcased in this movie, of course, and you'll get to see some lovely Hollywood sets of Switzerland. Elisabeth Risdon is the headmistress of the school, Arthur Treacher is Bart's manservant, and Marcia Mae Jones is Deanna's best friend. This one isn't as funny as Kathleen, but it is a good precursor and entertaining every time Bart opens his mouth.

Tasteless movie with bad singing and worse acting or overacting

Deanna Durbin is irresistible as 14-year-old Gloria Harkinson. Living at a ritzy girls' school in Switzerland and blessed with friends and talent, Gloria is nevertheless lonely for a parent—and gets herself into a mess by writing herself letters from her imaginary big-game-hunter father. Composer Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall) steps off a train in the small Swiss village and finds himself recruited to play the role of that father; Marshall gives a most charming performance as the initially reluctant phony parent who rather quickly takes to Gloria and looks to help her out. Durbin sings beautifully….the picture opens with a bicycle-riding gang of girls singing "I Love to Whistle"; she sings "Ave Maria" in front of a boys choir; and she performs a beautiful number called "Chapel Bells" with Marshall (a composer, after all) sitting at the piano. A strong cast includes Gail Patrick as Gloria's movie star mother—although she misses her daughter, she follows the guidance of her agent (William Frawley), who thinks his "glamor girl" client's fans would be shocked if it were known that she even had a daughter. Arthur Treacher is amusing as Marshall's (very) English valet. The best supporting roles belong to the kids: Jackie Moran as Gloria's young would-be suitor; Marcia Mae Jones as her loyal friend Olga; and especially Helen Parrish as Felice—suspicious from the start of Gloria's tales about her father, she is eventually softened by kindness received. The plot is of course fantastic, but when characters are this charming, who cares? It all comes across as the kind of thing we would love to believe if only it could be true. –And I guess that's what the movies are all about.

I am a sucker for mistaken identity comedies, because it's always fun to see the awkward interactions that are created by each new scene as the person in question slowly realizes what is happening. Mad About Music has a crazy setup and for a good portion of the first act I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it. I understand the urge that kids feel to lie to their peers so that they aren't seen as different or lesser people. But the compounding fibs that Deanna Durbin's character tells in Mad About Music get to be more than any rational person's suspension of disbelief would allow. I was struggling to believe these girls thought she was being truthful in any way. However, once Herbert Marshall entered the film all was forgiven. Every far-fetched lie became worth it as he stumbled through becoming this man he was forced to portray. Perhaps even funnier than the situation created in Mad About Music are all the little scenes with Arthur Treacher who gets caught in the middle of everything and must try to figure out what is going on with his employer. Every single scene with him made me laugh, and it's often the little throwaway lines that I found the funniest. If I could help in rewriting this film at all, though, I would shave some time off the beginning and put it onto the ending. They spend a little too long building up the conflict between Durbin and the other girls in her school, and not long enough resolving her relationship with her mother. I was watching the clock as the reunion with her mom approached and I could tell there wasn't going to be enough time to make it feel as heartfelt and warm as I wanted. Still, there's enough that entertained me in Mad About Music that I'm willing to forgive a rushed final act.