First Love (1939), 8

In this reworking of Cinderella, orphaned Connie Harding is sent to live with her rich aunt and uncle after graduating from boarding school. She's hardly received with open arms, especially... 
1h 24min | Comedy, Musical | 10 November 1939
Director: Henry Koster
Stars: Deanna Durbin, Robert Stack, Eugene Pallette, Charles Coleman.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031311/

We only need one evil stepsister, er, cousin, and her complicit mother and brother. Instead of mice and birds, we have the household staff to dress Cinderella (DD) and arrange for her coach. Midnight is still the deadline, the slipper is still lost on the staircase, and the man she has charmed is as princely as we get in America (he has wealth).

It's all done very effectively, as DD is new to the household (her parents are dead, she's just graduated from her boarding school), and she charms the staff first.

Much like his role in My Man Godfrey ('36), Eugene Pallette plays the father/head of household (uncle to DD, his sister's child) who despises his worthless, money-sucking family (wife, son, daughter), choosing to stay at work until he knows they're gone. He stumbles onto his ward (DD) singing on her arrival night, and doesn't react much.

The daughter, played by Helen Parrish (b. 1923), treats DD like a servant, and she doesn't treat those well. She isn't just inconsiderate, she's deliberately mean, also to her "friends."

http://www.whosdatedwho.com/dating/charles-coleman

The butler, played by Charles Coleman, a stalwart butler/doorman/majordomo with 224 film credits doesn't even have a photo on IMDb. So here he is:

This adaptation washes all the supernatural magic out of the story, and DD is perfect as the vulnerable now-grown orphan trying her best to ingratiate herself with the people who've been funding her education and maintenance for (?) years.

Pallette is absent for the majority of the film, but he has the plum role of avenger when the time is ripe.

Another supportive heroine: the cranky-with-a-heart-of-gold schoolmistress whom DD admires. When she nudges DD out of the nest after graduation, she says:

The trouble with you young people is you don’t believe in anything. You’re afraid, afraid of hope, afraid of happiness.

In the last scene, DD gloriously sings THE aria from Puccini's Madame Butterfly, Un Bel Di, but in English. It's extra effective when you know what Butterfly is saying, and you know the story. Fortunately, DD's story parallels Cinderella, not Butterfly.

DD is a very effective actress, being just the right age for this, and let herself have all the highs and lows the story proscribed.

I'd previously rated this 7. Humbug. It's better than that.

Universal, dir. Koster; 8