1h 34min | Drama, Musical | 16 July 1943
Director: Frank Ryan
Stars: Deanna Durbin, Joseph Cotten, Charles Winninger.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035993/
Watched online; ok/good print.
DD is still in good voice, of course. She sings Begin the Beguine, but the highlight for me was The Seguidilla from Bizet's Carmen.
The other sisters don't appear in this film, barely even in the extensive film clips from the other films (used as silent home movies, and includes scenes from 3 other DD films.)
By now I'm immune to the sentiment of the man going off to war, leaving behind a new romantic interest. I look forward to meeting a long-married couple, maybe even with children. Or aren't they drafting family men yet? If not, why do the factories employ so many women? And why is it always an aircraft factory? Don't tanks and jeeps get blown up too? (I read that women were absorbed faster into aircraft manufacture because it was a newer industry.)
DD (b. '21) falls for womanizer JC (b. '05). DD is playing a sophisticated socialite now, and the age difference is 'only' 16 years, but it's still quite noticeable. He's interested until she gets too serious, as is his custom. But something draws him back to her, I didn't catch what. Maybe I'm immune to the sentiment because I don't like them as a couple. Or maybe because he's not as young as other servicemen I've 'seen' go off to war. Or maybe because she's wealthy and can buy enough distractions if he dies. Or maybe the acting/directing/writing pulls us back from involving me in the romance.
So, unfortunately, DD & Universal just made yet another entry in the same storyline I've seen too often already, even though I'm only watching musicals, and far fewer than were made!
Universal, dir. Ryan; 6
