Something to Sing About

I've mentioned slightly sketchy love for Deanna Durbin and other singing child stars before. So I just want to say that Deanna Durbin is all grown up in the double bill: It Started with Eve / Can't Help Singing.

It Started with Eve is a Jean Arthur type screwball B&W comedy. Playboy Robert Cummings' dad calls him to his deathbed. It seems that dad (Charles Laughton!) has only hours to live, and he wants to meet his son's fiancee. Cummings rushes off, but can't find the girl he's engaged to, so he grabs the first woman he can find, hatcheck girl Deanna Durbin. Laughton is entranced by this lovely girl, and everyone is happy. But dad doesn't die. He starts getting better, and Durbin and Cummings have to keep up the charade. No points for guessing how it comes out. But can you guess how she gets her singing in?

It seems she is in NY trying to be discovered, but can't get a break. Since Laughton is a close friend of Jascha Heifetz and Leonard Bernstein, she sees an opening. She is nicely cynical in these scenes, and everyone else is charmingly dubious. Whenever she offers to sing for anyone, they start making excuses and finding places they have to be.

If you don't like her singing, you'll know how they feel. But it is actually very nice.

Can't Help Singing is a color period piece, with Durbin as a spoiled senator's daughter following her cavalry boyfriend west to the California goldrush. Along the way, she meets Russian swindler Akim Tamiroff and cowboy gambler Robert Paige. And, you know, she just can't help singing. Songs by Jerome Kerne.

Eve was pretty good - it held up with all the Jean Arthur I've been watching. Like Easy Living, it even had the main relationship be between the girl and the father. Can't Help Singing was a lot less fun for me, but both had Durbin's lovely face and sweet singing voice going on.