It's Deanna Durbin. It was made at the height of the depression. It was a huge success. It's old fashioned wholesome entertainment. That's enough to recommend it to people who thrill to the 'old timey' charms of Hollywood's Golden Era. As for the rest out there who might run across it, it's dated nonsense not worth bothering with. The story (unbelievably nominated for an Academy Award---as was the film for Best Picture) is an absurd extension of those "put on a show in a barn" yarns: this time not involving a couple of performers, but a full-scale hundred piece orchestra! Durbin and Menjou spend most of the film dodging the same security guard and being driven around by the same cabbie, all to get help from conductor Leopold Stokowski. It's all very frantic, with endless misperceptions that could be explained in seconds, but if so would stop the story cold. There's no wit to the proceedings yet the film is loaded with witty actors such as Menjou, Mischa Auer and Alice Brady. Such a waste. And Durbin is very charming, yet she speaks in a yipping high-pitched squeak for most of the film, as if trying to make herself sound younger. And Billy Gilbert is always a comic actor to be taken in small doses, but in here his demand-for-payment shtick goes on and on and on. At least for those not inclined to accept the idea of people spontaneously breaking into song in musicals, this film avoids that: Durbin only sings when asked or as a full orchestra plays on camera. But, hey, it's all harmless fun, so why nitpick? Because it could have been better, and the lack of era-transcending quality in her movies is the main reason the talented Durbin is mostly forgotten today.
Review of One Hundred Men and a Girl
