I enjoy and appreciate Deanna Durbin and her extraordinary talent. She had one of the best singing voices ever to grace the silver screen. And I think she deserved better.
"Can't Help Singing" is your only chance to see Deanna in color, and the color is gorgeous. In fact, the whole production is flawless as Universal evidently pulled out all the stops to showcase its brightest star. It was filmed on location, which was unusual for Universal, and here she is surrounded by some of Hollywood's best supporting actors. There is Ray Collins, George Cleveland, Akim Tamiroff, Leonid Kinsky and Thomas Gomez.
Granted, it was wartime and perhaps all the big stars were in the service, so here she is stuck with bland 'B' star Robert Paige as her leading man (good voice, lacks charisma). My biggest objection - here I split with other reviewers - was the uninspired musical score written by, of all people, Yip Harburg and Jerome Kern, two of the biggest names in music, movie or otherwise. Save for the title song, the rest is tuneful but pedestrian and below the standards of these two master musicians. Deanna tries mightily to put her songs over and Paige follows suit but the task is too daunting.
The story is good, with a too-pat ending, but other movies have had better success with less. Maybe Universal should have waited until the war was over, and when Harburg and Kern were feeling better. "Can't Help Singing" is included in a Deanna collection of DVD's - nice to see Universal is finally catching on.
"Can't Help Singing" is your only chance to see Deanna in color, and the color is gorgeous. In fact, the whole production is flawless as Universal evidently pulled out all the stops to showcase its brightest star. It was filmed on location, which was unusual for Universal, and here she is surrounded by some of Hollywood's best supporting actors. There is Ray Collins, George Cleveland, Akim Tamiroff, Leonid Kinsky and Thomas Gomez.
Granted, it was wartime and perhaps all the big stars were in the service, so here she is stuck with bland 'B' star Robert Paige as her leading man (good voice, lacks charisma). My biggest objection - here I split with other reviewers - was the uninspired musical score written by, of all people, Yip Harburg and Jerome Kern, two of the biggest names in music, movie or otherwise. Save for the title song, the rest is tuneful but pedestrian and below the standards of these two master musicians. Deanna tries mightily to put her songs over and Paige follows suit but the task is too daunting.
The story is good, with a too-pat ending, but other movies have had better success with less. Maybe Universal should have waited until the war was over, and when Harburg and Kern were feeling better. "Can't Help Singing" is included in a Deanna collection of DVD's - nice to see Universal is finally catching on.