If you like musicals, they can be wonderful escapes to an earlier time, a chance to see and hear what was popular at an earlier time in our history. I've found a musical, though, in which the music is timeless. The film opens with legendary composer Leopold Stokowski conducting his orchestra in a performance of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. (I'm led to believe that the recording itself was made by Stokowski's Philadelphia Orchestra.) The story itself is somewhat tied to the Great Depression, when I assumed unemployed classical musicians were wont to board together by the dozens. It is from these unemployed musicians that "Patsy" Cardwell (Deanna Durbin) forms an orchestra, manages to find an unwitting sponsor (Eugene Palette), and lets the orchestra convince Stokowski to conduct them, by having the entire orchestra perform Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 in the conductor's palatial home.
The story is appealing: an innocents convinces and tricks the wealthy and powerful into helping the penniless and powerless. The acting is good: Eugene Palette is as good as ever as the sponsor, Alice Brady is hilarious as his mindless wife, Adolphe Menjou is empathetic as the father, and Durbin is a splendid actress and vocalist. Comparing her to Judy Garland is not at all fair to Miss Garland, a fine "pop vocalist" for her time. Durbin's voice is trained, and she performs well in two standard numbers as well as Mozart's "Alleluia" from Exultate Jubilate and Verdi's "Libiamo" aria from La Traviata. (The latter suffices as her "remarks," given at Stokowski's prompting, at the end, as her personal tax driver (Frank Jenks) looks on.
I was pleasantly surprised when, as Durbin's character tried to sneak into the concert hall during rehearsals to speak to Stokowski, the orchestra played the Scherzo from Beethoven's under-appreciated "D Symphony" (Symphony no 2). They then broke into Wagner's Lohengrin Prelude, which left Durbin's character overwhelmed.
You do not have to be a lover of classical music to enjoy this film. Anyone who pulls for the underdog and smiles when they see a character with whom they might relate ought to like this one. Henry Koster's direction is excellent.
The story is appealing: an innocents convinces and tricks the wealthy and powerful into helping the penniless and powerless. The acting is good: Eugene Palette is as good as ever as the sponsor, Alice Brady is hilarious as his mindless wife, Adolphe Menjou is empathetic as the father, and Durbin is a splendid actress and vocalist. Comparing her to Judy Garland is not at all fair to Miss Garland, a fine "pop vocalist" for her time. Durbin's voice is trained, and she performs well in two standard numbers as well as Mozart's "Alleluia" from Exultate Jubilate and Verdi's "Libiamo" aria from La Traviata. (The latter suffices as her "remarks," given at Stokowski's prompting, at the end, as her personal tax driver (Frank Jenks) looks on.
I was pleasantly surprised when, as Durbin's character tried to sneak into the concert hall during rehearsals to speak to Stokowski, the orchestra played the Scherzo from Beethoven's under-appreciated "D Symphony" (Symphony no 2). They then broke into Wagner's Lohengrin Prelude, which left Durbin's character overwhelmed.
You do not have to be a lover of classical music to enjoy this film. Anyone who pulls for the underdog and smiles when they see a character with whom they might relate ought to like this one. Henry Koster's direction is excellent.