First Love
                
Director: Henry Koster
Year: 1939
Rating: 7.0
Deanna Durbin films don't get much play these days. Her style of operatic singing has gone out of style as has her happy ending films. This one ends with "And they lived happily ever after" written across the screen just to make sure the folks in the audience got that and could go home feeling warm and fuzzy. I have an old-fashioned chromosome somewhere in my DNA because happy endings are just fine with me. But times change - once they laughed at Ma Kettle movies and teared up when Deanna's character found joy - but back in the late 1930s through the 40s - until she retired and said goodbye to Hollywood, Durbin was huge and to a large degree saved Universal from bankruptcy.




Part of that affection for her as it was also true of Garland and Rooney was watching them grow up in film after film. In Durbin's first film Three Smart Girls, she was fifteen with a voice that could knock over bowling pins - now she is eighteen - looking grown up and singing arias from Puccini. Audiences rooted for these actors back then - followed their lives, their scandals, their ups and downs and stayed loyal for years. It is nice to dip into nostalgia from time to time.



This one is a modern fairy tale in New York City based on Cinderella. Connie's (Durban) parents are dead and she is graduating from high school. She is then off to stay with her mother's very rich brother and his family of awfuls.  A wife whose life revolves around astrology, a son who has made slouching an art form and a daughter who is a haughty spoiled debutante. When he gets home, the first thing the father asks the butler (Charles Coleman) is whether the family is home and sighs with relief when told no. He is played by the fireplug of a man, Eugene Pallette, in good rascally form. When he finally sickens of them all, it is a delightful scene. None of the family pays much attention to Connie - treated as the poor cousin - but loved by the large service staff.




The daughter (Helen Parrish) sends her to delay Ted (a very boyish Robert Stack) from riding his horse till she is able to come, she does and falls for him. He barely notices her. But then the big ball is arriving. The servants pitch in to get her a gown, shoes, a wrap and a six-police motorcycle escort. But she is told to stay home. And the Cinderella part kicks in. Be home by midnight. Lose a shoe. Sing an aria in an amusing scene. Have your heart broken. Happy ending. It is pure Durbin territory.