Three Smart Girls Grow Up
                
Director: Henry Koster
Year: 1939
Rating: 6.0
In Deanna Durbin’s early films, her nickname was Ms. Fix It because her character always tried fixing up other people’s problems. This was especially true in her first big film Three Smart Girls (1936) when she brings her father (Charles Winninger) and mother (Nella Walker) back together through devious plotting. Well, she is up to the same in this sequel – but now she is sorting out the love lives of her two older sisters, Joan (Nan Grey) and Kay (Helen Parrish). Nan had played her sister in the first film, but Helen took over the role from Barbara Read. Helen played the spoiled cousin in Durbin’s First Love made in this same year and their resemblance to one another is confusing to me at times. Both older sisters are in love with Richard (William Lundigan) and when he proposes to Joan, Kay is heartbroken but does her best not to show it. But the little sister figures it out and her mind starts churning like a Bitcoin computer. How can I fix this? Ah, but of course.



Find Kay another man. Big, dark and handsome and Harry (Robert Cummings) fits the bill. She entices him over to dinner for roast beef and roasted potatoes and sets him up for Kay. But damn, he goes for the blonde sister as well and there is chemistry between them. So much for that plan. Wait – what if I break the engagement and put Joan and Harry together and then Kay will end up with Richard. Sure, why not. What could go wrong? Very sweet and sentimental with Durbin singing a number of songs to perfection. The joy in her eyes when she sings is palpable. Both Winninger and Walker are back as the parents and provide a bit of humor. Durbin returns as Penny in the 1943 Hers to Hold with both parents still present, but the sisters have married and moved on. Henry Koster who had directed the first Three Smart Girls directs this one as well.