Deanna Durbin Sweetheart Pack (Three Smart Girls / Something In the Wind / First Love / It Started with Eve / Can't Help Singing / Lady on a Train)

Now, despite my 5-star rating for the "Deanna Durbin Sweetheart Pack", allow me one small criticism...Someone needs to make a film documentary about this unfairly forgotten star! Yes, she is still alive, at this writing (a feisty 88!), and still continues her 60-year exile from the United States and the film industry, but in the 'rediscovery' of her 21 exquisite films of the 1930s and 1940s, her importance needs to be acknowledged, to a new generation. This remarkable woman actually 'saved' Universal Pictures, was a more popular star in her time than Judy Garland, won a special 'juvenile' Oscar in 1938, and was a personal favorite of FDR, Churchill, AND Mussolini, as well as Anne Frank. Blessed with a rich, mature Soprano singing voice that was a bit disconcerting when she was a teen (Walt Disney turned her down, at 14, as the voice of 'Snow White' because she sounded too old), she inspired MGM to hire Kathryn Grayson, Ann Blyth, and Jane Powell, and was, at 21, the highest-paid woman in America, and the world's highest-paid actress. These facts should be shared, to better appreciate the truly unique appeal of Deanna Durbin! The "Deanna Durbin Sweetheart Pack" offers six memorable films: "Three Smart Girls" (1936): 14-year-old Deanna's feature debut, after an MGM short with Judy Garland (the studio unintentionally let Durbin's contract expire, and Universal grabbed her). She's teamed with Nan Gray and Barbara Read, as young sisters who journey to America to break up father Charles Winninger's impending nuptials to golddigger Binnie Barnes. The older sisters find romance (Barbara with dashing young Ray Milland, also on a fast track to stardom), but the film is Deanna's, all the way, with dazzling Durbin songs, and a satisfying, tear-inducing finale... (5 stars, out of 5). "Something In the Wind" (1947): Nearing the end of her brief career, 25-year-old Deanna in a very funny tale of mistaken identity, accused of being a late millionaire's 'kept' woman! Her romantic lead is John Dall (who she sings a couple of slightly naughty ballads to), but the real fun is 21-year-old Donald O'Connor, just returned from wartime service, who displays the boundless energy and dancing skills that would serve him so well in 1952's "Singing in the Rain" (he even performs an early 'warm-up' for the "Make 'em Laugh" showstopper)...and watch for Deanna and Donald's number with the singing Williams Brothers, including a young Andy Williams! (5 stars, out of 5) "First Love" (1939): Best-known as the film where 17-year-old Deanna gets her first screen kiss (from young Robert Stack!), this delightful 'Cinderella' send-up also has elements of "My Man Godfrey" including wonderful Eugene Pallette, again cast as an exasperated father; the ball scene is truly magical, and would influence the Maria/Tony dance in "West Side Story", over 20 years later. A treasure! (5 stars, out of 5) "It Started with Eve" (1941): The crown jewel of the collection, one of the screen's great comedies. Millionaire financier Charles Laughton, on his deathbed, demands to be introduced to son Robert Cummings' fiance; when Cummings can't find her, he recruits hat check girl Deanna to 'play' her, assuming his father will die, never knowing the ruse. But Deanna's sweetness and charm saves the old man's life, and things get complicated! A fabulous film; Laughton, at his peak (and just 41), gives his septuagenarian character a feisty charm without overplaying him; his moments with Deanna are simply perfect (and their wild rumba scene is the film highlight!)...(5 1/2 stars, out of 5) "Can't Help Singing" (1944): Best-remembered as Deanna's only color film, this 'Gold Rush' era western is beautiful to look at, with spectacular location footage at California and Utah national parks, and features songs by Jerome Kern and E. Y. Harburg (which Deanna does magnificently), but the story is a bit thin and streched, Robert Paige isn't the most charismatic of her leading men (and his costumes are a bit silly), and overall, the film needs a "Harvey Girls" bounce that it doesn't quite achieve...(3 1/2 stars, out of five) "Lady on a Train" (1945): A film noir comedy-drama-musical, created, in part, from Deanna's request for more 'adult' roles...finishing a cross-country Christmas train trip to New York City, Deanna witnesses a murder from her window, but naturally, nobody believes her! The victim turns out to be a secluded, legendary industralist (shades of "Citizen Kane"), whose whole family hated him. Deanna decides to pose as his nightclub singer mistress, to find the killer, as the body count rises. A first-rate cast, including Ralph Bellamy, Edward Everett Horton, Dan Duryea, Allen Jenkins, William Frawley, and, as her leading man, the 'cad' of "Can't Help Singing", David Bruce, can't disguise the flimsy story and plotholes; you'll figure out who the killer is within ten minutes, guaranteed! Still, the film is quite funny, and Deanna sings some great tunes, including "Silent Night", and Cole Porter's "Night and Day"...(4 stars, out of five) A wonderful, affordable way to discover (or rediscover) one of Hollywood greatest (and most neglected) stars!

Deanna Durbin is culturally important because of the beauty of her singing voice. This snug package of six of her 21 feature films is a good value but lacks some extras that a discriminating customer would like to see (commentary tracks, interviews, historical footage, trailers, cut scenes). Nevertheless, the package does provide subtitles and section headings, both of which aid the episodes with singing. The films are presented in a "flippy" format with two films on the front side and one on the reverse. So there are only two disks. The reproductions of the films are good, clean, and unexceptional. As to the films themselves, some of Durbin's best work emerged from the direction of her mentor, Henry Koster, and three of the six Durbin-Koster collaborations are here: THREE SMART GIRLS (DD #1), FIRST LOVE (DD #6), IT STARTED WITH EVE (DD #10). These three by themselves make this offering from Universal Studios, Durbin's home studio, worth the price of the package. In 1936, THREE SMART GIRLS was a huge hit earning 500% over cost in its initial release. It saved Universal Studios from bankruptcy. FIRST LOVE pushed the early World War II news off the front pages and launched Robert Stack's movie career. IT STARTED WITH EVE ended the run of ten consecutive block busters, a feat unmatched in the history of American cinema. And what a splendid film "Eve" is: Charles Laughton, Robert Cummings, and Deanna Durbin make a fascinating team of players in a film perfectly conceived and executed. What so distinguishes a Koster film is its craftsmanship. The other three films are also worthy of note--two of them for their music. SOMETHING IN THE WIND (DD #19) has about five songs commissioned from Johnny Green, longtime jazz composer and orchestra leader. He is famous as the conductor of the M-G-M orchestra. CAN'T HELP SINGING (DD #15) has songs commissioned from Jerome Kern, among his last compositions. LADY ON A TRAIN (DD #16) is a delightful but crazy send-up of the "murder mystery" genre. And everything in it is ridiculed including Durbin herself. Perhaps it reveals that she was tiring of her fame and Hollywood. It was directed by the French director Charles Henri David. He would become her husband five years later, and that marriage in France would last almost half a century. Deanna Durbin is the biggest movie star from Hollywood's Golden Age who has been forgotten by Americans today. This is because, sadly enough, her films are just not often shown. But she has not been forgotten in the countries of the British Commonwealth and Russian Federation. Americans seriously need to remember this superb artist of song.

Trawling through the internet and the amazon catalogues for the screwball comedies, I struck upon the title Lady on a Train,a Deanna Durbin film. That was my first encounter with her. This collection is the best introduction to the talents of Ms.Durbin as a singer and actress. The romantic comedies she played in are superbly blended with music. Just like some of the finest Bollywood romantic musicals. What's more,she could do the comedies with equal ease. This Sweetheart pack has following films: THREE SMART GIRLS: The first film of Ms.Durbin when she was hardly 15 years old. The story line is very thin and predictable. Three sisters come to New York to prevent their father from marrying a gold digger. A romantic comedy. Ms Durbin is the real singing sensation of the film. SOMETHING IN THE WIND: More of a screwball than romantic film. The element of screwball is based on the mistaken identity. In this case,an aunt and a niece (Ms.Durbin)having the same name. The aunt's deceased lover leaves her some money and his heirs try to prevent that. They mistake the niece for the aunt.So the comedy develops out of the mistaken identity, FIRST LOVE: Modern Cinderella story. Everything is predictable,nevertheless, enjoyable. IT STARTED WITH EVE: Another screwball comedy. With Charles Laughton. A rich man(Laughton)is on the verge of dying,wants to meet his only son's fiancée, Naturally she is not available at the moment.The son asks the next girl he meets to come with him to pose as his fiancée. After meeting the girl the old man comes back to life and even likes her as his future daughter-in-law. So the classic comedy situation for the whole film is developed in the first 10 minutes of the film. CAN'T HELP SINGING: Eminently forgettable film. Very weak story. The daughter of a rich senator runs away from home to be with her lover. The film is set against the background mass migration of immigrants to the American West and California.The thing that saves the film from oblivion is the singing of Ms.Durbin and the comic antics of Akim Tamiroff and his sidekick. The film is in colour. LADY ON A TRAIN: An odd mixture of cine noir and screwball comedies.Ms.Durbin is the only witness to a murder which she happens to see while travelling in a train.There are plenty of twists and turns in the story and of course superb laughs. This pack is richly illustrated with the photos from her films. All DVD transfers are of good quality. Exception: Three Smart Girls. A few scenes in the film are hazy. If you like music and singing,these films are not going to disappoint you. And even if you do not like it, the powerful presence of Ms Durbin in the films will see you through the films with lot of entertainment.

Deanna Durbin Sweetheart Pack -- A Great Introduction to Durbin at a Bargain Price I had never before watched a Deanna Durbin film, and thought it was high time I had a look at something by this Canadian girl who took Hollywood by storm in the 1930s -- and helped pull Universal out of bankruptcy. I really enjoyed this 6-film set -- more than I thought I would. I was expecting light fare, sentimental tales with some reasonably good singing, but got something much better. Several of these films border on screwball comedy -- and Durbin is pretty good at it! And the singing! What a voice this woman had, even as a young teenager! Knocking out opera tunes and other songs in an operatic style, with a beauty and power that is hard to believe -- and I'm not much of a fan of operatic singing. And indeed, except for one or two places where the singing style seemed far too grand for the situation (e.g., the first song in her first film seemed cloying and syrupy-soprano, and I worried that the whole set would be an entertainment bust at that point), the style is worked carefully into the plot of each movie -- where she is often a trained or aspiring singer -- and in that context, it works. So if you are turned off by the first number in the first film, don't give up -- stay tuned and you will be glad you did. I won't go over the plots of all these stories, as they are covered in detail in other reviews here on Amazon.ca and on Amazon.com. And people can consult the IMDb for more information. But this set of films has just the right range. Durbin was in films only from 1936 to 1948; the films here cover from 1936 to 1947. Two kinds of photography are represented: there are five black and white films, and one full musical in glorious (and I do mean glorious) Technicolor. There is a sentimental children-want-to-bring-divorced-parents-back-together tale (Three Smart Girls, her first film in 1936); a love tale (First Love) modelled on Cinderella, with great comic touches (with Robert Stack in his first role, and the great Eugene Pallette making us laugh as only he can); a screwball comedy (It Started with Eve, not to be confused with the Preston Sturges comedy with a similar title) featuring Bob Cummings and Charles Laughton (yes, Laughton!); a full-blown Kern-Harburg musical (Can't Stop Singing) set in the West, with a couple of good tunes, and some of the best Technicolor I've ever seen; a great whodunit murder mystery/comedy (Lady on a Train) with few musical numbers, which shows Durbin's non-musical talents; and a remarkable romantic comedy film, Something in the Wind, in which Durbin has a "new look" -- a completely new vocal style, sultry and jazzy, complete with a dance number reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe -- before there was a Marilyn Monroe. The range of abilities Durbin had was amazing. The supporting players in these films are like a who's who of Hollywood character actors, second leads, and even leads. I've already mentioned Laughton and Cummings and Pallette and Stack, but there are so many more: Ray Milland, Mischa Auer, Samuel Hinds, Walter Catlett, Dorothea Kent, Robert Paige, Akim Tamiroff, Ray Collins, David Bruce, Ralph Bellamy, Allan Jenkins, Dan Duryea, Edward Everett Horton, Patricia Morison, William Frawley, George Coulouris, Donald O'Connor, John Dall, Margaret Wycherly -- watching this set, you feel as if you are in a roomful of old and beloved friends. There aren't many extras on this set -- mostly only trailers, and there isn't a trailer for every film. There are subtitles in French and Spanish and English captions as well for those who want them. But when one considers the rarity of these films (some I believe are available only in this set) and the fact that these are uncut versions, at the full original lengths, and that the picture and sound are mostly excellent (with some sparkles and minor defects in the earlier films), and that this is a well-balanced survey of Durbin's styles and periods, this set deserves an A+ for contents. On the technical side, this set contains 2 DVDS, with 3 films on each DVD (two on one side and one on the other). I would gladly have paid more for separate DVDS, since two-sided DVDs are sometimes flawed, but 5 of the 6 movies played flawlessly, with only one (It Started with Eve) showing a slight glitch -- a skip of about 15 seconds (fortunately in an unimportant place). I don't know how common this is for this set, but I don't see many complaints on Amazon about it. This collection rates 5 stars -- 5 stars for "innocent entertainment" value (for anyone who loves films of the 30s and 40s), and 4.5 stars for good sound and picture quality, and the few special features.

Un joli minois, une fort jolie voix, du charme, de la grâce, de la gentillesse mais aussi du punch à en fracasser les tibias!... Au travers d'une sélection de six films le présent coffret nous offre la possibilité de retrouver ou de découvrir celle qui fut une artiste adulée de son époque la célèbre Deanna Durbin!

Un coffret d'occasion mais les 6 films sont passés sans accro , films pour les amateurs du genre ( comédie chanter mais sympathique) top masters & st français attention ⚠️ coffret zone 1.

A good collection for fans of the Winnipeg Chanteuse. Five Glorious Black & White and one Technicolour ( Technicolour is very vivid , explode in your eyes colour of that period , 1944 ). All are first a vehicle to enable Deanna to sing , and second a story. " Lady on a Train " (1945 ) is a good murder mystery where Deanna witnesses a murder in a track-side warehouse while she is in transit. A great cast supports her as she solves the mystery. " Three Smart Girls " (1936 ) is a comedy precursor to Haley Mills later " Parent Trap " wherein three sisters conspire to get their divorced parents back together. " First Love " ( 1939 ) is a re-telling of Cinderella. " It Started with Eve ' ( 1941 ) is a comedy where Deanna is conscripted to fraudulently impersonate Robert Cummings' fiancee to try to get his dying father ( Charles Laughton ! ) to live through the night. " Can't Help Singing " (1944 ) is the colour movie in the mix with perhaps the most contrived story line. " Something in the Wind " ( 1947 ) has Deanna playing an on air singing radio DJ. Deanna sings opera , nightclub , and pop songs as her movie career advances , and does all styles well. An entertaining group of movies with a Canadian star that made the big time and left on her own terms.