I'll Be Yours

I'm no Deanna Durbin fan but I have to admire her for getting away from it all at such a young age and retiring to France. This was one of her last films.

By chance, it fell into my collection and I have wound up watching it on dreary weekend afternoons. I was surprised to learn that it bore several viewings. If only modern romantic comedies could be so light and unworldly as this.

Like in a good sitcom, the secondary characters support this film. But the two leads carry it.

I'll Be Yours may not be one of Deanna Durbin's best movies, but it really is not a bad movie. The other actors in this movie are great, especially William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou, Walter Catlett and even Tom Drake. By comparison to most of her movies, it does seem like unbelievable fluff, although her movies are more for entertainment than realism anyway. I mention this, because I'll Be Yours is a remake of The Good Fairy from 1935, with Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall, which seems difficult to believe as it is with the naivety in that movie, but considering Good Fairy takes place in early to mid 1930's Hungary and that Sullavan's character comes from an orphanage and has never seen the real world, the plot is a little more plausible. For I'll Be Yours, The Good Fairy story is updated to 1947 and takes place in New York City, both of which really don't work for this kind of plot, no matter how good the acting is. Deanna seems too sophisticated for the plot, even though they changed the character's background from an orphanage to small town girl, and Tom Drake seems way too naive for an American male of this period. All in all, this is not a bad movie, but one does expect better for this cast.

This film is a good example of what can happen when a sure-fire box office star's movies get stereotyped. Gradually, the formula starts to get stale, the studio doesn't do anything to improve the situation, and the films deteriorate. No wonder Durbin described this movie as "terrible" in a rare interview years after she left Hollywood. It is. Besides Durbin, a bunch of good actors--William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou, Tom Drake etc.--are saddled with an amazingly trite script that insults even those willing to suspend disbelief. Fortunately, Durbin's voice is as glorious as ever, and her musical numbers at least provide respite. William Bendix has his moments, too. See it for Durbin's songs and fast-forward through the rest of it.

If you enjoy the genre of fluffy musical /comedy /romances that Deanna Durbin was consistently cast in, you will certainly enjoy this one, as it is one of her better vehicles. As believable as any of the silly storylines she had to endure, the supporting cast in this one is above average. Adolph Menjou is particularly enjoyable as the lascivious business magnet with his sites on Durbin. And her performance of "Granada" is worth the price alone.

Deanna Durbin had such a fine singing voice that no matter how thin her screenplays were, they were always salvaged somehow whenever she was given an opportunity to sing. I'LL BE YOURS almost proves to be a contradiction to that statement. No matter how charming she is and how competent her co-stars are, there is no doubt after the first twenty minutes that she is wasting her time in a film saddled with a script that nobody can do much about that. The others try hard--William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou and Tom Drake--but nothing helps until Durbin sings.

Durbin tells a white lie to Adolphe Menjou and therein lies the pretext for a story involving her supposed "marriage" to Tom Drake (here sporting an unbecoming mustache). Needless to say, our heroine straightens everything out in a time for the finale and along the way sings a couple of songs, notably "Granada", which, as another viewer noted, is well worth the price of admission. Only Durbin's most ardent fans will appreciate this one.