Por el amor de Mary

After seeing one of Deanna Durbin's movies on tv I decided to buy a video and chose this one for a start. As I love music anyways, you can't go wrong with any selection of hers, such a lovely singing voice, she does credit to any song. The story is well acted by each, and it has a quick wit with an interesting twist at the end. Also it's nice to see Harry Davenport in a film I hadn't seen before; he's been a reliable staple in many good movies of that era. It's entertaining and leaves you with a happy feeling after. We need not take life so seriously because after all it can be lighthearted and cheerful too. This film proves it.

When Washington insider Deanna Durbin gets a job on the White House switchboard, her friends, which includes senator Ray Collins and four or five Supreme Court justices, try to arrange her life for her. Young men cluster around her, too, including Navy lieutenant Edmond O'Brien, lawyer Jeffrey Lynn, and marine biologist Don Taylor.

Miss Durbin sings 'largo al factotum', and 'On Moonlight Bay'. And as she so often does, shows a real emotional connection with an unlikely elderly man or two. The story itself is nonsense. This may seem like a standard complaint for Miss Durbin's vehicles, but individual plot points are rushed over so you don't notice.

This movie, as well as Miss Durbin's previous few, had not performed well at the box office. Her star persona was Little Miss Fix-it, and she was no longer age-appropriate for it. Tired of the Hollywood grind, she left Hollywood a year later. Despite pleas from producers ranging from Joe Pasternak at MGM to Lerner & Lowe for MY FAIR LADY. She turned them all down, and only gave one interview in the remaining 65 years of her life. She died in 2013 at the age of 91, just where she wanted to be: out of the public's eye.

What a way to go! "For The Love of Mary" was Deanna Durbin's swansong. She proves what a charming, sparkling entertainer she was in her role as Mary Peppertree, a White House operator. This film (in it's acting, casting of veteran character actors, such as Harry Davenport and Louise Beavers, and it's lyrical though swift pacing) really marks the end of romantic comedy as practiced by the practitioners of screwball comedy. Romantic comedies would never again be this light, unpretentious, and wholesome, in my opinion.

Deanna Durbin shines as a comedic actress in this film as she never did as an adult performer because she never had a comedy script as bright and as fresh as this one. The chemistry between her and Edmond O'Brien is strong and sexy. This is one of the few romantic comedies to believably transport one to an idyllic world in which everyone can be lighthearted and in love with life if one were only in the right place and with the right kind of people.

"For The Love of Mary" deserves far more widespread viewing and critical praise than it currently has. It is great that it is now on video for all to appreciate.

The commercial Hollywood product for the family consumption in the 1930s, after Shirley Temple, was Deanna Durbin: sappy, covered in bows, singing at every opportunity with that kind of voice that Hollywood called lyrical, with always bright eyes of emotion, she was considered "the ideal daughter"

In 1948, not the cute singing young girl anymore, but still smiling a lot and singing too much, Deanna made a couple of boring musical comedies after the war. She had tried to change for more dramatic roles, but without success.

This kind of film reminds you that not everything was gold in the golden age, and while Hollywood could still afford 8 or 9 masterpieces every year, it produced many forgettable films as this one.

Absolutely dated, with no artistic or entertaining value, the film shows a somewhat tired Durbin as everyone's spotlight in the White House.

Corniest, tackiest musical numbers ever, stupid plot, no laughs, boring dialogue, and uninterestingly directed, it's a safe option for those who love oldies without requiring quality.

Probably targeted for Durbin club fan, but finally as somebody tells Durbin in the film: it's idiotic even for young people.

This is one of the last of Deanna Durbin's movies, and as I knew that by this time she was on the point of leaving the film industry I hesitated to watch it: I just did not expect much, as I assumed it would be evident that Durbin was at this point pretty much fed up with acting. What a mistake. This an intelligent comedy with a surprising ending and a very good cast. Durbin in particular is in top form; her comic timing is impeccable. For me, the high point is her rendition of a piece from the Barber of Seville that is intended for a baritone. She sings this with great good humour (and with a moustache) - it is an absolute lark; you are just left smiling and wishing it would go on. It is an eternal pity that Durbin stopped making films. Had she been around in the 1950s and -60s, Doris Day (almost exactly her age) would have had a much harder time establishing herself as the leading singing comedienne.