La soeur de son valet

I am a lover of all old movies especially musicals, and I find this to be the absolute worst I've seen. I do enjoy Judy Garland, so that may be partially why I don't like Durbin's style. She doesn't seem to have the sparkle of any of the great musical stars such as Alice Faye or Kathryn Grayson. She is very beautiful, but I think she should have been a chorus girl, or a musical specialty. Most movies that I have seen that weren't the greatest still had the leading actress giving a good performance even under the most stupid circumstances.

Now that I've expressed my opinion of the star I can restate much of what others have commented on, the script. In this movie I didn't believe anything. I thought the way Durbin was acting towards her brother was real LOVE, not family love. It was horrible. I'll see another Deanna Durbin film and hopefully I can find something nicer to say about it.

"His Butler's Sister" is a frustrating story. Much of the story is very good, there is an excellent supporting cast and Deanna Durbin sings an amazingly different version of "Nessun Dorma"...but the writing is confusing and uneven. It's a shame, as the film easily could have been so much better.

Ann (Durbin) is headed to New York City to see her brother, Martin (Pat O'Brien). She is surprised when she sees him, as it's been many years* and he's NOT the successful man she thought he'd be. Instead, he's a butler for a successful song writer/producer....just the man Ann wants to meet because she has ambitions of being a professional singer. But Martin convinces her NOT to try auditioning for his boss (Franchot Tone), as MANY women try this and he is the gate keeper. But Martin's behaviors are very inconsistent...especially after Ann and his boss fall in love. At this point, the film is terribly confusing, though thankfully it soon ends on a high note.

Hearing Durbin sing "Nessun Dorma" from "Turandot" by Puccini is a treat. It's a song written for tenors and I have never heard a woman singing it...let alone a soprano. But with Durbin's powerful voice, she manages to hit all the notes and this piece alone make the film worth your time. As for the story, well, it's weak and confusing...but the actors make it pleasant regardless.





*Casting O'Brien as Durbin's brother was a poor choice. He was 22 years older than her...and he definitely looked this much older...perhaps more.

In 'His Butler's Sister' Deanna Durbin plays Anne, a small town girl who arrives in New York to make it on the stage. She intends to live with her older half-brother Martin (Pat O'Brien) whom she has not seen for years and who turns out not to be the millionaire she expected but something much better: The butler of a successful song writer (Charles Gerard, played by Franchot Tone), for whom Anne wanted to sing in any case. There are mistaken identities and other misunderstandings, some dastardly intrigues, a troop of butlers who all fall in love with Anne and any number of situations that will make you laugh out loud. Most importantly, this charming comedy-romance offers Deanna a lot of chances to demonstrate what an amazingly good soprano she was. In fact, I don't think Hollywood ever attracted a better classical singer - no wonder Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland were among her fans. In 'His Butler's Sister' Deanna sings some modern numbers, a Russian medley (in Russian), and towards the end an astounding interpretation of Nessun Dorma. The Russian medley is historically remarkable: Remember, back then the Soviet Union and the US were allies and there was a lot of sympathy for Russia. Also, the Universal Studios may have aimed at the Russian 'market', such as there was (earlier films with Deanna, for example 'One Hundred Men and a Girl', did appear in Russia). What did not convince me is the character of Anne's half-brother Martin, or rather, why both Anna and Charles keep forgiving him his really nasty intrigues. But that does not change the fact that 'His Butler's Sister' is one of the best of Deanna Durbin's films - not quite at the level of 'One Hundred Men and a Girl', but still very very good. Don't miss it!

I find it amusing that this musical's "lack of realism" was so appalling to several of the viewers. Thinking of the great musicals - "Show Boat", "Oklahoma", "South Pacific", the list is enormous - and criticizing their plots for verisimilitude or realism is rather like looking for the meaning of life in a Warner Brothers cartoon! It simply isn't important in the realm of the musical. When I think of some major musicals adapted for screen and the Sidneys and Walters with their heavy-handed ways directing them, Frank Borzage is so very much better. True, I'm not familiar with the director's lighter side but he handled things quite flowingly. I would have to agree that the script sounds like the work of a committee, but the songs were Durbin at her best. No, she didn't have the magnetism to light up the screen in any way but her voice was excellently suited for the material heard here.

Curtis Stotlar

Coming after the grave "stage door canteen" ,which ,in spite of funny scenes ,dealt about soldiers about to go to war,"his butler's sister" is some kind of comic relief.Deanna Durbin is a very good-looking actress and songstress -even if ,like me,her style is not your cup of tea-and watching Franchot Tone at work is always a joy to me.Anyway they do not appear in what is for me the funniest of the whole movie :girls mistaking a salesman for a composer and discovering that what he sells is not what they were expecting.

The movie features several songs ,the last one being some kind of communication as it was the case in other Borzage works such as "I'll always love you" or " smiling through" ,though in a lighter way.