Something in the Wind

When Mary Collins strides out utterly confident on stage to sing, I had a momentary flashback to Ethel Merman in 1959 striding down the theater aisle and calling, "Sing out, Louise, sing out!" Mary Collins, I mean Deanna Durbin at 26, was a supremely confident actress and singer, and there are a few times when you wouldn't want to get in her way. Balancing that are things Merman didn't have...a warm personality, a lovely face, a smile that could win you over and a voice that wouldn't break your eardrums. Merman was an amazing, one-of-a-kind performer; so was Deanna Durbin. What they share is a perfect confidence in their talent.

With Something in the Wind, audiences were watching a romantic comedy with songs featuring a mature young woman they'd been in love with since she was 15. Alone among the child stars of the Thirties, Deanna Durbin grew up on screen while maintaining her stardom, her poise and her box office clout. Here, as Mary Collins, she's a disc jockey who discovers that her aunt who raised her, also named Mary Collins, had been receiving regular checks from a wealthy industrialist. They had once been in love but the marriage plans had been broken up by his family. The whole thing was platonic, but when the old man died his will stated that the financial arrangements must continue. But now the young scion of the family, Donald Read (John Dall), wants to stop the arrangement and pay Mary Collins off. He wants no scandal. He thinks our Mary has been his grandfather's friend. He doesn't realize our Mary has an aunt with the same name. Mary doesn't know what he's talking about but is furious at the implication. Donald is a prig and engaged to a well-bred socialite. His grandmother is a woman who believes breeding is all. His younger brother, Charlie (Donald O'Connor), is much more unconventional. After our Mary is kidnapped and at first kept at the Read family mansion until she agrees to the arrangement, we are in for over an hour of romantic mix- ups, complicated machinations, a perfect lawyer (blind and deaf), six songs by Durbin, three songs and comedy routines by O'Connor, and then true love finding a way. What does the movie add up to? For firm Deanna Durbin fans, a delight. For those who simply like her a lot, a mixed bag.

On the plus side are Durbin and O'Connor. One almost wishes they'd been the happy couple at the end. Durbin sings everything from a bit of Verdi to a down-and-dirty "You want to keep your baby lookin' right, doncha, Daddy?" Her personality shines through. She's funny and sincere. O'Connor is O'Connor and he's great. He has one number, "I Love a Mystery," which is almost a rehearsal for his "Make 'Em Laugh" routine in Singin' in the Rain. The songs, by Johnny Green and Leo Robin, are just fine, with two better than just fine numbers, "The Turntable Song" and "Something in the Wind." And one unexpected and stylishly handled bit features a cameo by Jan Peerce, the great American tenor who had a long career at the Met, as a singing jailer. Durbin is in the jail. It's not long before before they're sharing a duet from Il Trovatore and arguing about who stepped on whose obbligato.

But the movie begins to get tedious when the Mary Collins mix-up is finally discovered, love between Mary and Donald emerges and serious complications concerning proper family breeding sets in. Most problematic is John Dall as Donald Read, the stuffy hero who learns to love. Dall always seemed to me to be not only a limited actor but a man who, just as Lawrence Harvey always seemed genuinely unlikeable, always seemed genuinely artificial. He was unnerving as the artificially sincere killer-for-thrills in Rope a year later, but here he creates a big hole in the movie. He simply isn't interesting enough or strong enough to compete in the comedy or romance departments with Durbin.

After seeing her Three Smart Girls on the same DVD, I watched the other of Deanna Durbin's movies on it-this one, Something in the Wind. Made more than a decade after the previous one I mentioned, Ms. Durbin is no longer a young teen here but quite an alluring adult. She sings both her familiar opera songs and some more contemporary music of the time to fine effect. One of her costars is Donald O'Connor, just out of the military and doing his funny enough shticks-some of which may be familiar to modern viewers if they've seen Singin' in the Rain. Another of Ms. Durbin's costars one may be familiar with here is Charles Winninger-who I just watched play her father in TSG-playing Donald's Uncle Chester. No, she doesn't end up with Donald but the leading man named John Dall. Don't really want to reveal the plot which isn't really all that believable, just turn your brain off and enjoy Something in the Wind.

Few I suspect at Universal Studios thought that Something In The Wind would be one of Deanna Durbin's last films. If they thought that they might have taken more care with her material.

Teaming Deanna with Donald O'Connor another one of their juvenile mainstays was probably inevitable. Both O'Connor and Deanna are served well by the songs obviously written both in mind. Deanna's Turntable Song sold a few records back in the day and O'Connor's I Love A Mystery song and routine are well suited to his talents. But the highlight is an aria from Il Trovatore that Durbin sings with Jan Peerce of the Metropolitan Opera playing an opera singing cop.

The plot is truly a silly one. Older brother John Dall comes marching into Deanna's radio studio all full of himself demanding that she cease and desist demands for payments that his grandfather has been paying regularly to her. In fact grandfather was making payments to Durbin's aunt Jean Adair and a cursory examination of the records would show that the payments started before Durbin was born. But no one said Dall was too bright.

In any event this stupid error becomes the basis for the rest of the film causing complications for Dall, Durbin and O'Connor playing Dall's younger brother. Dall also has a fiancé played by Helena Carter who takes a dim view of it all as does his grandmother Margaret Wycherly.

Others besides Durbin and O'Connor fans might like Something In The Wind. But both have done better work than this.

SOMETHING IN THE WIND (Universal-International, 1947), directed by Irving Pichel, is not a disaster hurricane or tornado movie, but a light-hearted musical-comedy starring the once-popular Deanna Durbin in one of her final film roles before closing her chapter in movie making by 1948. Considering a handful of "Wind" movie titles, consisting of THE WIND (1928), WOMEN IN THE WIND (1939), REAP THE WILD WIND (1942), VOICE IN THE WIND (1944), and the most famous wind of all, GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), SOMETHING IN THE WIND is simply a song title tagged to an ordinary story quite common during the screwball genre of the 1930s. Following weak comedy attempts of BECAUSE OF HIM (1946) and I'LL BE YOURS (1947), Durbin's latest installment is actually one of her better efforts, especially with the assistance Donald O'Connor.

Abandoning her shoulder-length hairstyle for a more mature 1940s style appearance, Deanna Durbin plays Mary Collins, a singing disc-jockey for WFOB Radio Station. After finishing her daily program, Mary is approached by the angry and upset Donald Read (John Dall), a rich, stuck-up snob identifying himself as grandson to the late Henry Read. Unaware of his purpose, she finds he wants her to sign a cash settlement to cease any further financial means she's been receiving for many years. Accused of being this old man's mistress, Mary, not liking this young man's tactics, storms out of the station. Once home where she lives with her Aunt Mary (Jean Adair), Mary soon learns it's her aunt, who, many years ago, had worked as governess for the Reads where she met and fell in love with Henry. Because the Read family disapproved of their relationship due to social standings, the engagement was broken, with Henry marrying another. Because of his engagement to socialite, Clarissa Prentice (Helena Carter), and hoping to avoid any scandal connected with the family name, Donald gets Charlie (Donald O'Connor), his third cousin, to go to the radio station and abduct Mary. Once inside the Read estate, Mary, knowing the situation to be mistaken identity, is unable to convince other family members, consisting of Grandma Read (Margaret Wycherly) and Uncle Chester (Charles Winninger) she's not the Mary Collins in question, decides to go on with her masquerade and accept the payoff settlement of a million dollars to support her and Henry's "child." As Mary and Donald plot against each other, one of the family members discovers Mary's deception and plots against her.

With Music and Lyrics by Johnny Green and Leo Robin, the motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "The Turntable Song," "Happy-Go-Lucky and Free" (both sung by Deanna Durbin); "I Love a Mystery" (sung and performed by Donald O'Connor); "Don't You, Daddy?" (sung by Durbin during fashion show); "The Turntable Song" (sung by The Four Williams Brothers and Donald O'Connor); "Something in the Wind," "It's Only Love" (both sung by Durbin); "Miserere" from Guiseppe Verdi's IL TROVADORE (sung and performed by Durbin and Jan Peerce, Star of the Metropolitan Opera Company); "Happy-Go-Lucky and Free" and "Something in the Wind" (reprises). Though the songs are forgettable, they're agreeably pleasant. Aside from Durbin's singing, Donald O'Connor highlights with his "I Love a Mystery" number, a somewhat forerunner to his antics to "Make 'Em Laugh" from "Singin' in the Rain" (MGM, 1952), which displays his ability in bot showmanship and comedy. Opera singer Jan Peerce, in a rare screen appearance, cast as a policeman, provides some fine moments singing opposite Durbin in jail. Other cast members include: Jacqueline De Wit (The Saleslady); William Ching (Master of Ceremonies); Chester Clute, Hal K. Dawson, Frank Wilcox, among others.

A couple interesting aspects about SOMETHING IN THE WIND is a look back at early television production provided towards the film's end, and the casting of dramatic actor, John Dall. Dall, on loan from Warner Brothers, best known for his rare screen work of THE CORN IS GREEN (1945), ROPE (1948) and GUN CRAZY (United Artists, 1949), seems uncomfortable in his role, especially when comedy is concerned. A loan-out from MGM's Peter Lawford might have been sufficient, but Dall does his best to make his character believable.

Scarcely shown on television, especially public television where it was commonly shown in the 1980s, SOMETHING IN THE WIND is pleasant, breezy89 minute entertainment, even without the wind. Distributed to home video in 1998, it's currently available on DVD with Durbin's feature film debut, THREE SMART GIRLS (1936), also featuring Charles Winninger, on its flip side. (***)

I really did buy the six film package (the Sweetheart Pack) solely for the aria from Il Trovatore that Deanna Durbin sings with Jan Peerce in Something in the Wind. And it was worth it. Durbin's voice was extraordinary. (So was Jan Peerce's but that is another story for another day.) I recall the wonderful soprano Renee Fleming guest hosting on TCM and almost crying as she described Deanna Durbin sending her (Ms. Fleming) flowers. Ms. Fleming could not believe the honor that she felt.

Back to the movie, it is silly, but a fine showcase for Ms. Durbin's considerable talents. She handled the part of a radio DJ who sang during her show, very well. The plot put her into various dilemmas, the best being when she was in jail and Maestro Peerce was the opera singing jailer, and it was fun to watch the twists and turns as her character managed to wriggle free of the various entanglements. Donald O'Connor always gave a fine performance and did here as well.