Mad About Music

One of Deanna Durbin's early films, and one that showcases her acting and singing abilities like few others do. Watch out for how her facial expression changes when Herbert Marshall is about to expose her storytelling and then re-considers, or when she sings the serenade to the stars and is about to burst into tears. She was definitely one of the best teenage actors Hollywood ever attracted. Her singing is awesome, too, especially Gounod's Ave Maria: I never heard it sung better. Herbert Marshall is perfect for the role of willing Ersatz-father, and it is a pleasure to see Gail Patrick cast against type. Still, it is Deanna's film - next to her, all others, no matter how experienced, are no more than supporting actors.

Movie star Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick) has a secret daughter, 14-year-old Gloria (Deanna Durbin). Gloria lives in an all-girls boarding school in Switzerland. She never met her late navy pilot father but has fabricated a fictional living father to the other girls. She is forced to construct more and more elaborate lies until she picks Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall) at random to play the part. Luckily, he is willing to play along.

This got four smaller Oscar nominations. Deanna Durbin is cute and sweet. She's showing off her operatic voice. The whistle song is pretty catchy although too much of it can be very repetitive. The story has some teen girl mayhem which reminds me of various Disney teen misadventures. It's a very touching story of family dysfunction with an emotional ending.

In another delightful Deanna Durbin vehicle, she stars as a lonely girl in boarding school who lies about her parents. Her mother is a famous actress in Hollywood, but since she isn't allowed to let her fans know she's old enough to have a teenaged daughter (orders of her manager William Frawley) she forces Deanna to keep it a secret. With no father to talk about either, Deanna makes one up. She forges letters and finds fake photographs, making up stories that her father is an explorer on safari, entertaining most of the girls in her school. One girl, Helen Parrish, doesn't believe her, and she humiliates Deanna by exposing one of the fake photographs. Spurred on, Deanna lies and pretends her father is coming to visit her at the school!

Armed with a bouquet of flowers and all her classmates behind her, she goes to the train station to wait for an unsuspecting man traveling alone. In walks Herbert Marshall - and the stage is set. It's no wonder Herbert Marshall was cast as Shirley Temple's father in 1941's Kathleen, a film with a very similar premise. He's just delightful and perfect casting as a father figure. I love him in comedies, for he's so charming and sweet. He manages to make it look like he's amused without breaking character, with is a thin line to cross.

Deanna's lovely voice is showcased in this movie, of course, and you'll get to see some lovely Hollywood sets of Switzerland. Elisabeth Risdon is the headmistress of the school, Arthur Treacher is Bart's manservant, and Marcia Mae Jones is Deanna's best friend. This one isn't as funny as Kathleen, but it is a good precursor and entertaining every time Bart opens his mouth.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** "Mad About Music" (Universal, 1938), directed by Norman Taurog, is Deanna Durbin's third feature film, and ranks one of her finest in many ways, especially with a delightful storyline and Durbin's likable charm, but unfortunately, this is one overlooked treasure from the golden age of teenage musicals.

The story opens with Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick), a celebrated movie actress, placing her hand prints in the cement block at Grauman's Chinese Theater. Unknown to many, Gwen has been separated from her daughter for ten years because of her great popularity, and finds that she cannot reveal to her fans that a glamor girl like herself is a mother of a 14-year-old girl. Gloria Harkinson (Deanna Durbin), the daughter in question, is being educated at a Swiss school for girls. Well liked by her classmates, she is immensely disliked by one in particular, Felice (Helen Parrish), who is not only jealous of her popularity around school, but is very eager to learn more about Gloria's questionable family background, especially when she refuses to believe that Gloria's father is a famous African explorer. To cover up her lies, Gloria has her middle-aged friend, Pierre (Christian Rub) back her up by writing letters to her, signing them from "her Dad." Because her little white lies are getting her deeper and deeper in trouble, Gloria, realizing that she is being followed by her classmates as she is heading for the train station, suddenly approaches a man named Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall), and his valet, Tripps (Arthur Treacher). Before Todd realizes what has happened, the distinguished gentleman finds himself suddenly acting as Gloria's father and coming to her school where he impresses the girls by talking about his "hunting adventures in Africa." More problems arise when Gloria learns that her mother is visiting in Paris, and must manage to sneak away from the school without arousing any more attention.

The storyline to "Mad About Music" may sound corny in print, but in reality, it is highly amusing and entertaining throughout its 98 minutes screen time, and it's easy to see why Durbin became such a box office attraction, having both voice and personality. The supporting cast consists of a younger William Frawley playing Dusty Turner, Gwen Taylor's agent; Marcia Mae Jones as Olga, Gloria's best friend; Elisabeth Risdon as the school official; Jackie Moran and Charles Peck as military academy students interested in Gloria and Olga; Franklin Pangborn seen briefly as the hotel manager; plus a cameo appearance by Sidney Grauman of Grauman's Chinese Theater in the opening segment of the story. One scene finds Frawley's character in a sentimental moment as he tells Gloria that she mustn't see her mother, as much as he knows in his heart that seeing her mother would mean a lot to her. The way this scene is handled is well done, showing the warmer side of Frawley, a fine character actor known for his grumpiness and his sarcastic comedic one-liners, especially used to great advantage in the immortal long running TV series from the 1950s, "I Love Lucy," starring Lucille Ball. It is also interesting to see the young and sassy Gail Patrick cast against type playing a mother.

New songs by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh include: "I Love to Whistle," "Ave Maria" (by Charles Francois Gounod); "Chapel Bells" "I Love to Whistle" and "Serenade to the Stars." Aside from Durbin's singing, the Capps Barros Harmonica Players also participate in a song number.

"Mad About Music" resembles the story lines used by MGM, especially those Jane Powell Technicolor musicals of the late 1940s, mainly because it was produced by Joe Pasternak, who brought over his charm of teenage musicals from Universal to MGM, revamping the formula he originated in the Durbin films. Universal-International would remake "Mad About Music" as "The Toy Tiger" (1956) featuring Jeff Chandler, Laraine Day and Tim Hovey in the Marshall, Patrick and Durbin roles. While "The Toy Tiger" did get some television exposure on American Movie Classics in the 1990s, "Mad About Music" at present, did not. This Durbin original is available on video cassette and DVD, and made its Turner Classic Movies cable channel premiere September 11, 2022. After watching this, it would be impossible not to become "Mad About Deanna." (****)

I am a sucker for mistaken identity comedies, because it's always fun to see the awkward interactions that are created by each new scene as the person in question slowly realizes what is happening. Mad About Music has a crazy setup and for a good portion of the first act I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it. I understand the urge that kids feel to lie to their peers so that they aren't seen as different or lesser people. But the compounding fibs that Deanna Durbin's character tells in Mad About Music get to be more than any rational person's suspension of disbelief would allow. I was struggling to believe these girls thought she was being truthful in any way. However, once Herbert Marshall entered the film all was forgiven. Every far-fetched lie became worth it as he stumbled through becoming this man he was forced to portray.

Perhaps even funnier than the situation created in Mad About Music are all the little scenes with Arthur Treacher who gets caught in the middle of everything and must try to figure out what is going on with his employer. Every single scene with him made me laugh, and it's often the little throwaway lines that I found the funniest. If I could help in rewriting this film at all, though, I would shave some time off the beginning and put it onto the ending. They spend a little too long building up the conflict between Durbin and the other girls in her school, and not long enough resolving her relationship with her mother. I was watching the clock as the reunion with her mom approached and I could tell there wasn't going to be enough time to make it feel as heartfelt and warm as I wanted. Still, there's enough that entertained me in Mad About Music that I'm willing to forgive a rushed final act.