For the Love of Mary

Deanna Durbin is an interesting case when it comes to Hollywood stars. While she was among the most popular stars of her day, she retired when she was in her 20s. Why? Apparently she disliked the scripts she was being offered by Universal Studios and instead of making more, she decided to stay home and raise a family. Well, after seeing her final film, "For the Love of Mary", I can certainly understand why she retired...the writing was incredibly convoluted and, need I say, ridiculous. So, despite her charm in the lead, the film is at times a chore to watch.

When the story begins, Mary (Durbin) is going to her new job as a switchboard operator at the White House. It seems that she had been working at the Supreme Court and she was apparently beloved by the Justices...who keep phoning her and keep getting involved in her life. In addition to these guys meddling with her and her love life, the film gets really weird when the President himself starts meddling in her love life! What's next and which of her three suitors, if any, will she choose?

There is MUCH more to the plot than this...a lot more. So much more, in fact, that the story is incredibly complicated and nearly impossible to believe. After all, you'd THINK the President and Supreme Court justices would have a lot more to do than manage Mary's love life! Additionally, the role Durbin plays didn't give her much in the way of broadening her acting abilities and is a lot like her earlier child roles...but with added romance and the usual obligatory songs.

Overall, I didn't hate the film but I really did strongly dislike the writing. It was riddled with impossibilities, silly situations and cliches. As a result, I think Durbin was probably right to change her life radically after making this movie. And, radically she did change it...moving to France, shunning the spotlight and raising a family.

FOR THE LOVE OF MARY (Universal-International, 1948), directed by Frederick De Cordova, with original screenplay by Oscar Brodney, goes on record as the final movie starring Deanna Durbin. Being Universal's main attraction since her studio debut in THREE SMART GIRLS (1936), elevating her status from teenager soprano to adult actress/singer, Durbin has come a long way since then, ranging from musicals, comedies and one "film noir" melodrama, all showcasing her personality and singing talents. Durbin remained popular with the public throughout her career. Though FOR THE LOVE OF MARY is no masterpiece in Durbin's resume of motion pictures, and her movie from start to finish, it's amusing fluff comedy that neither hurts nor helps her appealing reputation.

Set entirely in Washington, D. C., this 90 minute story revolves around Mary Peppertree (Deanna Durbin), a new White House employee where her father, Timothy (Griff Barnett) works as a guard. She shares her duties with other girls as a switchboard operator for the President of the United States. Having previously worked two years for the Supreme Court, and broken her engagement to Justice Department Attorney Philip Manning (Jeffrey Lynn) for his supposed involvement with a Miss Wentworth, Mary's next male problem turns out to be Donald Paxton (Don Taylor), an ichthyologist constantly calling and wanting to be connected to the president involving political issues, but is refused connection by orders of her supervisor, Miss Harkness (Katherine Alexander). Donald, better known as a "fish peddler," happens to be arrogant and persistent, using his whims on Mary to get to speak to the president, but to no avail. Learning that Mary, single and living at home with her father, to have no escort to an upcoming ceremony, the president hires Lieutenant Thomas J. Farrington (Edmond O'Brien), a Naval aid for the White House as her date. Situations arise when Samuel Litchfield (Frank Conroy), a newspaper publisher, discovers Farrington, who is engaged to his daughter, Doris, spending time with Mary. As much as Mary has allowed herself to help Donald, and Philip still wanting to marry her, complications ensue as Farrington professes his love for her along with Donald, a American citizen having served in the United States Navy during World War II, to be deported. Co-starring Ray Collins (Harvey Elwood, the president's secretary); Harry Davenport (Justice Peabody); Louise Beavers (Bertha, the cook); and Hugo Haas (Gustav Heinrich, a foreign born restaurant proprietor wanting to become a United States citizen).

While FOR THE LOVE OF MARY could have been a straight comedy with no song interludes involved, no Durbin movie would be complete without any, including "Viennese Waltz," "On Moonlight Bay," "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen," "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," "On the Wings of a Song" and Largo Al Factotum from THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.

With Durbin's Mary character with a profession that requires her to be single, and having more men than she can handle at one time, she also acquires hick-ups whenever emotionally upset. As much as Harry S. Truman was president of the United States in 1948, his character is never addressed by name but only as "Mr. President." Never seen, his presence is felt solely through his unseen association with Mary by playing matchmaker. Of the three beaus in Mary's life, Don Taylor gathers the most attention.

The thing about Deanna Durbin movies is the fact that in spite of her great popularity, her movies, no matter how popular they once were, have had its limitations on television. FOR THE LOVE OF MARY is no exception. Nearly unfamiliar even to some film scholars, at least the movie itself has found its way though availability on both video cassette and DVD formats, along with some public television broadcasts in the 1980s, and finally on Turner Classic Movies cable channel (TCM premiere: September 11, 2022). For a light comedy that could have been better scripted, it doesn't diminish those for the love of Deanna. (**1/2)

Mary Peppertree (Deanna Durbin) is starting her job as a White House switchboard operator. Her father was a beloved longtime guard there. She had worked over at the Supreme Court. She broke up with her boyfriend Justice department lawyer Phillip Manning. Everybody loves her. Guys want her. She has Supreme Court Justices trying to set her up. It all ends up entangling with Washington politics.

Deanna Durbin is fine. She has a general good girl quality and it's acceptable that everybody seems to be stepping over each other to help her. It's all very convoluted. The worst problem is that the guys don't come off that well. They are not taking the situation by the reins. It's kinda silly but in a bad way. I do like Durbin enough to not totally hate this.

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.

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.