La prima è stata Eva

Let's see - you're a classically trained singer with a gorgeous voice, you're pretty, a good actress, highly paid...and all you want is to get out of show business.

That's Deanna Durbin's story, and thank goodness, she didn't get her wish until she made films like "It Started with Eve," also starring Charles Laughton and Robert Cummings.

Durbin plays Anne Terry, a hat check girl trying to make it as a classical singer. One night, she is drafted by Johnny Reynolds Jr. (Cummings) who believes his father (Laughton) is dying. His father has insisted on meeting his fiancée, but when Johnny returns to the hotel to find her, she and her mother (Margaret Tallichet and Catherine Doucet) aren't in their room. Desperate, he offers Anne money if she will pose as his fiancée. Anne wants to return home to her family, so the money will come in handy. She accompanies him to his father's deathbed.

Well, Jonathan Reynolds Sr. rallies! He's not going to die, and his son may well -- he now has two fiancées. Jonathan Sr. plans a party for all his high falutin' friends, including people like Leopold Stokowski, to meet Anne and to have her sing for them.

Johnny Jr. is in a pickle and tells Anne that he will say that they broke up and then introduce his father to his real fiancée, whom Reynolds Sr.'s doctor will bring to the house. But Anne wants to sing at the party, so after he announces the big breakup, Anne rushes in and begs forgiveness.

Robert Cummings, a huge star in television, was usually second tier in films. He always excelled in comedy, and he does a great job here. Laughton, playing a man who's supposedly dying, looks quite gaunt and is, of course, marvelous as a man who has a great relationship with Anne and grows fond of her.

Deanna Durbin herself acts and sings like a dream and looks beautiful. Her warm personality shines through. She sings "Clavelitos," "Goin' Home," "When I Sing," and "Ahi, viene la conga" impressively.

"It Started with Eve," is a fast-moving, fun, highly entertaining film with moments of poignancy. This film marked the end of Deanna Durbin's work with producer Joe Pasternak and director Henry Koster; Pasternak went to MGM, and Deanna went on suspension for turning down a script. In the end, she was given approval of her directors, stories and songs.

Hard to believe this songbird, now 90, retired at the age of 26 and never looked back. It's a tribute to her that 64 years post-retirement, Deanna Durbin still has plenty of fans.

This is a sweet movie. Far better than remakes that followed. Durbin and Laughton seemed to really enjoy their scenes together (The Conga is unforgettable). Her singing is beautiful-"Going Home" brings a lump to the throat. This is my all time favorite movie set of the interior of the mansion. They don't (can't afford to) build sets like that anymore. Great escape.

When you rent It Started with Eve-because after reading this review, you'll be unable to resist-you're going to consider turning it off after the first ten minutes as you reach for your hankie. Please don't turn it off! I know the beginning is very sad, but if you stay with it, it turns into an absolutely delightful romantic comedy.

Charles Laughton is Robert Cummings's ailing father, and as his doctor, Walter Catlett, has given him mere minutes to live, there's a very tearful deathbed scene. Charles begs Bob to describe his lovely fiancé and gives his dying wish to meet the young woman. Bob runs off to the hotel where she's staying, but she's left her room and he can't reach her. He's frantic and desperate, and in a mad dash to make his father happy in the seconds before he dies, he whisks a random woman, Deanna Durbin, home with him and pretends she's his intended.

Now, all that setup is the sad part of the movie. Charles reassures everyone he's had a full and happy life, but just as you're wiping up your tears, he wakes up from his sleep and declares, "I'm hungry!" Hooray! Now the fun can start. As you might guess, Bob and Deanna keep pretending they're engaged to keep Charles happy, even though Bob's real fiancé, Margaret Tallichet, is waiting impatiently in the wings.

Deanna, of course, get to show off her musical talents, playing the piano and singing some very impressive songs. Since she was primarily a singer, you might expect her to be a lousy actress, but she's pretty good. It doesn't hurt that she's working off such a wonderful pro like Charles Laughton in most of her scenes. Bob Cummings is also very good in the movie. He has great comic timing and is perfectly frazzled and inept when the part calls for it.

Charles Laughton, in one of his gentle, romantic, sweet roles, completely stole my heart. He's so adorable in It Started with Eve. I'm partial to him anyway, so you might think I'm a bit biased, but I watched this movie with my mom-who doesn't always think he's likable-and she was just as charmed as I was. Once he's no longer at death's door, Charles spends the rest of the movie up and about, sneaking cigars against his doctor's orders, requesting "a nice warm steak-y", throwing parties, and dancing the conga at a nightclub! He and Deanna have such a close chemistry in their scenes together, I kept thinking the film was a romance between them instead of between Deanna and Bob. If you can't imagine Charles Laughton being a romantic lead, rent It Started with Eve to change your mind.

It Started with Eve is my favorite Deanna Durbin movie. I owned this movie on video, also I have Nice Girl? and His Butler Sister. They do not compare with this film. Deanna plays a hat-check girl in a hotel who poses as Robert Cummings' future bride for his dying father. Charles Laughton plays Cummings' father in the film suddenly get better. Cummings does not know how to tell the father when the real bride arrives. Besides acting Deanna is singing during the movie. Nice to watch and relax on a rain or snowy day.

IT STARTED WITH EVE (Universal, 1941), directed by Henry Koster, stars popular singer Deanna Durbin in one of her finest movie roles. Not quite a Biblical tale about Adam and Eve and the apple as the title might imply, nor is there any character in the story named Eve, but actually a comedy of errors in the screwball comedy tradition providing Durbin, still in her late teenage years, an opportunity in a more adult performance, with fine support by the diverse Charles Laughton in a character role that's both funny and touching, and Robert Cummings as a young man caught in the middle of a series of situations and having a difficult time coming up with a suitable explanations.

The scenario revolves around Jonathan Reynolds (Charles Laughton) a middle-aged millionaire on his death bed whose final request is to meet the young lady engaged to his son, Johnny (Robert Cummings). To make his father's last days on Earth a pleasant one, Johnny rushes out into the rain to get his fiancé only to learn from the desk clerk that she and her mother are not available. Not wanting to waste any more valuable time, Johnny encounters a hat check girl (Deanna Durbin) and offers her $50 to return home with him and pose as his fiancée for about an hour. Explaining the circumstances at hand, she agrees. Masquerading as "Gloria Pennington," the girl, Anne Terry, meets the ailing Mr. Reynolds, who takes an immediate liking to her. After their union, the old man finds his son to be in good hands, and can now die in peace. The following morning, Jonathan miraculously recovers from his illness, gets out of bed demanding a large breakfast from his servants and for Johnny to bring "Gloria" back to visit with him. Complications ensue when Johnny not only has to locate Anne, who's about to take the next train back home to Shelbyville, Ohio, but to explain to the real Gloria (Margaret Tallichet) and her mother (Catherine Doucet), having returned from their trip, the situation that has occurred. Things become even more complex when Johnny tries to prevent his father from learning Anne not to be his fiancée, and keeping Anne from attending his father's dinner function where she wants to audition for his theatrical agent friends in hope to land a singing career.

A highly enjoyable comedy with an original premise done at a leisurely pace with a couple of classical songs thrown in for good measure making use of Deanna Durbin's singing talent, including Peter Tchaikowsky's "The Tchaikowsky Waltz" and Antonin Dvorak's "Going Home." Supporting players consist of Guy Kibbee as Bishop Maxwell; Walter Catlett as Dr. Harvey, the nervous family physician; Dorothea Kent as Jackie Donovan, Anne's roommate; Clara Blandick as The Nurse; and comedian Mantan Moreland adding humor as the harassed train station baggage man.

Obviously a high point in Durbin's career that did very well at box office, it's interesting to note that a fun movie such as this is not relatively better known. Durbin and Cummings do well in the roles that might have been tailer-made for Irene Dunne and Cary Grant for example. However, the characters of Anne Terry and Johnny Reynolds were obviously written for much younger performers as enacted by Durbin and Cummings.

IT STARTED WITH EVE did play for a while on American Movie Classics (1992-93) about the same time it was distributed on video cassette by MCA Home Video. The Hans Kraly story was redone by Universal as I'D RATHER BE RICH (1964) featuring Sandra Dee, Robert Goulet and Maurice Chevalier, with a few alterations, but like the original, has been lost to cinema history, known mostly by film scholars and historians. Even with the original currently available on DVD and latter cable broadcast on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 30, 2013) might offer IT STARTED WITH EVE some new life to a new generation of movie lovers looking for something amusing, nostalgic as well as lighthearted entertainment by its three principal actors. (***1/2).