La prima è stata Eva

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.

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.

While "It Started With Eve" is not a perfect film, it is an extremely enjoyable one--thanks mostly to characters played by Charles Laughton and Deanna Durbin.

The film begins with Johnny Reynolds (Bob Cummings) rushing to see his dying father, Jonathan Sr. (Charles Laughton). However, Johnny's fiancé isn't available but the old man demands to meet her before he dies. So, Johnny quickly concocts a plan--to get some woman pretend to be his fiancé. The woman picked for this is Anne Terry (Deanna Durbin) and she turns out to be extremely sweet. In fact, the old man is so taken with her that he suddenly recovers! This, of course, is a serious problem as now either Anne and Johnny need to tell him the truth OR they need to really get married. In a funny twist, the manipulative old guy learns of the ruse and continues to pretend that Anne is his future daughter- in-law. Why? Well, he likes her and thinks she'd make a dandy member of the family. What's next, while very funny and charming, does defy logic just a bit. After all, Johnny is a bit of a yutz and his falling for Anne at the end really wasn't written as well as it should have been. BUT, the stuff leading up to it was so sweet and well done that I was more than willing to cut the film slack. Clearly this is one of Miss Durbin's best films and it holds up great today.

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.

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.