Mamma non ti sposare

Silly but enjoyable musical comedy with Jeanette McDonald playing a character very much like herself, and Jose iturbi playing her love interest, a character even more like himself -- himself! Jane Powell and her two sisters are both multi-talented and precocious, and Edward Arnold heads a fine veteran supporting cast. Certainly not a great movie, but a pleasing one.

It makes you wonder why Jane Powell did not pursue a career in opera. As as Jeannette MacDonald was, Jane Powell outshines her in this movie. Jose Iturbi is a superb pianist and conductor and shows good acting talent. Edward Arnold is a classic, excellent actor. Any movie that he is in is good. It was interesting to see the "Father Knows Best" girl, Eleanor Donohue in such an early role for her.

The style of "Three Daring Daughters" is very unusual. For much of the film, it's like two separate films occurring at the same time....and one of them probably wasn't absolutely necessary.

When the story begins, Louise (Jeanette MacDonald) is attending the graduation of one of her three daughters. However, she soon collapses...overwhelmed with fatigue by trying to be the perfect mother. Her doctor suggests she take a cruise...alone. Since the daughters are all older (approximately 12-18), she can leave them and embark on her journey. During the trip, Louise meets José Iturbi and the world famous pianist and conductor is smitten with her. After a whirlwind romance, the divorcee marries Iturbi.

All this seems just great...except that during Louise's absence, the daughters get the insane notion that their mother is sad because her ex-husband is no longer in her life. So, they conspire to bring dad home...not realizing he's apparently a louse. What's gonna happen when mom and her new husband returns??

The plot involving the daughters and their father is generally unnecessary. I much preferred watching Irubi and MacDonald and their relationship. It was nice seeing two middle aged and 'normal looking' folks fall in love...and Iturbi was surprisingly good (and quite urbane) playing a version of himself. I say 'version' because in real life, of course, MacDonald was married to Gene Raymond and it's all rather fanciful....but nice. In addition, how these older kids reacted once they meet Irubi...well, they just seemed like obnoxious jerks and their parts were not written well.

This is a movie I loved and hated. I loved the relationship, felt the daughters were not necessarily needed in the film and were underwritten AND I hated some of the singing. I know that MacDonald and Jane Powell were very popular back in the day...but their high-pitched singing frankly was painful to hear in most of the songs. I like opera and liked Iturbe's music...but I did NOT like their singing in the least. Painful is probably a NICE way to refer to the singing....I actually could be FAR more descriptive but won't!

Overall, a very mixed bag...a film that overall is watchable but nothing more. And, if they'd just stuck to the romance and avoided the rest, it would have been a great film.

There's no skimping on the music or the production values in "Three Daring Daughters," a 1948 MGM film starring Jeanette MacDonald, Jane Powell, Edward Arnold, Jose Iturbi, Elinor Donohue and Ann E. Todd. MacDonald, in one of her last films, is the divorced editor of a magazine who is raising three girls. Overtired and given to fainting spells, her doctor orders her to rest. She takes a cruise, where she meets and marries the famous musician, Jose Iturbi. She has never told her daughters that their father didn't want to be a part of their lives, so in her absence, the girls hatch a scheme to get his editor (Arnold) to bring him home.

The star of this film is the glorious music. Powell and MacDonald sing beautifully, and Jose Iturbi plays piano like a dream. Powell, so young and pretty, does a nice job especially on "Je Veux Vivre" from Romeo & Juliet. MacDonald's mature voice sounds great, her middle register having really opened up with age. The movie is filmed in color, and she looks gorgeous.

Sadly MacDonald only made one more film, followed by a few television appearances, as she had a weak heart. She is lovely in this. See the film for the music, for MacDonald, Iturbi, and Powell.

In a recognition of the fact that she was no longer a young soprano, Jeanette MacDonald in her final two films played a mom. And as the title Three Daring Daughters suggests she's the mom of three girls, one of whom is Jane Powell, a soprano of some note.

Jeanette is a working mom, an editor of a magazine, who apparently doubles as a concert singer. She's been told, doctor Harry Davenport's orders to go on a much needed vacation. She takes a cruise and marries world famous concert pianist Jose Iturbi who is playing himself. Now to break it to the children.

This is where the story goes astray. Her former husband who is never seen in the film is a foreign correspondent and we're told that Jeanette has told the children some great big fibs about what a wonderful man he was. Of course if he was so wonderful why were they divorced? The kids assume the reason for her listlessness before the vacation was that she was pining for dad. It's like the writers of Three Daring Daughters could not come up with a rationale that would satisfy the Code.

Yet the film is good fun, it's nice seeing Jeanette and Jane trading high notes as it were. It's as if Jeanette was passing the soprano torch on to another generation, not just to Jane Powell, but to Ann Blyth and Kathryn Grayson for future MGM musicals.

Jose Iturbi could not have done a better job just being Jose Iturbi. I remember meeting him as a kid years ago and getting an autograph from him. Even then I thought he was a class act. Of course he never took as a leading man at MGM, but I think Mr. Iturbi was a musician first and foremost. And he certainly was a sight better leading man than Liberace.

If you can get over the tiptoeing of writer's feet around the Code, you'll like Three Daring Daughters.