Mamma non ti sposare

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.

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.

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.

THREE DARING DAUGHTERS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1948), directed by Fred M. Wilcox, is a family friendly musical/comedy starring Jeanette MacDonald in her first starring role in a motion picture since CAIRO (MGM, 1942) opposite Robert Young. Though most notable for her eight screen operettas opposite Nelson Eddy from 1935 to 1942, MacDonald by the time was simply a name of the past. Unlike MGM's star leading ladies as Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer, who both ended their careers in mediocre comedies by 1941-42, and unlike Joan Crawford who departed the studio by 1943 to make a triumph comeback and Academy Award winning performance for MILDRED PIERCE (Warner Brothers, 1945), MacDonald made her comeback in this Technicolor up-to-date story playing the mother of three daring daughters, the eldest played by Jane Powell, following her MGM debut success with HOLIDAY IN MEXICO (1946).

Opening at a graduation ceremony at Miss Drake''s School for Girls, Tess (Jane Powell), the graduate, sings along with classmates with piano accompaniment by her middle sister, Ilka (Ann E. Todd). Tess notices her younger sister, Alix (Mary-Eleanor Donahue) in attendance, but wonders why her mother has not arrived yet. Next scene shows their mother, Louise Rayton Morgan (Jeanette MacDonald), editor of Modern Design Publications in New York City, awaken from a faint. Her doctor, Howard Cannon (Harry Davenport) diagnoses to her publisher,. Mr. Howard (Thurston Hall) that she has suffered a nervous breakdown. After arriving late at the graduation, Louise is rushed home. The doctor informs her daughters that their mother is in need of rest and relaxation, prescribing an ocean cruise, but without them. Wanting their mother to get well, they agree to the separation. Being left under the care of their housekeeper, Jonesy (Kathryn Card), Louise sets sail on the S.S. Cubana bound for Cuba. She soon makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Smith (Monya MacGill). Spotting concert pianist Jose Iturbi (Jose Iturbi) also on board, she invites him over. Their meeting finds Jose taking an interest more on Mrs. Morgan. Discovering she's divorced, he not only becomes her escort, but becomes her husband. Keeping her marriage a secret from her daughters, Louise is shocked to learn that, hoping that she and their father, Edward Morgan, would get together again, have arranged for him to come home, compliments of his employer, Robert Nelson (Edward Arnold), a millionaire business tycoon. What the girls don't know is that their father abandoned them years ago, and Louise finds herself torn between two husbands, a concert pianist and a foreign correspondent, whose paths might meet and stir up confusion for the children. The supporting players include: Tom Helmore (Michael Pemberton), Charles Coleman (The Butler), Dick Simmons (Mr. Hollow), and Virginia Brissac (Miss Drake). Harmonica player, Larry Adler, and pianist, Amparo Iturbi appear as themselves performing during Iturbi's concert performances.

The motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "Alma Mater," "Fleurette" (by Victor Herbert); "The Turkish March" (by Wolfgang Mozart); "The Dicky Bird Song" (by Sammy Fain and Howard Dietz); "Passepied," "Liebestraum" (by Franz Liszt); "Where There's Love," "Ohne Mich Ohue Michjear Tag Dir Zu Lang," "Ritual Fire Dance," "You Made Me Love You" (by James Monaco and Joe McCarthy); "Happy Birthday," "Je Veux Vivre Daus Gedeve" by Georges Enesco; "Feliz Cupliano" (Happy Birthday in Spanish); "Roumanian Rhapsody # 1," "Hungarian Rhapsody" "Sweethearts" (sung by Jeanette MacDonald); "Allegro Appasionajo" (by Camille St. Saga); "Route 66" by Bob Troup; "Spring Time" Tchiakovsky's Fourth Symphony No. 4", "Movement CDA" and "The Dickie Bird Song."

The plot to THREE DARING DAUGHTERS seems reminiscent to those Deanna Durbin musicals for Universal in the late 1930s, especially her debut lead in THREE SMART GIRLS (1936). Compliments of Joe Pasternak, who also produced those Durbin entries, would find similarities, though this not a remake but only a rehash with different elements involved. While Jeanette MacDonald's presence gives this production a nostalgic feel to those who remember her fondly a decade ago, Jane Powell's youthful presence provides for the younger viewers of the day. With MacDonald and Powell both accomplished sopranos, watching them duet together is a delight, especially their solo number of "Spring Time" with Powell's tender hold over MacDonald's shoulder showing her great admiration to this living legend. Ann E. Todd and Mary Eleanor Donahue are splendid as the younger daughters/sisters. It's a total surprise to find the adorable looking Donahue is the same television actress, Elinor Donahue, of television's "Father Knows Best" (1954-1960), the first season of "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960-1961), and other television roles. As much as this being a 1948 release, the telegrams dated 1946, along with movie marque of COURAGE OF LASSIE and NO LEAVE, NO LOVE, both 1946 releases, indicate THREE DARING DAUGHTERS was obviously produced that very same year.

Though THREE DARING DAUGHTERS tends to go on a bit too long at 114 minutes, with repeated elements of having Edward Morgan stay away or return home grows tiresome, it's a wonder why Jose Iturbi, who plays himself, didn't assume a character name like Jose E. Turbi, for example, so not to have movie audiences believe that the real Jose Iturbi married Jeanette MacDonald. For Iturbi's next film,. THAT MIDNIGHT KISS (1949), he acted under his own name, but no indication of having a wife and three daring daughters carried on from this film. Jeanette MacDonald has come a long way since her movie debut in THE LOVE PARADE (Paramount, 1929). With her two comeback performances, THE SUN COMES UP (1948) being her next and last, THREE DARING DAUGHTERS is the obviously the better of the two.

Formerly available on video cassette, and later DVD, THREE DARING DAUGHTERS can be seen and enjoyed whenever broadcast on cable television's Turner Classic Movies. (***1/2).

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.