O Primeiro Amor

"First Love" was a major transition for Universal star Deanna Durbin, as she was being positioned to shift from child star to engenue (something that Fox was inevitably unable to accomplish with Shirley Temple at the same time). While the film is not an overblown epic, it's lavish in the details, and carefully produced to give the whole piece a maximum of charm. To today's audiences, it might be a bit saccharine, but if you can dial down the cynicism of our age, the film's positive points grow.

Durbin plays much more subtly in this film than she had in many of her earlier films--signalling that she was now "maturer" instead of being a juvenile whirlwind ball of energy like she had been in "Three Smart Girls" and "100 Men and a Girl." Her beau, played by an impossibly young (and almost scarily good looking) Robert Stack, gives Durbin her first screen kiss--a source of major publicity for the film at the time.

The story is an updated Cinderella/screwball comedy, which nevertheless allows Durbin's character to break out into a few operatic arias throughout the film (this also takes some getting used to for modern audiences). The most memorable part of the film, suitably, happens during "the ball," where Durbin and Stack dance for the first time. Employing a charming idea, a shot of a crowded dance floor dissolves to a shot of just the duo dancing, to imply how the pair are so involved with each other that the rest of the world has faded away. If you like stuff like this, then you'll revel in the rest of the film.

Young Deanna Durbin goes to live with her uncle Eugene Palette and a group of snooty society cousins in this film. They treat her like a country cousin and snub her generally including her aunt by marriage. But little do they know that Deanna is destined to find her First Love in this story reworked from the Cinderella fairy tale.

After three years Deanna was growing up on screen and the folks at Universal Pictures decided she ought to have her first screen kiss. The one tapped for the honor was a guy making his screen debut Robert Stack.

The one who really treats her rotten is her débutante cousin Helen Parrish and her equally snobby friend June Storey. Deanna is not treated any better than one of the staff at her house, like Cinderella she might as well be relegated to being a chimney sweep.

Stack is the guy that Parrish and Storey have set their caps for, he's another society kid. But he likes simple and unaffected Deanna who ironically Parrish sets up the meeting between them. That's a rather funny scene.

Some good songs for Durbin highlighted the classic There's No Place Like Home, Amapola, and Un Bel Di from Madame Butterfly. And of course one of the most publicized kisses ever in screen history.

First Love brought home Oscar nominations for Sound, Art&Set Decoration, and Musical Scoring for Universal Pictures. Little Miss Fix-It was definitely growing up and her future roles would show a maturing Durbin for the movie-going public. It still is fine entertainment.

Deanna Durbin is the poor cousin of a rich family. She attends Kathleen Howard's girl's school with cousin Helen Parish, and gets invited to their New York mansion for Christmas break. Even though uncle Eugene Pallette seems nice enough -- what little is seen of him -- the rest of the family is a bunch of weirdos and nasties. She wants to go to the ball, but has to wear cast-off clothes. But the mansion's staff, who adore her for singing for them, club together and rent an expensive outfit. When Miss Parish orders her not to go to the ball....

Miss Durbin was Universal's biggest star, but how were they to deal with the fact that she was now 17 and could no longer be Little Miss Fix-It? Her production team, consisting of Henry Koster and Joe Pasternak decided to write her a Cinderella story, with newly-hired Robert Stack as Prince Charming. Of course there are musical interludes, an old-fashioned ballad or two, and a selection of opera arias. The writing team kept everything familiar, including borrowing liberally from My Man Godfrey to make sure that Miss Durbin's fans wouldn't be too outraged.

Deanna Durbin stars with Robert Stack, Helen Parrish, Leatrice Joy, Eugene Palette, and Kathleen Howard in "First Love," a 1939 update of the Cinderella story, with Deanna receiving her first screen kiss.

I first had to get over seeing Robert Stack so young - omg.

Deanna plays Constance Harding, an orphan who is spending the summer after her graduation with relatives. It's a sterile household with her uncle (Pallette) who doesn't want any noise and prefers his family be out of the house when he's there; an unbelievable brat of a cousin, Barbara (Parrish); and an airhead aunt (Joy). The only warmth available comes from the servants.

While her mother is busy doing astrology charts, Barbara enjoys the life of a much-photographed socialite and woman about town who has a closet the length of one wall. She's after the most eligible bachelor in town, Ted Drake.

One day, she doesn't wake up when she is called at noon and instead gets up at 2. She is invited to go riding at 2:30 with Ted and some others. Because she will be late, she sends Constance to the country club to hold Ted there by any means necessary. Constance does as she's told, but develops a crush on Ted.

The family is then invited to a fabulous party at Ted's. The servants get together and buy Constance a beautiful dress, a corsage, and a wrap from someone's relative.

Barbara takes one look at her and makes up a reason why Constance needs to stay home -- something Barbara's brother knew was going to happen all along. But unseen forces are at work.

This is Deanna before my favorite part of her career, which is a little later. As a little girl, she was too energetic and her speaking voice too high-pitched for me.

Here, she is delightful, but her singing voice, particularly the top, is thin. Later on, it would open up and be glorious. And Un Bel Di in English - it sounded like they took the literal translation and just had her sing it, with the words not only awkward, but out of order. Not a good choice for her, as the aria is for a much bigger sound, though it fit in very well with the theme.

What made this film a bittersweet experience for me was the beautiful acting of Kathleen Howard as the old maid with a cane, Miss. Wiggins. In those days, if you weren't married, you were nobody, and Miss Wiggins, beloved by her students, exemplifies that.

You can tell by the way she talks that she believes life passed her by, but being a strong woman, she has gone on and made the best of it. The end frame of her made me cry. Such an affecting, poignant performance.

I loved this film. Deanna's first kiss garnered a lot of attention; later, the first kiss was tried with Shirley Temple, but in 1942 wartime, no one cared.

I'll take my Cinderella with Prokovief, but after watching First Love, a first-rate film with a quease-inducing title, I'll place this Deanna Durbin vehicle second.

"You go up there to New York," says Miss Wiggins, a crotchety, spinster music teacher, to Connie Harding, who has just graduated from a fancy private school. "Make those people love you just as much as we do." Connie is an orphan, and Miss Wiggins is referring to her uncle and his family, wealthy New Yorkers who have paid all her bills but were just too busy to drive down for her graduation. They sent one of the family's limousines for her. "And then," Miss Wiggins says, "maybe, someday, you will meet a prince, and you'll live happily ever after."

"Those fairy stories haven't come true for over 100 years, Miss Wiggins," Connie says.

Miss Wiggins thumps the floor with her cane. "Fiddlesticks! We just have to dust them off...streamline them a bit."

And this is what director Henry Koster, one of the best of Durbin's directors, has managed to do. He is aided immeasurably by a clever script ("This is terrible," says Barbara, Connie's awful cousin, "I can't be more than an hour and a half late to Wilma's party...she's one of my personal friends!") and solid, pungent performances by some very good character actors. The story's sweetness is genuine, based on the intrinsic sympathy for a young girl who manages to overcome obstacles with the help of others, and then finds happiness. Deanna Durbin at 18 is an intriguing combination of naturalness and skill. We like her the moment we see her, and her ability to win us over is enhanced when we meet the family. Her uncle (Eugene Palette) is a gruff man who seemingly only wants to keep far away from his wife and children, as well as away from Connie. When we meet the rest of the family, we sympathize with him. His wife (Leatrice Joy) is unpleasantly scatter-brained. His daughter (Helen Parish), a year older than Connie, is a snobbish, selfish, manipulating terror. His son (Lewis Howard) is so languid he make laziness seem tiring.

There's a lavish ball, and Connie gets to go thanks to the intervention of the servants, led by that great butler-playing specialist, Charles Coleman. She meets a prince of a wealthy young man, Ted Drake (whom she met once before with mud on her face). When they waltz at the ball, all the other dancers fade away in a clever bit of instant love setting by Koster. Then Durbin receives her first screen kiss, from Robert Stack as Ted, as naturally as she acts. After the usual ups and downs for Cinderella, there's a happy ending which involves a matching slipper. Her uncle becomes the worm who turns, dealing brisk and satisfying retribution to his family, and even Miss Wiggins smiles. We are assured that Connie and Ted live happily ever after.

Durbin sings two or three songs, including the hoary old tear-jerker "There's No Place Like Home." More impressively, she sings "Un Bel Di." Impressively, because not many 18-year- olds I've heard of would be able to handle the emotions Puccini lays on with such a trowel. The aria is a tear-jerker, too, but a great one. It takes a singer who knows what she's doing to handle the emotions (in Italian) as well as the notes. Durbin carries it off impressively with her usual uncanny poise.

First Love, except for that title, is completely and satisfyingly charming.