La soeur de son valet

Coming after the grave "stage door canteen" ,which ,in spite of funny scenes ,dealt about soldiers about to go to war,"his butler's sister" is some kind of comic relief.Deanna Durbin is a very good-looking actress and songstress -even if ,like me,her style is not your cup of tea-and watching Franchot Tone at work is always a joy to me.Anyway they do not appear in what is for me the funniest of the whole movie :girls mistaking a salesman for a composer and discovering that what he sells is not what they were expecting.

The movie features several songs ,the last one being some kind of communication as it was the case in other Borzage works such as "I'll always love you" or " smiling through" ,though in a lighter way.

I am a lover of all old movies especially musicals, and I find this to be the absolute worst I've seen. I do enjoy Judy Garland, so that may be partially why I don't like Durbin's style. She doesn't seem to have the sparkle of any of the great musical stars such as Alice Faye or Kathryn Grayson. She is very beautiful, but I think she should have been a chorus girl, or a musical specialty. Most movies that I have seen that weren't the greatest still had the leading actress giving a good performance even under the most stupid circumstances.

Now that I've expressed my opinion of the star I can restate much of what others have commented on, the script. In this movie I didn't believe anything. I thought the way Durbin was acting towards her brother was real LOVE, not family love. It was horrible. I'll see another Deanna Durbin film and hopefully I can find something nicer to say about it.

In 'His Butler's Sister' Deanna Durbin plays Anne, a small town girl who arrives in New York to make it on the stage. She intends to live with her older half-brother Martin (Pat O'Brien) whom she has not seen for years and who turns out not to be the millionaire she expected but something much better: The butler of a successful song writer (Charles Gerard, played by Franchot Tone), for whom Anne wanted to sing in any case. There are mistaken identities and other misunderstandings, some dastardly intrigues, a troop of butlers who all fall in love with Anne and any number of situations that will make you laugh out loud. Most importantly, this charming comedy-romance offers Deanna a lot of chances to demonstrate what an amazingly good soprano she was. In fact, I don't think Hollywood ever attracted a better classical singer - no wonder Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland were among her fans. In 'His Butler's Sister' Deanna sings some modern numbers, a Russian medley (in Russian), and towards the end an astounding interpretation of Nessun Dorma. The Russian medley is historically remarkable: Remember, back then the Soviet Union and the US were allies and there was a lot of sympathy for Russia. Also, the Universal Studios may have aimed at the Russian 'market', such as there was (earlier films with Deanna, for example 'One Hundred Men and a Girl', did appear in Russia). What did not convince me is the character of Anne's half-brother Martin, or rather, why both Anna and Charles keep forgiving him his really nasty intrigues. But that does not change the fact that 'His Butler's Sister' is one of the best of Deanna Durbin's films - not quite at the level of 'One Hundred Men and a Girl', but still very very good. Don't miss it!

This is my favorite Deanna Durbin movie. She just glows in her role as Ann Carter. Her singing is gorgeous, move over Pavarotti! I couldn't disagree more with the reviewer who states it is an example of "script by committee". It's a moot point, ALL scripts were "made by committee" in the Golden Days of Hollywood, and sometimes other people's input can be invaluable to add spice to a script that would otherwise be lackluster.

There is lots of everything a lover of old time musicals would enjoy in this film: comedy bits by the "Sunshine twins" (singing "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?"), and the chemistry between "The Boys" (the other butlers of different nationalities who are all in love with Ann), beautiful music, including the original "In The Spirit Of The Moonlight" and the classics "When You're Away" (Victor Herbert), a rousing number of Russian folk songs including "Two Guitars" that Deanna sings beautifully in Russian, and an English version of "None Must Sleep" (Nessun Dorma). Music to melt you. And very nice chemistry between Deanna and Franchot.

If there hadn't been a Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin would be much better remembered today, and this film is one of her finest vehicles. Believe me, you can purchase a lot of videos of old movies based on "script by committee" that do not compare to the pleasure that this one provides.

This film is really lovely.

Deanna is in top form, so pretty too here!

The ending always makes me cry no matter how many times I've watched the film!

How nice now to be able to watch it on DVD sixty-four years after it came out and be captivated all over again just like all the butlers in the film were! Everything about it seems just right with lots of nice touches.

I recently bought the DVD Collection of all Deanna's movies but I have only ever seen two others. One of the others is "Can't Help Singing!"

Another very happy experience (in colour!)

Thank you glorious Deanna! Victor (London) 15-5-2007