First Love (1939)
First Love (1939)Directed by Henry Koster
Deanna Durbin .... Constance (Connie) Harding
Robert Stack .... Ted Drake
Eugene Pallette .... James F. Clinton
Helen Parrish .... Barbara Clinton
"First Love" takes a Cinderella angle where Constance (Durbin) is an orphan who has recently finished school and must live with her Uncle Jim and his spoiled family. The Clinton family composes of Jim (Pallette), the nonsensical uncle; Grace, his ditzy wife; Walter, the lazy son; and Barbara (Parrish), the evil daughter and Connie's cousin. Connie wins the heart of all the servants in the house with her singing of "Amapola", which is extremely well sung. She then mets and falls for the "most avaliable bachelor of the season" in Ted Drake (Stack), who also happens to the object of interest of Barbara. The Drakes organizes a ball and Barbara tries to prevent Connie from going. Still, with the help of the servants, she attends and wows the crowd (especially Ted) with her singing. On the other hand, the Clinton family is held up by the cops (who are friends of the servents) but only until midnight ... Mishaps and lies leads to Connie to leave, but an old friend brings Connie and Ted together and "they lived happily ever after." (Near the end, the father, who never participates in any of the family events, explodes on the entire family .. very unexpected for a family movie.) I think this take on Cinderella is really good, much better than a lot I've seen. The film takes the whole approach without using any magic (except for Connie speaking to her reflection .. and the reflection spoke back!) but with the help of servants. The coach is the cop commissioner's car and the dress .. is purchased :P. Naturally, the singing is the best part of the film, as Durbin sings Puccini's "One Fine Day", "Home Sweet Home" and the previously mentioned, "Amapola".
7.0 - yes, I really like musicals .. and I have tendancy to give them high ratings ... but I don't necessarily look for the plot to see whether or not there were any connections or if it really even made any sense ... the purpose of musicals is to showcase the actors' talents ... and Durbin does an admirable job in singing those wonderful songs.
posted by Dairy Fairy @ 6:55 p.m.
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