100 MEN AND A GIRL (1937)

Modern audiences are often surprised at first hearing the high, fluttery lite-classical soprano voice Walt Disney picked for SNOW WHITE. An elitist, rather than popular choice? Not really. Mainstream in 1937. Vying for the top box-office spot that year, MAYTIME, with high-flying songbird Jeanette MacDonald at a commercial peak. And not far behind, savior of Universal Studios, 16-yr-old coloratura Deanna Durbin in her second and best film. Vocally, Durbin was the real deal, with an exceptionally well-produced voice, warm where others were wiry, without excessive vibrato or iffy intonation. But if the voice never let her down, her studio often did. Not here, though. In what might be called the Frank Capra Durbin film, she’s a determined little minx, fighting to give her instrumentalist father, and 100 unemployed symphonic friends of his, a shot at a radio broadcast contract. If only they had a ‘name’ conductor to kickstart their pickup orchestra. Enter Leopold Stokowski, three years before FANTASIA. Too bad he’s already got a band of his own!* Luckily, he gets doubly caught: first by the singing of this young girl; second by her sob story. (Silly as it is, the reality of the situation behind the fantasy helps keep the film grounded.) Cleverly plotted and just believable enough, the Joe Pasternak production is darn swanky for Universal, imaginatively directed by Henry Koster before he became something of a dullard, and given a far stronger supporting cast than Universal was known to muster. Top players Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette and a wonderful Mischa Auer still on call after last year’s MY MAN GODFREY, along with Adolphe Menjou channeling honest emotion as Durbin’s protective father. It’s a paradigm of a certain kind of touching/uplifting Depression fable and certainly the best place to start with Durbin.

DOUBLE-BILL: After going thru a chubby phase, Durbin dieted down for a late pic, SOMETHING IN THE WIND/’47, largely worth a look for the chemistry between her and young Donald O’Connor. The plot doesn’t seem to notice the rapport, but you do get to see O’Connor in something of a proto-‘Make ‘Em Laugh’ musical-comedy ‘numbo’ that’s worth the price of admission.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Sure enough, the ad-hoc/pickup orchestras Stokowski recorded with between symphonic directorships were often as not labeled ‘His Orchestra.’