I am thiinking about Deanna Durbin and

"Deanna" was really Edna Mae Durbin.

She always reminds me of this wide-faced British actrine who also had a fake screen-name.

Deena is a prettier name.

Shit, Deanna.

It was actually something of a made up name. The studio was lookng for a stage name for her, and she said she always like the name Diana, but she pronounced it Dee-anna, and a PR person took note. Lots of women named Deanna were originally named after her.

She's wonderful singer, actress and movie star, and really beautiful. That clip and that film were directed by her later-to-be 3rd husband, who when she retired a few years later at age 28, moved to France and lived for the rest of her life. He really was falling in love with her by the way he photographed her in this scene, and of course, her vocals are gorgeous.

I bet Edna May Oliver thought it a perfectly fine name.

They weren't exactly going for the same parts.

Apparently the story goes Clark Gable got pretty drunk one night and had his way with Edna May Oliver!

Deanna was terrific!

Edna May Oliver was born Edna May Nutter, so there!

Meh.

When she realized her Hollywood career was over by 1949, she easily tossed it aside and didn't make any desperate comeback attempts. She and her husband moved to a farm near Paris where she lived the rest of her life in relative obscurity. Respect!

Plus she had Joe Pasternak from MGM, Mario Lanza, Cole Porter and Lerner & Loewe, among others hoping she'd come back and appear in their shows or films. For all of Judy's legend, I wish she had some peace and a longer, happier life like Deanna had.

Dear Deanna...she always gave my heart a pang!

I thought I was the one who gave your heart a pang.

It's from one of my favorite old Christmas movies, Lady on a Train, it's actually a crime Christmas move, with the great Edward Everett Horton (of the New York office).

She was an absolute doll....

Speaking of "Silent Night" ("Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht" in the original German) - it's now 200 years old.

Wasn't she the first choice for the part of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz?

She and Laughton were in two films together and really liked each other. I suspect that Laughton did not suffer fools gladly, so that's a recommendation.

No, r18, that was Shirl.

Thanks, OP, that was lovely. I prefer this one though

I only recently started watching Deanna Durbin movies, and I am home. So charming, so lovely, so talented. I really can see why she was such a big hit.

Laughton made it part of his contract with Universal that he do a film with Durbin, who was the biggest star on the Universal lot. The folks at Universal had no idea how they'd get on, but they adored each other, made another film together and remained friends until he died years later. Durbin was a very good actress and co-starring with the likes of Melvin Douglas, Herbert Marshall, Robert Cummings, Franchot Tone, and having great character actors like Charles Winninger, Edward Everett Horton, etc. gave her great on the job training; she and Laughton were great together on screen. Plus she had an incredible singing voice and accompanies herself on the piano during all her numbers in "It Started With Eve".

There's a scene, maybe in Eve, where she's singing to herself while Laughton is at the door listening and it's incredibly sweet.

This isn't that scene, but it's the first time Deanna sings in the film, and it's great. It gets Laughton's character out of his sick bed.

Thanks, r25 for that, but it cut out my favorite line. Deanna goes downstairs and asks the two guys waiting to help her move the piano into the hallway. As they are doing it, one of the men says, "Are you going to play something sad?" She replies, in complete deadpan, "No, I'm going to sing something loud!" My favorite of her films.

After she retired in 1949 until her death in 2913, she gave only one interview, in 1984, to author David Shipman. You can find it online, it's a great read. There's a icture of her and she looks lovely.

2913? She will outlive us all.

1983

[quote]until her death in 2913

What a show-offy little bitch.

She died in 2013 at age 91. The interview she gave was in 1983.

R7 Edna was strictly for the ladies. She pursed Kate Hepburn on the set of Little Women but to Edna's dismay Kate wasn't interested (too old).

R33 I reckon Kate Hepburn modelled herself on Edna May Oliver;

And I suspect Edna May Durbin couldn't do a comeback because she get hefty in the face.

And I wonder if Olivia chose to live in Paris near Edna May Durbin.

R33, don't think so.

Always a favorite for me after I saw FIRST LOVE on some crazy afternoon movie show in the 1960's......a beautiful without that irritating trilling that the MGM ladies have - Kathryn Grayson and Jane Powell in particular.

And Deanna was a delightful comedienne. FIRST LOVE will always be my favorite - she got her first screen kiss from Robert Stack - but I like of her movies except I GO ON SINGING.....in color, but really kind of boring....

Here she is singing my favorite!

There's a really pretty song called something like "The Lights of Home" in her movie with Franchot Tone. "Nice Girl?" maybe.

Weren't there rumors that her first kid when she was married to Felix Jacoves (?) was actually fathered by Joseph Cotten?

I just saw Lady on the Train last week on TCM. A really entertaining movie and she did have a lovely voice. I am surprised she did not go on to further stardom but it sounds like she had a happy life.

There's that story about Garland, after giving a concert in Paris, calling Durbin to say how well it went, and Durbin saying, in essence, are you still doing that shit.

R36 Oh, I rather like "Can't Help Singing", which is the film you mean. After all, it has a beautiful score written by Jerome Kern and E.Y. Harburg for Deanna to sing, plus it's the first major film to be filmed on location at the Grand Canyon and other locations in the Southwest including other National Parks. Her co-star Robert Paige wasn't a major actor, but he was handsome, and besides Deanna a lot of the work is done by the character actors, but the film has its charms. Apparently one reason it was her only color film (and she photographs gorgeously) is that her salary was so high that the studio said that they couldn't generally afford color film and Deanna at the same time. Maybe if they had purchased better material for her they could have made it back. They even screwed up the Broadway hit "Up in Central Park" by Sigmund Romberg by cutting the major song "Close as Pages in a Book" during previews. The soundtrack with Deanna singing opposite Dick Haymes still survives though.

R38 A lot of Deanna's films really weren't played very much on tv from the 1960s or so on. It was mainly the MGM movies that played on the Late Late Show. With Universal, it was mainly horror films like "Frankenstein" and Abbott and Costello films that were on syndicated tv. When PBS started showing Durbin's films in the 1980s, they were among the highest watched and donation-receiving programs ever. Videos and DVDs soon followed, but TCM I think thus far mainly has"Lady on a Train", "Three Smart Girls", "It Started with Eve" and one other in their library, or at least that they've shown which I'm aware of. Some of these films still hold up very well as entertainment, and it's easy to see why Deanna was such a big and adored star.

A lot of her films are on YouTube.

[quote] I am thinking about Deanna Durbin

We have 90 year olds on the DL?

No, just people who like to remember quality in their entertainment and know their movie history.

[quote] just people who like to remember quality in their entertainment

MARY!

R45 Poppins deprived person!

Thank you for the correction R40, yes "Can't Help Singing."

Spoiler alert for "Lady on a Train"

I watched LOAT last night, and there is a curious phrase the killer uses "Aunt Charlotte was more than an aunt to me, why, even when I was a little boy she used to..." and then he turns his head at a sound and never finishes the sentence.

There are some very funny moments in the movie, Alan Jenkins, Patricia Morison, and when Deanna asks his David Bruce's secretary "Does he always snore like that?", her reaction is very arch "I am just his Secretary!"

Edward Everett Horton is a gem.

I like "Can't Help Singing:" as well, though I wish Universal hadn't slathered the heavy Technicolor makeup on Deanna. Calling Dot Ponedel! . The extensive use of outdoor shooting is extremely rare for the '40s and even the '50s - the majority of Hollywood musicals are solidly studio soundstage productions.

It's so odd that she was never tempted to leave Universal for a bigger studio. Surely, her pay would have been matched or bettered?

I guess MGM and Fox didn't need her services as they had major musical stars but Jack Warner really lost out by not stealing her away and establishing a musical unit based around Deanna.

R48, Pat Morison just left us at 103. I have a friend who has friends who were her friends in L.A. I saw a recent photo of them with her at her birthday party. She looked lovely.

A lovely Anna.....

R24, I think you are thinking of this scene from "Because of Him," where she sings "Danny Boy" and Charles Laughton is listening at the door.

Yes! The way he lingers is very affecting.

Well, studio contracts were usually 7 years, so Deanna started at Universal in 1936, which would have gone through 1943. I think she might have been on suspension at one point around then, so I'm surprised she didn't switch studios. Anyway, she renewed which would have taken her to about 1950, but she settled with studio around 1948 or 1949 when she still owed them a film or two, and left for France. But yes, MGM and Joe Pasterank (who had guided her most of her 1st contract at Universal) really wanted her, offering her some choice things like "Kiss Me, Kate", "Show Boat" and co-starring with Mario Lanza.

R50 Fox generally had a policy of only one major musical star at a time -- besides Shirley Temple (as a kid), it was Alice Faye, then Betty Grable. Carmen Miranda was a special feature all her own, and Vivian Blaine and June Haver were considered a step below. Fox actually had the most vibrant Technicolor on a consistent basis in their films. I think MGM might have happily reduced Kathryn Grayson's load since Jane Powell could really dance among her other talents, since these two ladies were trained to be MGM's answer to Deanna.

Warners had the machinery to make great musical since they had done all those Busby Berkeley extravaganzas in the 30s. It's kind of a mystery why Deanna didn't change studios, especially after Joe Pasternak left for MGM. She made a shitload of money for Universal.

What pills was she on?

r56: In the early 1940s, Durbin continued her success with "It's a Date" (1940), "Spring Parade" (1940), "Nice Girl?" (1941), and It "Started with Eve" (1941), her last film with Pasternak and director Henry Koster. After Pasternak moved from Universal to MGM, Durbin was suspended between October 16, 1941 and early February 1942 for refusing to appear in "They Lived Alone", which was scheduled to be directed by Koster. The project was canceled when Durbin and Universal settled their differences. In the agreement, Universal conceded to Durbin the approval of her directors, stories, and songs. (per Wiki)

Her suspension would have been the perfect opportunity for Durbin to jump ship, but she got Universal to agree to her demands, something I don't think she would have managed to get from Metro.

ME? A lesbian? Heaven forbid!

R58, didn't being on suspension mean that you were still under contract, so could not have signed with another studio? The amount of time someone was on suspension was added on to the person's contract. That's what deHavilland successfully challenged in court.

But didn't Olivia win her court case before Deanna's suspension?

Does Deanna have a good boxed set worth the money?

r 61: No, afterwards. Interesting case.

Actress Olivia de Havilland filed a lawsuit on August 23, 1943 against Warner Bros. which was backed by the Screen Actors Guild. ] The lawsuit resulted in a landmark decision of the California Court of Appeal for the Second District in De Havilland's favor on December 8, 1944. In a unanimous opinion signed by Justice Clement Lawrence Shinn, the three-justice panel adopted the common sense view that seven years from the commencement of service means seven calendar years. Since De Havilland had started performance under her Warner annual contract on May 5, 1936 (which had been renewed six times pursuant to its terms since then), and seven calendar years had elapsed from that date, the contract was no longer enforceable and she was free to seek projects with other studios.

De Havilland's legal victory reduced the power of the studios and extended greater creative freedom to performers. The decision was one of the most significant and far-reaching legal rulings in Hollywood. The decision came to be informally known, and is still known to this day, as the "De Havilland law".

Thanks for the info, r63.

And if you're linking to another's post, don't put any spaces between the r and the number. Please see my example above!

Deanna's gay grandson is the fabulous and influential co-founder of the High Line.

Universal actually paid Deanna her salary for her last films without filming them just to end her contract.

Spring Parade and Christmas Holiday are both very difficult to see due in the US to legal issues. Spring Parade is supposed to be a delight, but Christmas Holiday, which I saw years ago, is a bleak, depressing misfire. I can only imagine how war-weary audiences, thinking they were supposed to be seeing a holuday musical must have been appalled by it. BTW, it was supposed to be on TCM just last week but the showing was cancelled a few months ago.

Finally, was Deanna desperately sought for the OBC of My Fair Lady or The King And I?

Darling r65, Anna was ALWAYS mine!

No R66, I was the best Anna.

Christmas Holiday is viewable on YouTube. It's a brilliant noir by Robert Siodmak, who did many great noirs for Universal (Phantom Lady, The Suspect, The Killers, etc.). It's pretty bleak and audiences must have been stunned to see their Deanna singing in a whorehouse, and golly Gene as a mother-fixated killer.

R65 I fell for that misleading title and watched it during Christmas vacation a few years ago and while it didn't really help to put me in a Christmas mood I did like it a lot. There's a great Midnight Mass scene in there filmed in LA's old St. Vibiana's cathedral, before it was deconsecrated. And was that the only time Gene Kelly played a bad guy?

Lady on a Train is a amazing as well. The singing scenes felt a bit tacked on and out-of-place but that just helped to make that film feel even kookier than it aready was. I loved her rendition of Porter's "Night and Day":

Gorgeous voice. I wonder if part of her appeal is that what comes through is the underlying sensibleness that prompted her to get the hell out of town when she was able.

"Spring Parade" is sometimes available on YouTube; it's a lot of fun, pairing her again with Robert Cummings, plus it is S.Z. "Cuddles" Zakall's U.S. film debut. "Chistmas Holiday", very different from anything Deanna had done, still did very good business; it's also a chance to get some idea of how Gene Kelly might have been on-stage in "Pal Joey", playing a bad boy there.

Deanna was offered Laurey in the original "Oklahoma!" but was still under contract at that point. Later on, she was offered the stage version, plus later was considered for the screen version-- but she had been retired for over 15 years by that point. Mario Lanza really wanted to sing opposite her at MGM, and there were offers for her to do Magnolia in the movie version of "Show Boat" with Judy Garland as Julie (!), plus to do "Kiss Me, Kate" film and also on stage in London. Joe Pasternak, her former producer at MGM, would go out to France almost every year to try to get her to return to films, but she steadfastly refused to go back to show business. She had also been under the watch of the Met Opera during her career, in case she wanted to pursue that avenue. She had a direct link to Puccini himself, with her main voice teacher at Universal, usually getting billing himself, Andres de Segurola, who , among other appearances, had been in the original cast of Puccini's "Fanciulla del West" at the Met Opera's premiere.

I meant that she was offered the stage version of "My Fair Lady" and later the screen version, though few thought she'd come back by that point.

Deanna got out early, and lived in peaceful retirement to age 91.

Judy grimly hung on, and died a burnt-out mess at age 47.

I think the smart one is obvious here.

Sorry, but I refuse to believe that Jack Warner ever offered the film of My Fair Lady to Deanna. By the mid-1960s, a big screen comeback would have been laughable. She was already forgotten or unknown by at least 1/2 of the film-going public. Warner was a better businessman than that.

Yes, until Olivia won her lawsuit - the time that a performer was put on suspension was ADDED to the length of the contract. If you have a seven year contract and had been suspended twice at six months each....you ended up with an eight year contract.

And you couldn't work anyplace else during the suspension - I think Bette Davis went to England to do a film during a suspension at WB, but they called her back before it could be made..... You certainly weren't free to negotiate a new contract or film during the suspension.

When Deanna left the business, she had been working since she was 12 or 13, on radio before she went into films. I think she stayed at Universal because she was such a top box-office attraction for them that they let her have her own way. At Metro, she would have been just one of many musical talents. You have to remember that unlike the other major studios of the time , Universal was not controlled by a theater chain. They had to sell their product independently to theaters. It meant that finances were tighter and they were less willing to take risks with something innovative (though this helped them when the big studios had to divest their theaters).

If Universal's films were generally less prestigious, Deanna still got the best of what they could offer in terms of production values. After a dozen years of doing the same kind of vehicles, though, Deanna must have been tired of the grind. Seeing new competition in the person of Jane Powell (who was doing splashy Technicolor remakes of some of Deanna's old movies at Metro under Deanna's old producer Pasternak) couldn't have been encouraging, so she wisely packed it in, and seemed never once to regret the decision.

She's the musical Garbo.

I think when Universal became Universal-International, they started offering Deanna less good material. I actually like "Something in the Wind" one of her last 4 pictures which is truly a musical, rather than her more usual comedy with Deanna singing. She sings in classical, jazzy and popular styles in the film, Donald O'Connor has a solo that's a precursor to "Make 'em Laugh" and Andy Williams is even in it with the Williams Brothers, plus the cast has John Dall from Hitchcock's "Rope" and Bette Davis' "The Corn is Green" and also Charles Winninger, the original Cap'n Andy from "Show Boat". But the other 3 of Deanna's last pictures weren't so hot, with a butchered score to "Up in Central Park" even leaving out the show's biggest hit. I think Deanna didn't want to put up with the loss in quality, but didn't want to move to another studio anymore. She actually out-Greta Garboed Greta, who could be seen in NYC walking around. Durbin stayed in France, unless she was travelling as a tourist or avoiding the press pretty much from then on with the exception of the Shipman interview.

I think Deanna's name was probably tossed out there, along with any soprano who had done musical films -- Shirley Jones, Jane Powell, Kathryn Grayson, etc. along with Elizabeth Taylor (a very real contender until Audrey Hepburn was cast) and probably Jack Warner had people raving about Julie Andrews and him at least considering her to some degree before deciding she was too risky for him to gamble on the $1 million rights and the expensive production the film would demand. Whether some of these people were ever offered is debatable, but I would think people pitched some of these people to Jack Warner and he either discussed them to some extent or dismissed them.

Oh please. Were you around in the mid-1960s? Do you really think Jack Warner considered Deanna in the mix with Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor? And after an almost 20 year absence from the screen? Deanna was in her mid-40s by then and long-forgotten by Hollywood.

Durbin was also blessed with very astute and supportive parents who looked out for her best interests and invested her money wisely.

r71: The Andres de Segurola-Puccini connection explains Deannas English version of "Nessum Dorma" from TURANDOT sung in "His Butler's Sister" (1943). The opera was not especially well-known in the states then - there was not an American production of TURANDOT from 1930 until Chicago in the late 1940s.

R80 Deanna had been away about 15 years by that time and was about 41 or 42. I've read it in books about Lerner and Loewe, Cukor and Warner Bros. that Durbin at least was considered. Whether an offer to her went out, I don't know. She was still relatively young enough, and the thought of a major comeback might have intrigued someone in the PR department at least.

I love this thread.

Glad that people are re-discovering Deanna on YouTube and through DVDs and TCM.. She's wonderful. Among her famous fans, Winston Churchill, Anne Frank, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (who said she inspired him with her musicwhile watching in the dingiest Russian movie theaters), and Angela Lansbury, plus Julie Andrews' early career was to some extent formulated by using Durbin as a role model. Of course, Jane Powell and Kathryn Grayson, along with Ann Blyth, Gloria Jean and several others were all modeled on Durbin. She's also probably the first female teenager movie star, years before Hayley Mills and others. There's also the fact that her first few films save Universal and made them solvent again, yet there's no building or street sign in any of Universal's lots of amusement parks for some reason in her name.

Ingrates

Don't worry, Judy - most of us love you too.

This is wjy i LOVE datalounge..i wake up in the middle of the night and find that theres a thread on the lovely Deanna. As a kid in the 80s i often watched her films...i recall my dad telling me who she was, after u had asdumed she was Judy. And u bet 100 str8 guys..no, str8 people, cud not say who she is, if shown a pic...Why are the gays the only ones who get these icons and feel its necessary to remember them?

Deanna came on the scene when classical music and opera was still played regularly on the radio and featured in films. Unlike nowadays, thinking the general public might be scared of a soprano's high notes, someone decided to lower the keys for Marian the Librarian's number for Kristin Chenoweth in "The Music Man" on tv, but back then moviegoers enjoyed hearing a popular jazzy vocalist like Judy Garland as well as a classically trained soprano as epitomized on screen by Durbin and Jeanette MacDonald. Of course, gays have loved musicals and opera, and continue to have, with some exceptions, good taste to this day. When multi-millionaires are made of rappers who don't sing, nor even really act the words they are saying, and opera is mainly sidelined and declining by subscribers dying out and not much of a media presence, gays have picked up some of the slack in remembering classic movie stars whose real excellence deserve to be remembered. Remember, even Judy Garland nowadays, besides TCM, is mainly known only for "The Wizard of Oz", and a lot of her other work is mainly adored by classic movie fans and music enthusiasts. We honor them by recommending their great work to others so they are rediscovered and enjoyed once more.

Yes R74 I also refuse to believe that Jack Warner ever offered the film of 'My Fair Lady' to the middle-aged Edna Mae.

He probably never offered it her to her, but someone probably reminded him that she had been offered the stage version when it was first done on Broadway. Lots of names are thrown out when casting big roles on stage or in movies. I went to a Lincoln Center Library exhibition about casting and actors' pictures and resumes, and there were items from the original "Gypsy"; among them were sheets that listed many, many actors for the role of Herbie, including the one who eventually got the part, Jack Klugman. So I'm sure lots of names, real possibilities and pie-in-the-sky ones were thrown out for Eliza before a list of 5 or so real contenders were given a lot more consideration.