Where Is The Love For Deanna Durbin on DL?

Living well is the best revenge and from all accounts Deanna lived very well and was quite happy.

This is the Deanna Durbin Troll.

It starts threads about twice a year talking about how great Deanna was and how Judy Garland was a shit eating whore.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Try the other 400,000 threads on Deanna Durbin OP.

Is my link not working? Oh dear...

I was always struck by the newspaper clipping of Durbin that Anne Frank had tacked up in her hiding place. That link to popular culture made her such a real person and all the more tragic.

From one of the prior 2,786,564 Deanna threads - perfectly stated.

[quote] To paraphrase Mama Rose in Gypsy, if she could have been she would have been.

Have we ever liked anyone born with the name Edna Mae?

R7

Where’s the love for the Lascaux cave paintings? I think there is a legitimate expiration date for popular fandom.

As a concept, this is a moving target, but I think it’s fair to say that the subject of the OP has been adequately adored.

On to New Faces of 1953.

From previous thread:

[quote]Ironically, one role Deanna might have been very good in was Julie in Show Boat

Surely to be followed by her Medea .

that looks like a Henry Fuseli

Deanna Durbin in later years. She died when she was 91.

She spent over 60 years in retirement.

Doris Day spent over 50 years in retirement from making films.

Greta Garbo spent almost 50 years in retirement.

Late career Deanna would've been great in the Jennifer Jones role in "The Towering Inferno."

The movie studio was worried when she grew a moustache.

She’s a gutter whore

She was quite ugly as an adult so I can she why she didn’t have a lasting career. Also no star quality.

She's apple-cheeked and pretty in this photo.

Sister Mary Deanna Durbin.

Judy and Deanna.

She looks like Corky from life goes on r17

Based on R14's photo, she gre up to be TV legend Hal Linden.

I imagine she'd be uncomfortable with us discussing her. She didn't care about movies - why should we care about her?

She was gang-banged by a bunch of hobos and that’s what ended her career.

Judy was upset that Deanna since Deanna had become a star first in 1936, with her first two films being nominated for Best Picture. It took Judy 3 more years until the "Wizard of Oz" came along in 1939 and 1942 when she finally had her name above the title by herself. It's obvious when the Judy was jealous of Deanna when she she went on the Jack Paar Show and started making cracks about Deanna's looks as a child and made a nasty arm gesture to make fun that Deanna's arm was a bit out of alignment from a childhood break which hadn't been set properly. Judy was so talented, but apparently deep down she still wasn't that confident when compared to Deanna. Plus when Judy was doing a show in France in the 1960s, where Deanna had retired at age 28, Judy called Deanna complaining about her upcoming show. Deanna said "are you still in that fucking business?", having been enjoying her life away from the biz.

Deanna had a very strong on-screen image as a pro-active Little Miss Fix-it who sings, while Judy's was more passive for the most part, waiting for her friends, the Wizard, Mickey Rooney or James Mason, to help her out of her troubles while she sang "But Not For Me" or "The Man Who Got Away" or "Over the Rainbow". Deanna was the highest paid woman for a couple of years in the 1940s. It's just that when she retired, she did no publicity, stayed out of the spotlight and her studio Universal's films weren't shown that much on tv as was the film's of Judy's, MGM's. Yet Deanna Durbin was a huge star in her day, a terrific singer and actress in light comedy especially, who was wonderfully talented. I say that as a Judy fan, too. Both very different. I'm sure Judy wished that she had the family support that Deanna had, as well as a studio like Universal, who for the most part, didn't tamper with their star too much (or turn her into a drug addict the way MGM did to Judy, unfortunately).

I can't think of anything that would induce me to watch her treacly stuff. Tho I'm sure she was a perfectly nice person --- penguin-arm and all.

She was a popular star with many of the WWII servicemen. I knew an old vet and he thought she was wonderful, the girl back home.

[quote] She was gang-banged by a bunch of hobos

Again, confusing her with Judy.

What kept her films from becoming classics? [italic]100 Men and a Girl[/italic] is the only title that occasionally crops up, and that's because it's kind of sexual.

I especially love the scene in "100 Men and a Girl" of the out-of-work musicians auditioning for Leopold Stokowski (who probably qualified as Anderson Cooper's ex-stepfather), so grateful to be conducted by him playing Liszt "Hungarian Rhapsody" with Deanna there for encouragement.

"Three Smart Girls" was also an Oscar nominated film, kind of a precursor to "The Parent Trap". "Can't Help Singing", Durbin's only color film had a score by Jerome Kern and E.Y. Harburg ("Wizard of Oz"). "It Started With Eve" is a great comedy, later remade for Sandra Dee, but co-starring with Deanna was her friend Charles Laughton and Robert Cummings. Several of Deanna's films were remade at MGM for Jane Powell as well. Deanna's films are generally very entertaining and her singing is just wonderful.

They're nevertheless forgotten.

A lot of Deanna clips get lots of views on YouTube and more of her films have started showing up on TCM.

she's a milquetoast. don't care.

Who would play her if there were a biopic?

I like the ringlets.

R33 Shawn Mendes has the mannerisms down pat for the biopic and he's agreed to wear a lovely long wig.

Ouch

“The sooner Deanna Durbin and her producers realize that she is not a dramatic actre nor even a fair farceuse, the sooner we'll all be spared the bother of such embarrassments as "Lady on a Train." And embarrassment is just the word for it, for this new picture, at Loew's Criterion, exhibits the little lady falling flat on her histrionic face.True, the yarn which Universal concocted for this display would not render even Ginger Rogers sufficient theatrical support, so we can't altogether blame Miss Durbin for the unholy show that she makes. It's an empty and careless little fable, intended to be a mystery farce, about the wholly incredible mix-up of a debutante in a murder plot. It seems that this fanciful creature, an avid reader of mystery books, is witness to a killing in a Harlem flat from the window of a train. (That's the reason for the title—unless it means the clickety-clack of the whole thing.) Fired with detective ardor, then, she sets out to solve the crime and goes bungling around a country mansion, a New York night club and into an author's arms.Handed substantially nothing in the way of suspense by the script and only a few meager tatters of foolish comedy, Miss Durbin gets even with the authors by giving nothing in return. As a matter of fact, she plainly fumbles even the small opportunities she has. Her manner is awkward and childish, for which Charles David, the director, must take some blame, and her timing in farce situations is pathetically out of "sync." Also, she looks slightly silly in a couple of flashy costumes and—you'll pardon us for mentioning it—the little lady has put on too much weight.Mindful, of course, that Miss Durbin still has a melodic voice, the producers have made arrangements for her to sing a couple of times. In that night club to which she eventually rushes, she takes over for the singing star and gives a rather coarse imitation of a chanteuse in a couple of warm oldies. And, for want of a better justification, she just picks up the telephone one time and sings to her daddy on the West Coast. The selection is "Silent Night."The emphasis on Miss Durbin—which is heavily overstressed—leaves little to do of any consequence to the rest of the above-listed cast. And that they do in various manners which warrant no special remarks. But one thing they do make evident: even with them Miss Durbin is out of her class when it comes to playing a straight role. She'd better stick to frothy soubrettes.”

My aunt loved Deanna Durbin when she was young. He and her friends didn’t know that she had a deformed arm, they just thought it was an affectation that they all copied. So they’d prance around holding their arm cocked back like Deanna did.

[quote] Personally, she was one of Mother's favorites

Ha! Ha! Ha! I'll say!

Gimp-armed guttersnipe

Love her! She was a thinking man's Judy Garland (and wasn't a mental case like Judy either). Her early films hold up amazingly well and were critical darlings back then as well: together her films garnered almost 30 Oscar nominations (and back then Oscars actually stood for quality).

She was a crack whore.

"For The Love Of Mary", her last movie ever, in 1948. After that she left Hollywood and moved to France.

R43 Don Taylor in that movie was a real cutie!

Don Taylor in The Naked City.

I was sad to read she was cremated and her ashes scattered. I really wanted to make a little pilgrimage to her grave one day.

Here's a pic of the house in which she lived in France (though she later moved to some other house nearby).

My mother was named after Deanna Durbin. Her sisters were named after Jeannette MacDonald and Priscilla Lane. This was the Philippines during the Commonwealth years: Hollywood stars replaced Catholic saints. The monsigneur, however, wouldn't permit them to be christened with those first names, so my grandparents settled on naming them all Maria--Maria Deanna, Maria Jeannette, Maria Priscilla.

R47 That's a cute story. Lots of Deannas were born when DD was at the height of her fame and were no doubt named after her, like actresses Deanna Dunagan (1940) and Deanna Lund (1937).

^^^ Agree r48. R47 tells a sweet story. The name Deanna rolls of the tongue nicely and is really quite a pretty yet strong name. I could definitely see it making a come back. I'm actually kind of obsessing on it

Never heard of her ..,

DD walking around incognito in her home village in 1958.

I have a friends Deanna Durbin story to tell.

This friend was born the same year as Deanna Durbin and adored her.

In the 1960s she visited France and happen to come across Deanna whilst crossing the street in a small town. She wasn't sure at first if it was her but when she was sure she started singing one of Deanna songs from one of her 1930s films. Deanna Durbin then started to sing along with her. Deanna Durbin then invited Roma (that was my friends name) back to her home for afternoon tea.

Roma passed away in 2009. Deanna outlived her by about three and a half years.

Roma always used to like to say that Deanna forgot some of the words when they were singing together but Roma helped prompt her on to the right wording. She was a huge fan of Deanna Durbin and was responsible for me discovering the joys of Deanna Durbin's films.

R52 I'm sorry but I find that story a bit hard to believe: I really can't envision a person as notoriously private as she was inviting some total stranger into her home. Heck, I'm not a world-famous songbird and even I wouldn't pull a stunt like that.

when film nuts discover Deanna, it is pretty wonderful.... We're with you DD

Fascist.

I love DD. One of the most beautiful voices of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Deanna Durbin is one of the Hollywood's star who most deserves to be rediscovered. I'd also say that William Haines was a lot of fun to see in his films as well, especially given that his real-life story and how big a star he had been. Of course, Durbin retired because she had tired of Hollywood and had made a fortune with good investments. Haines refused to bow to Louis B. Mayer's demands to give up his real-life male partner and was fired, though Haines had a wonderful career as interior designer to the stars, started by his buddy Joan Crawford.

Back to Durbin. Her singing and acting in them are wonderful and are real joys to those who discover her films for the first time.

R53=Lorna Luft

Time for some Deanna to bring some loveliness in your lives. That's Herbert Marshall at the piano, btw.