THREE DEANNA DURBIN MOVIES ON YOUTUBE

Someone has posted three of Deanna's films on Youtube:

Mad About Music (1938) Directed by Norman Taurog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR4Z3iDXyog

The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943) (Bruce Manning received onscreen Director's credit, but Deanna claims Jean Renoir, who was initially retained by Universal to direct the film, directed 2/3 of the released film):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZwZFmvXln0

Christmas Holiday (1944) Directed by Robert Siodmak:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSXKQMqogI0

Excellent ... Thanks for the heads-up ... I haven't seen the Jean Renoir one ...

I'm wondering what songs Deanna sings in that ... I'm off to find out ...

Mad About Music is a nice one,
Thanks!
Matt

Two more Durbin films have been added:

First Love (1939):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mqClnqs2PSs

It Started With Eve (1941):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GjQD-qqSoXw

I agree that Mad About Music is a delightful film. With that crazy "Swiss Boarding School" that looks eerily like a Black and White version of "Munchkinland" from the following year's The Wizard of Oz, and those two prim old birds who run it, it probably shouldn't work at all, but it's a completely charming and delightful film.

Credit the delightful Deanna and an excellent supporting cast for much of its' success. Norman Taurog also does a fine job of directing. Too bad he couldn't direct more Durbin films. I think he understood her style better than the frequently-used William Seiter.

I love It Started with Eve! It's one of my and my mom's favorites. My sister got it for me in the Deanna Durbin Sweetheart pack a few years ago for my birthday. And this movie prooves what a great actress Deanna was when she could hold her own against a scene stealer like Charles Laughton.

I agree. It's a delightful movie. Charles Laughton did It Started With Eve because he admired Deanna's work so much and wanted badly to work with her. Like most of her films, it was a huge hit, critically and financially, and helped to revive his career which was lagging somewhat after some poorly received films/performances.

Laughton and Deanna became great friends during production of the film, and she later credited him with teaching her to relax on set while waiting for her scenes to be filmed (though, as other film commentators have pointed out, there isn't any evidence of onscreen nervousness in her earlier performances.)

Kurt Friggs (sp?), Laughton's agent at the time, told a funny story about Laughton and Deanna that occurred during filming of It Started With Eve. Laughton's birthday occurred during production of the film and, as a surprise to Laughton, Deanna arranged for a huge cake to be brought to the "bedroom set" (where his character spends much of the first part of the film) for the cast and crew to celebrate. Universal didn't find out it was Laughton's birthday until the last minute and hurriedly sent a page out to get a large bouquet of flowers. Unfortunately, the flowers had ants on them, and when they were placed on the bed, the ants crawled off the flowers and swarmed all over the bed linens.

Laughton was hastily removed from the bed but, to his fury, he still had to swat several ants off of his clothes. He was so mad he chewed out the entire crew, which decamped quickly from the set until he'd calmed down, leaving him alone with Deanna, Friggs and director Henry Koster (who kept a safe distance.)

Deanna had been helping Laughton straighten himself out, and he turned to her and roared: "There are three things I absolutely can't stand: bad cigars, bad wine, and ANTS!!!"

Friggs said Deanna looked at him for a minute before a big smile broke out on her face and she giggled and replied: "Ahh know jes' what you mean...'Cuddles!' " Laughton burst out laughing, hugged Deanna, and everyone came back to celebrate his birthday.

Friggs later said that Deanna Durbin was the only person he ever knew who could get away with calling Charles Laughton "Cuddles."

I've come across a number of those anecdotal stories regarding Deanna. It sounds as if the years as a powerful and crucial player at Universal had given her tremendous self-confidence. I always think of that trait as central to her character. If the confidence was an act she pulled it off well.

"Mad about Music" is probably my favorite Durbin film I'm glad a few more folks will get to see it.

Another favorite, "It Started with Eve" strikes me as probably Deanna's best. It just seems that the totality of its parts come together better than most of her work. All the more remarkable because her singing skill plays a relatively minor part compared to many of here other roles.

Someone has just added her 1943 film, His Butler's Sister, to Youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B9ex4QG2fH4

I think Deanna may have had tremendous self-confidence as a performer from the first. For instance, Eddie Cantor, recalling her audition for his radio program in 1936, said that, as they walked across the CBS radio studio complex to a rehearsal hall as stopping him and saying: "Mr. Cantor, if you're at all nervous about playing for me, don't be, because I'll be right with you." He later recalled her audition as "remarkable" and said that she was "as sure and confident in her material and presentation as any performer I've ever seen," adding "And Oh, how she sang!." She also seems completely at ease and natural in both her spoken introductory patter with Wallace Beery (from most published reports, hardly a performer to put a neophyte child at ease!) and her song ("One Night of Love") in her December 1935 debut (as "Edna May Durbin") on MGM's radio show The Shell Chateau Hour.

On the other hand, there are accounts which contradict recollections like Cantor's, such as Henry Koster's that, when Deanna was brought in to meet him for casting in Three Smart Girls, she ultimately burst into tears and sobbed: "I don't want to be a movie star. I want to be an opera singer. You're all torturing me!" At this same interview, Joe Pasternak also recalls Deanna as being quite shy and close-mouthed (but says nothing about the emotional outburst Koster recalled).

Of course, this seeming disparity between Deanna's private and performing demeanors is not unheard of in other performers. Jean Arthur, for example, was by most accounts a nervous wreck off camera, awkward and ill-at-ease at any event that called for socalizing and public performance, yet was completely focused and self-assured when it came to shooting her film assignments.

Deanna herself has stated that she was not "a ham" when it came to performing, yet has also acknowledged that her family often stated she "didn't have a nervous bone in her body."

I must say, I've always found her self-confidence and assurance on camera remarkable. Unlike the majority of her much more professionally seasoned peers like Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney and Donald O'Connor, she had none of the extensive background in performance in training that would explain her lack of jitters before the camera, yet she comes across as assured and confident as any of them, and more so than many other film performers.