Deanna Durbin

  • Lady on a Train (1945)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2022) Hovering at the edge of mystery and comedy, Lady on a Train is a lightweight suspense that pokes fun at far more serious material. It gets going once a debutante visiting Manhattan (the ever-beautiful Deanna Durbin) looks outside the train window before arriving at Grand Central Station and witnesses a murder. Not being taken seriously by police, she eventually enlists the help of a murder mystery writer and they both get involved in a sombre succession drama involving a rich family. More light-hearted than overly comic, Lady on a Train starts with a decent mystery and adds in a few comic situations, being self-aware enough to have both a murder-mystery fan and an author of such fare to undergo the kinds of things they only approached at a distance. It works—this is not a great movie, but it’s fun enough to watch. Fans of 1930s–1940s murder mysteries, which were often cranked out quickly with few big expectations but often surprisingly good results, will feel right at ease.

  • Three Smart Girls (1936)

    Three Smart Girls (1936)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, September 2020) Deanna Durbin was a short-lived star—her time at the top of the box office lasted barely more than a decade, after which she retired and apparently lived a long happy life away from the cameras. While brief, her stardom was justified by the mixture of youthful cuteness, singing talent and comic timing she brought to the screen—if you’re thinking about Judy Garland, well, only a bit of fate separated those two from the MGM star-making factory. You can get a glimpse of her talents in her feature film debut Three Smart Girls, as she plays one of three sisters trying to prevent their father from marrying a gold-digging young woman. Frankly, it’s not that good of a film—in trying to demonstrate Durbin’s multiple talents, director Henry Koster is shackled to a script that throws in various elements in a whole that doesn’t come together. The musical numbers seem to stick out, and the comedy is quite generic. And it all fits in 84 minutes! Somehow, it was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar for its year. Still, there are good bits and pieces here—plus Durbin’s performance. As far as star-vehicle comedies of that time go, Three Smart Girls is unobjectionable—although there are better roles in Durbin’s later filmography.