Spring Parade

If you're looking for a deep film or a picture that will make it to the Criterion Collection, well, you won't find it here or in any of Deanna Durbin's films. Instead, her films are nice...nice family films and "Spring Parade" is certainly nice.

When the story begins, Ilonka (Deanna Durbin) is at the fair and trying to sell her goat. Instead, she ends up singing and seeing a fortune telling bird...yes bird. And, although the fortune seems ridiculous, the pieces all fall together--beginning with her falling asleep in a pile of hay and the hay ending up in Vienna. This is the nice, idyllic Vienna of old...before WWI and the slaughter of millions. Illona has a bit of an adventure here and ultimately meets the man of her dreams AND the Emperor!

She sings, she's sweet and she wears lovely dresses. Fortunately, she also has some nice support from the likes of Cuddles Sakall and Henry Stevenson! Well worth seeing and a bit like a fairy tale.

One of the few Deanna Durbin films, almost all shot in black-and-white, not available on commercial video as of this writing. That's a shame. Universal needs to finally release this film as well Deanna Durbin's HERS TO HOLD, the final chapter in her THREE SMART GIRLS trilogy. SPRING PARADE is a charming and delightfully dated fairy tale-like film and makes a great companion to classics such as Danny Kaye's HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, Shirley Temple's HEIDI as well as Sonje Henie's series of films.

Deanna Durbin is a Hungarian peasant. Through the usual mx-ups common to musical comedies, she finds herself in Vienna and in love with Robert Cummings. When S. Z. Sakall, the baker whom she is staying with, is arrested for something Miss Durbin has done, she goes to see the Emperor, played by Henry Stephenson.

Producer Joseph Pasternak and director Henry Koster complete the trio of Hungarians involved in this Viennese operetta movie, with Franz Joseph portrayed as the benevolent deus ex machina he was so often shown as in this sort of fluff. In truth, he was an arch-conservative, his tyranny tempered by a sprawling and confusing welter of nationalities. Despite that anhistorical nonsense, this is a funny and charming bit of fluff. Miss Durbin was Universal's biggest star, and this movie was given full production values, with lots of talented performers, like Mischa Auer, Walter Catlett, Anne Gwynne, Allyn Joslyn, Reginald Denny, and Franklin Pangborn. The songs are not from the top drawer, but Miss Durbin surely knows how to sell them.

Deanna Durbin signs her heart out here as the Hungarian peasant "Ilonka". She's been told by a fortune teller that happiness is looming - and she reckons that might just have come true when she encounters "Harry" (Robert Cummings) - a drummer in the Imperial army. Meantime, though, he is fond of writing music, a skill prohibited in the military so she determines to somehow get his works in front of the Emperor (Henry Stephenson). Creatively, she takes to hiding them in the salt sticks that her boss the baker (S. Z. Sakall) makes daily for the court. That's quite a risky tactic as those who surround the throne worry that this could be a plot to poison their ruler and so the baker finds himself incarcerated, and "Ilonka" has to make a tough - and brave - decision. It's quite a charming mix of musical and romance this, with a bit of chemistry between Durbin and Cummings and with the scene-stealing Sakall and Stephenson also on good form guiding this gently evolving storyline towards it's inevitable and pleasing conclusion. "Waltzing on the Clouds" has the germ of an ear-worm to it - you might find yourself humming it long after the film has ended!

My only complaint is that the film itself needs a good restoration to bring out the award-nominated cinematography of SPRING PARADE--and a minor complaint is that DEANNA DURBIN should have had at least two more songs to sing. Otherwise, it's a complete delight.

Her catchiest number is "Waltzing On Clouds" which is reprised at the finale and used for the big ballroom scene. It's a sort of Cinderella story set in Vienna, about a naive country bumpkin who meets her Prince Charming (ROBERT CUMMINGS) who happens to be a drummer in the local band. He's also a musician and love develops when Deanna backs his musical aspirations in a most unusual way.

S.Z. SAKALL stands out as the local baker who employs Deanna in his shop. As in most Durbin films, a series of mishaps and mistaken identities run through the story, only to be patched up before the windup. HENRY STEPHENSON, REGINALD DENNY, SAMUEL S. HINDS, ANNE GWYNNE, FRANKLIN PANGBORN and others help keep the story bubbling along with pleasant performances.

Henry Koster gives a sparkling touch to all the musical moments and Deanna is in fine voice. Robert Cummings again displays comic finesse as he always does in light romantic comedies.

One of Durbin's best films from the early '40s and it should be available on DVD.