User reviews

It has been said that Deanna Durbin invented teenagery. This first film was one of the best. The humorous story presented a delightful 14 year old Deanna, a little beauty with a gorgeous voice, as the "Miss Fixit" in a family split by divorce. For plot summary, see other IMDb entries, but quickly Deanna and her two older sisters plan to go to America from Switzerland to prevent their father from remarrying. With an excellent supporting cast especially Barbara Read and Nan Grey as the sisters, good direction and editing, the film succeeds in captivating one even on subsequent viewings. Of Deanna's three songs, only "Il Bacio" is from the classical repertoire, but when she sings it in that police station scene, the film's place in history is assured. At least it was for this viewer who at the age of 15 was smitten for life with both Deanna and classical music. One of the many nice touches that occur throughout THREE SMART GIRLS is the brief glimpse of the drunk stretching his neck for a final glimpse of Deanna as the cops hustle him by! One unfortunate result of the success of this film was that subsequent writers for Durbin vehicles became locked into the "Miss Fixit" theme, which quickly became stale. Deanna herself never did. Her stature as an actress is more questionable than her charisma, which she certainly had. It seems to me that, like many another film personality, she substituted "naturalness" for the histrionic ability that she lacked. The ploy worked well for 21 feature films.

Deanna Durbin, Nan Grey and Barbara Read are "Three Smart Girls" in this Universal film from 1936, which introduces Deanna Durbin to film audiences. It also stars Ray Milland, Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, John King, Binnie Barnes and Alice Brady. It's a sweet story about three young women, now living in Switzerland with their divorced mother, who hear their father (Winninger) is marrying again. Not having seen him in 10 years and knowing their mother still loves him, they board a ship to America, with the help of the housekeeper/nanny, determined to stop the wedding. Realizing that the intended, called "Precious" (Barnes) is nothing but a gold-digger aided and abetted by her mother (Brady), they arrange for her to be introduced to a wealthy Count. This is arranged by their father's accountant (King). The man he chooses is a full-time drunk (Auer), but the girls mistake him for an actual wealthy count (Milland). What a mess.

This is a delightful film, not cloying or overly sugary at all, with some nice performances, particularly by Auer, Milland, Barnes and Brady. The young women are pretty and all do good work. The emphasis, of course, is on young Durbin, who is a natural actress and a beautifully-trained singer. In fact, her voice as a youngster is much more even than it would be as an adult - she has no trouble with the high notes, as she did later on because she put too much weight in the middle voice. She sings a delightful "Il Bacio" in a police station.

One of the nicest things about the film is to see the father, played by Charles Winninger, not want his children around - until he sees them and gets to know them. Barnes as the gold-digger isn't all that young, but the girls' mother looks way up there, so the inference probably was the older man seeking his youth with a younger, more glamorous woman. In fact, he finds the youth he was seeking in his daughters.

Universal gives Durbin the big star buildup here - she has the final shot in the movie. Ray Milland at this point was still paying his dues, and it will probably be a surprise even to film fans how young and attractive he is.

Very entertaining and of course, this led to a sequel and big stardom for Deanna.

Although she is little known today, Deanna Durbin was one of the most popular stars of the 1930s, a pretty teenager with a perky personality and a much-admired operatic singing voice. This 1937 was her first major film, and it proved a box-office bonanza for beleaguered Universal Studios.

THREE SMART GIRLS concerns three daughters of a divorced couple who rush to their long-unseen father when their still-faithful mother reveals he may soon remarry--with the firm intention of undermining his gold-digger girlfriend and returning him to their mother. Although the story is slight, the script is witty and the expert cast plays it with a neat screwball touch. Durbin has a pleasing voice and appealing personality, and such enjoyable character actors as Charles Winninger, Alice Brady, Lucile Watson, and Mischa Auer round out the cast. A an ultra-light amusement for fans of 1930s film.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This charming, funny movie combines Deanna Durbin's numerous talents with a far-fetched but enjoyable story, a set of interesting characters, and a cast and settings that make it all work. It combines the feel of the old screwball comedies with a little of the pace of a vintage musical, and a dash of commentary on family life. The combination works well, and is not as easy as it looks, as is so often demonstrated by the numerous gauche, hammy "family comedies" of more recent years.

Although she was quite young at the time, Durbin already had quite a singing voice, and she also had the kind of stage presence that allows her young character to take command of a scene in ways that would otherwise seem forced. She and the other two of the "Three Smart Girls" make a winning and energetic set of heroines. The rest of the cast members do well, too, and several of them have some very good moments. Charles Winninger makes the indecisive father very believable, Ray Milland's smooth, slightly exaggerated performance fits in nicely, Mischa Auer steals a number of scenes, and Binnie Barnes keeps her "other woman" character from being a stereotype.

Despite having a short career, Deanna Durbin left behind several very pleasant, enjoyable pictures that are worth the trouble to find for fans of classic cinema. This early feature is particularly charming.

MGM's loss was Universal Studio's gain when Louis B. Mayer sold Deanna Durbin's contract to Carl Laemmle and Universal gave her a grand debut in Three Smart Girls. The three are the Craig sisters played by Nan Grey, Barbara Read, and Durbin as the youngest and the one with the musical talent. But all three are on a mission to bring their mother and father back together.

The girls are vacationing in Switzerland when word comes that dear old dad who's been divorced from mom for years is about to be married again. Back to New York come the sisters to save father Charles Winninger from the clutches of mercenary Binnie Barnes and her even more mercenary mother Alice Brady.

While on the mission Grey and Read get themselves some romantic involvement also with Dusty King and Ray Milland. It gets a bit complicated though when Read thinks that Milland is a no account count that King hired to woo Barnes away from Winninger. Actually Milland is a titled gent, the guy that King hired was Mischa Auer.

In the first of her many roles in the guise, Deanna Durbin plays little Miss Fix-it and solves everybody's problems in the end with a few songs to go with it. It was a formula that worked well for Universal, pulling the studio back from inherent bankruptcy. Abbott&Costello would later make it turn a profit.

Three Smart Girls got Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Original Story. The fashions and mores of the time place it firmly in the Depression Thirties. I doubt it could ever be made today again.

Where would you find a voice like Deanna Durbin's?

Cute film about three lively sisters from Switzerland (often seen running about in matching outfits) who want to get their parents back together (seems mom is still carrying the torch for dad) - so they sail off to New York to stop the dad from marrying a blonde gold-digger he calls "Precious". Dad hasn't seen his daughters in ten years, they (oddly enough) don't seem to mind and think he's wonderful, and meanwhile Precious seems to lead a life mainly run by her overbearing mother (Alice Brady), a woman who just wants to see to it her daughter marries a rich man. The sisters get the idea of pushing Precious into the path of a drunken Hungarian count, tricking the two gold-digging women into thinking he is one of the richest men in Europe. But a case of mistaken identity makes the girls think the count is good-looking Ray Milland, who goes along with the scheme 'cause he has a crush on sister Kay.

This film is enjoyable, light fare. Barbara Read as Kay comes across as sweet and pretty, Ray Milland looks oh so young and handsome here (though, unfortunately, is given little to do), Alice Brady is quite good as the scheming mother - but it is Deanna Durbin, a real charmer and cute as a button playing youngest sister Penny, who pretty much steals the show. With absolutely beautiful vocals, she sings several songs throughout the film, though I actually would have liked to have seen them feature her even more in this. The plot in this film is a bit silly, but nevertheless, I found the film to be entertaining and fun.

About 20 years ago, I managed to watch the beginning of this movie on AMC-when it was still commercial-free and didn't edit its films for content-but turned it off or changed the channel after Deanna Durbin's first number. So now I've seen the whole thing on Netflix DVD and I can honesty say I enjoyed most of it. Initially, I thought the dialogue was being presented too fast for me to understand everything going on but I caught on eventually and warmed to Ms. Durbin's presence as the young impulsive teen. The women who play her sisters are also pretty appealing and there's a nice comic performance by Charles Winninger as their father. Mischa Auer is also funny as a drunken bum who's supposed to pose as a count. While I don't consider myself an opera fan, Ms. Durbin is pretty entertaining when she sings. In summary, Three Smart Girls is a pretty funny movie that's worth a look.

Deanna Durbin, then 14 and just under contract to MGM, made a short feature in 1936 which paired her with Judy Garland, a year younger, in the first film for both of them. Louis B. Mayer then decided he didn't need two competing young singers, placed his bet on Garland and let Durbin go. Universal immediately signed Durbin, rushed her into Three Smart Girls and rewrote the screenplay to pump up her part. She's billed last, but with the typographic equivalent of neon lights around her name. Universal was convinced Durbin would be a smash, and they were right. Three Smart Girls is less a musical and more a screwball comedy, and Durbin, 15 when the movie was released, carries it with aplomb. She's Penny Craig, and she and her older sisters, Joan and Kay, are determined to save their father, who had divorced their mother, from the clutches of an elegant gold digger with a fierce mother. They talk their way from Switzerland, where they live, to New York City, where their father lives. They plan not just to break up their father's wedding but to reunite their father with their mother, who after ten years apart still loves the guy. Is there any doubt that Durbin will sing a song or two in her warm, luscious soprano? Nope. Is there any doubt the girls will succeed...with Kay and Joan finding love and matrimonial material along the way? Nope, again. Years later Durbin was quoted as saying that she couldn't keep playing little Miss Fixit forever. She was right, of course, but in Three Smart Girls, her first feature movie, she has little Miss Fixit down pat. Durbin is funny, determined, resourceful, energetic and, of all things, natural. Her personality is so genuine that it makes this comedy -- a mix of farce, confusion, good intentions and cheerful avarice -- downright endearing.

Durbin carries the movie with ease. It's a lot of fun watching her hold her own against the likes of Binnie Barnes as Donna Lyon, the woman with her hooks in Penny's rich father, played by Charles Winninger, who was no slouch at stealing scenes, either. Alice Brady, who played the dithering matron in My Man Godfrey, plays Donna Lyons' mother, who is even more of a gold digger than her daughter. The last of the accomplished farceurs is Ray Milland as Lord Michael Stuart, who through a contrived and amusing mix-up is mistaken for Mischa Auer.

Three Smart Girls holds up well as a light-weight and amusing comedy of manners and mix- ups. So does Deanna Durbin as a brand-new star, who with her huge success saved Universal's bacon.

"Three Smart Girls" is a dated family comedy, which somewhat resembles the later "The Parent Trap" films (1961 and 1998), as others have mentioned, and its lightweight for a Best Picture Oscar nominee, but I see its appeal. The narrative, while convoluted, can be fun to follow because of all its twists and turns--many of which involve the tried and true comedic formulae of masquerade and mistaken identity. Plus, technically, it's a competently put together vehicle for Universal's "new discovery," juvenile actress and singing soprano Deanna Durbin.

In it, a mother and her three daughters, along with a maid, are living in Switzerland. They find out that their ex-husband and estranged father of 10 years is set to remarry. Despite a decade of no contact with the man, this upsets the girls deeply. Bizarrely and pathetically, his portrait and pictures populate their home. The youngest girl, Peggy (played by Durbin), comes up with the idea to travel to New York to meet the old man--a father she has no memory of, while her two older sisters, now young women, would only have childhood memories of him--and to make him remarry their mother. When we meet the man, it turns out that he's a deadbeat dunderhead, as well as a successful businessman of some sort, who's being taken advantage of by his gold-digging fiancée and her mother. Now, 80 years past this film, when divorce is commonplace and women's fortunes aren't necessarily tied to keeping a man, at least in the Western world, this film's setup seems particularly ridiculous. Clearly the girls have done well without him, and, at first at least, he clearly wants nothing to do with them, so, good riddance, you'd think. But, no, this is the era when the Hays Code was enforced, so no such depiction of divorce will stand.

This coupling extends further to the two older sisters, who each find their own beau in the Big Apple. Meanwhile, Peggy serenades her father--literally, by singing "Someone to Care for Me" to him, as well as with her childish antics and vulnerability bringing out her daddy's previously-suppressed parental instincts. Durbin sings as though she's performing in an opera--her three songs mainly constituting the musical part of this family comedy. This style of singing is quite dated itself, as far as mainstream movies go, but the final song is woven into one of the picture's many scenes of masquerading. Peggy sings to police officers in an attempt to convince them that she's not who she actually is, but rather is in New York to perform at the opera. The main masquerade, besides the gold digger pretending to be in love with rich men, involves the girls and one of their beau's enlisting a Latin lover type, a gigolo Count, to seduce the father's fiancée, Donna, by him pretending to be rich, when in reality he's a poor drunkard. Another man, who is really wealthy and not a drunk, however, is mistaken by the girls for the Count. The rich man pretends to be the poor, drunk Count who pretends to be wealthy to seduce Donna; all the while, he's performing this double case of masquerade because he's attracted to one of the daughters, instead.

Such masquerade and mistaken identity plots have been a staple of comedies prior to "Three Smart Girls," including quite a few silent films I've seen based primarily on that theme, and it has continued to be popular--the later "Some Like It Hot" (1959) being one of the best, for example--but it still works here and may even benefit from the plot's overall convolution. Part of the appeal is that it's self-referential, by actors playing characters who act as other characters within the film, and the mistaken identity referring to the spectator's own suspension of disbelief or absorption in the story and characters. Otherwise, "Three Smart Girls" suffers from being dated and contrived and from the "three smart girls" being rather unsophisticated and obnoxious. Technically, wipes are used frequently for editing transitions, and there's a side-by-side multiple-exposure shot of a telephone conversation within wedding rings. Ultimately, there's still some charm left in this classic.

MGM dropped Deanna Durbin after one short subject she made in '36 called "Everybody Sings" with Judy Garland. They kept Garland and dropped Durbin, whereby Universal took a chance on Deanna--who turned out to save the studio from bankruptcy with a string of successful, but formula Durbin films. She would go on playing Little Miss Fix-It in a number of vehicles written for the express purpose of exploiting Durbin's wonderful soprano voice.

THREE SMART GIRLS, when seen today, is a charming but very dated tale about three teen-age sisters scheming to reunite their parents. It was the sort of thing MGM would later do with JANE POWELL who, like Durbin, had a pleasing soprano voice and was routinely given the same Miss Fix-It roles, usually in an attempt to reunite her parents too.

CHARLES WINNINGER is the father who hasn't seen his daughters in ten years. Daughters DEANNA DURBIN, NAN GREY and BARBARA READ are intent on breaking up their father's romance with "the other woman" BINNIE BARNES. A very youthful RAY MILLAND (looking like a matinée idol), provides the romantic interest for one of the girls.

It's all played in very broad style, particularly by ALICE BRADY as Barnes' society mother, filmed in ritzy surroundings that must have seemed terribly unreal to Depression-era audiences and Durbin and the girls are a little too self-confident and condescending in their attitudes to be the likable girls they're supposed to be. But none of it bears much resemblance to reality--a fault of many a classic '30s comedy.

The material isn't sufficiently bright enough to keep you from wondering when Deanna will sing again--and it's surprising to learn that this was nominated for Best Picture in 1936.

Summing up: Definitely not one of my favorite Durbin films even though she shows her perky personality...nor am I fond of the "Penny" character that she plays here...but when she sings, all is forgiven.

Ridiculous fanfare with the usually reliable Charles Winninger in the lead role as a successful banker who has been divorced for 10 years and is now set to remarry a gold-digger played listlessly by Binnie Barnes. The real schemer here is Alice Brady, who plays Barnes's mother and is perfect for the part.

The film though did serve its star Deanna Durbin with the golden opportunity to sing and sing she does quite well. As her made, Lucile Watson, who played outstanding supporting mother roles in the 1940s, is terribly miscast here.

Of course, the 3 sisters come to America from Switzerland to sabotage dad from remarrying. The film never bothers to mention why Winninger had divorced his wife to begin with. Hoping to get Barnes to fall for a fake nobleman, Mischa Auer, the latter is soon confused with the dashing Ray Milland and some funny sketches ensue.

In the end, everyone gets what's coming to them except the audience who paid to see this film.

This film is so old I never realized how young looking Ray Milland looked in 1936, I remember him playing in a great film, "Lost Weekend". Ray plays the role of Michael Stuart, who is a very rich banker. There are three girls in this picture who are not very happy about their father and mother separating and they find out their father is going to get married to a young blonde who is a gold digger only looking for a rich sugar daddy. They hire a man to pose as a very rich Count, his name is Count Ariszted, (Misha Auer) who is drunk all the time and is penniless and gives plenty of comic laughs throughout the picture. Deanna Durbin, (Penny Craig) surprised everyone when she was booked in a police station and told the chief of police that she was an opera star and then Penny starts singing with the most fantastic soprano voice I have every heard, the entire police department and convicts started applauding, which was a very entertaining and enjoyable scene from this film. This is Deanna Durbin's first film debut and she became an instant success over night and went on to become a great movie star with Universal Studios after leaving MGM.

THREE SMART GIRLS (Universal, 1936), directed by Henry Koster, gives indication as a movie set in a classroom revolving around three intellectual students competing in keeping their names on the honor roll or dean's list. Though it does present three school age teenagers as major attractions, it's basically an uplifting story serving as a promotion for three bright stars in the making: Barbara Read, Nan Grey and "Universal's Newest Discovery," Deanna Durbin. Aside from her special billing in the opening credits, Durbin acquires enough attention and close-ups to come as no surprise which one of the "three smart girls" is to become an overnight sensation.

The story introduces three teenage sisters, Kay (Barbara Read), Joan (Nan Grey) and Penny (Deanna Durbin) living together in the country home in Switzerland with their mother, Dorothy (Nella Walker) and housekeeper, Martha (Lucile Watson). Through a newspaper article, the girls find, to their displeasure, that their New York millionaire banker father, Judson Craig (Charles Winninger), whom their mother divorced ten years ago, intends to marry, Donna Lyons Binnie Barnes), a young socialite he affectionately calls "Precious." Donna, along with her mother (Alice Brady), it turns out, are actually fortune hunters after Craig's money. Because this news has hurt their mother, who still loves him, Penny suggests paying Daddy a visit to break up this union. With "Mummy" remaining in Switzerland, the girls, accompanied by Martha, take the next boat to New York, after which they surprise both Daddy and his future bride-to-be while dining in an exclusive restaurant. A series of schemes and mishaps follow, including the hiring of Count Arisztid (hilariously played by Mischa Auer), a drunken unemployed Hungarian gigolo, to woo Miss Lyons. Along the way, the elder sisters encounter young men of interest, Bill Evans (John King), who manages Craig's investments; and Lord Michael Stewart(Ray Milland).

Reportedly a huge success for Universal, earning an Academy Award nomination as Best Picture of 1936, it shows how important it was for both studio and 14-year-old Deanna Durbin. Being her feature film debut, with only the musical short, "Every Sunday" (MGM, 1936) opposite Judy Garland, to her credit, Durbin turned out to be one smart girl for this production. Energetic, vibrant and talented in the singing category, she opens the film singing "My Heart is Singing" while rowing the sailboat with her sisters. "Someone to Care for Me" (by Gus Kahn, Walter Jurman and Bronislau Kaper) started off earlier with Binnie Barnes attempt to sing while entertaining her guests, in turn serving Durbin to advantage singing it to her father (Winninger). Durbin's final number is the classical piece, "Il Bacio" where she sings in a police station for the police chief (John Hamilton).

With other capable performers in the cast, Ernest Cossart co-stars as Craig's manservant, Binns; Charles Coleman (Stevens, the butler); Franklin Pangborn (The Jeweler); and Hobart Cavanaugh (Wilbur Lamb, one of Craig's assistants).

One of the most revived Durbin films to air on commercial television during the 1960s, THREE SMART GIRLS turned up quite frequently on cable channel American Movie Classics (1993-1996) before shifting over to Turner Classic Movies where it premiered January 14, 2007. Prior to that, THREE SMART GIRLS did get further exposure when distributed to home video in the 1990s. Interestingly, when displayed to DVD a decade later, it became a companion piece with a much latter Durbin musical, SOMETHING IN THE WIND (1947) instead of its sequels, THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP (1939) and HERS TO HOLD (1943). As popular as the original turned out to be, with its blend of music, comedy and sentiment, the sequels were equally successful, though virtually forgotten due to limited television revivals or hard to find VHS copies.

THREE SMART GIRLS not only opened a whole new career for Deanna Durbin, but marked the beginning of a whole new cycle of teenage movies later carried on by Judy Garland and others over where Durbin actually got her start, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (***)

Deanna Durbin was enormously popular for about a decade, and this was her first feature-length film. Watching it will give you some insight into Durbin's international fame. Her popularity was so widespread that diarist Anne Frank pasted her picture to her bedroom wall in the Achterhuis where the Frank family hid during World War II. The picture can still be seen there today. Durbin is best remembered for her singing voice, variously described as being light but full, sweet, unaffected, and artless. With the skill and range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed everything from popular standards to operatic arias in 21 feature films. Try this one first. --Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013

The three Craig sisters live in Switzerland with their divorced mother. Their rich father is rumored to be remarrying to gold-digging socialite Donna Lyons with her conniving mother. The girls run away to New York to stop them and reunite their parents. They haven't seen their father since the divorce ten years ago. Lord Michael Stuart falls for middle sister Kay. The girls find an ally in their father's investment manager Bill Evans. Things get complicated when a misunderstand has Kay trying to set up Michael with Donna.

A young Deanna Durbin makes her film debut and uses her operatic voice to sing a few songs which leads a nice career in singing in the movies. The three girls need some better differentiating. In general, they scream girlishly and talk over each other a lot. They need more pronounced individual personalities. The movie only really gets funny when the misunderstanding leads to some good old fashion hijinks. I love the way Michael decides to handle the situation. It's sly and hilariously funny. The first half is rather bland but it improves markedly in the second half.