His Butler's Sister

This film is really lovely.

Deanna is in top form, so pretty too here!

The ending always makes me cry no matter how many times I've watched the film!

How nice now to be able to watch it on DVD sixty-four years after it came out and be captivated all over again just like all the butlers in the film were! Everything about it seems just right with lots of nice touches.

I recently bought the DVD Collection of all Deanna's movies but I have only ever seen two others. One of the others is "Can't Help Singing!"

Another very happy experience (in colour!)

Thank you glorious Deanna! Victor (London) 15-5-2007

This movie is a good example for the Old Classical Hollywood pictures! It has a lot of funny moments, nice, good-looking actors, incredible Durbin's charming voice and really nice and touching story! O.k. maybe it is not an high art movie, but people come on! These days we don't have high arts almost at all! Neither we have relaxing, touching with GOOD TASTE musicals!! Because, who's going to sing the way Durbin did??? There is nobody as gifted as the old actors! I mean, take just Astair, Garland, Crosby, Sinatra, Kelly! These days we don't have such in-every-way talented actors! They could do everything: musicals, comedies, drama. This movie is for everyone, who enjoys Classical movies!! It's worth seeing!

As someone who's not a fan of opera, I actually find Deanna Durbin enjoyable having liked her previously in Can't Help Singing among a few of her other movies I can't remember by title right now and in her debut with Judy Garland in the short Every Sunday. In addition to her singing voice on many tunes like "Nessun Dorma" at the end, Ms. Durbin also displays some wonderful humorous touches that matches the veteran comic supporting cast of male butlers that follow her around. I was even enjoying the not-too-compelling-story at least until Franchot Tone-whose character was seeing another woman-seemed to be starting an affair with Deanna. Ms. Durbin isn't the only one who performs, however, since in the beginning when we first see Tone's songwriter character, a couple of women who call themselves the Sunshine Twins (one of whom is Iris Adrian who I knew as the landlady in That Darn Cat-Hayley Mills version) do a funny number called "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?" in front of him. So musically and comically, His Butler's Sister was a mostly enjoyable Durbin vehicle.

In 'His Butler's Sister' Deanna Durbin plays Anne, a small town girl who arrives in New York to make it on the stage. She intends to live with her older half-brother Martin (Pat O'Brien) whom she has not seen for years and who turns out not to be the millionaire she expected but something much better: The butler of a successful song writer (Charles Gerard, played by Franchot Tone), for whom Anne wanted to sing in any case. There are mistaken identities and other misunderstandings, some dastardly intrigues, a troop of butlers who all fall in love with Anne and any number of situations that will make you laugh out loud. Most importantly, this charming comedy-romance offers Deanna a lot of chances to demonstrate what an amazingly good soprano she was. In fact, I don't think Hollywood ever attracted a better classical singer - no wonder Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland were among her fans. In 'His Butler's Sister' Deanna sings some modern numbers, a Russian medley (in Russian), and towards the end an astounding interpretation of Nessun Dorma. The Russian medley is historically remarkable: Remember, back then the Soviet Union and the US were allies and there was a lot of sympathy for Russia. Also, the Universal Studios may have aimed at the Russian 'market', such as there was (earlier films with Deanna, for example 'One Hundred Men and a Girl', did appear in Russia). What did not convince me is the character of Anne's half-brother Martin, or rather, why both Anna and Charles keep forgiving him his really nasty intrigues. But that does not change the fact that 'His Butler's Sister' is one of the best of Deanna Durbin's films - not quite at the level of 'One Hundred Men and a Girl', but still very very good. Don't miss it!

I am a lover of all old movies especially musicals, and I find this to be the absolute worst I've seen. I do enjoy Judy Garland, so that may be partially why I don't like Durbin's style. She doesn't seem to have the sparkle of any of the great musical stars such as Alice Faye or Kathryn Grayson. She is very beautiful, but I think she should have been a chorus girl, or a musical specialty. Most movies that I have seen that weren't the greatest still had the leading actress giving a good performance even under the most stupid circumstances.

Now that I've expressed my opinion of the star I can restate much of what others have commented on, the script. In this movie I didn't believe anything. I thought the way Durbin was acting towards her brother was real LOVE, not family love. It was horrible. I'll see another Deanna Durbin film and hopefully I can find something nicer to say about it.