Can't Help Singing

"CAN'T HELP SINGING" - I first saw this charming colour film on television and treasured the tape recording for many years.

My late mother liked Deanna and had a "Deanna Durbin" Hat and told me that she once visited Paris in the late 30's and misplaced this cherished hat and was asking everyone if they'd seen "mon chapeau" - she retrieved it! The hat is remembered from "100 Men and A Girl" with the theatre caretaker watching the moving feather as Deanna was hiding behind the theatre seats.

The songs from "Can't Help Singing" are memorable and they are repeated nicely in the colourful dress-changing finale of the film. I believe "continuity" was a bit apprehensive, but Deanna said "no one will notice"! I love the public bath-house scene and note the slightly cross look Deanna throws her co-star's way when he insists on joining in the song at one point - as if she wants to keep the song's delivery entirely to herself! It is a great scene along with the bonus confusion at the end of it, when Robert Page eagerly awaits the unknown singer.

"More and More" is performed beautifully with Deanna serenading her travelling companion. I like the the bells at the end of "Any Moment Now" at which Deanna reacts. "Californ-i-ay" is another highlight. A super happy film with quite a bit of hilarity at the end.

Thanks Deanna!

This Durbin vehicle had just three songs worthy of Jerome Kern and E. Y. Harburg: "More and More," "Californ-i-ay," and the title song. These are really wonderful pieces, which fortunately recur throughout on a regular basis.

The Technicolor is indeed glorious, and there's nothing wrong with the casting. It's also true that Durbin looks radiant in her first color film.

Alas, the rest of the score is a disappointment, simply lacking in inspiration. They try to beef it up with production values, to little avail. Likewise, the script's just not quite up to Deanna's standards. One can admire the costumes, staging, photography--and those three songs. Durbin fans will be probably be pleased with everything here; others, probably less so.

It's easy to see the Durbin magic as she lights up the screen with charisma and her beautiful voice. A pleasant trifle for the Durbin DVD "Sweetheart Pack."

Deanna Durbin's one Technicolor movie gives her a decent showcase, and adds a Jerome Kern score plus plenty of good settings and scenery, to make for enjoyable light entertainment and pleasant viewing. Its pluses include Durbin's singing and the colorful outdoors photography.

The period setting makes it different from the stories in most of Durbin's other movies, but fortunately her character (an independent-minded Senator's daughter) is similar enough to many of her other roles, in giving her a lively character with a variety of material to work with. (It wasn't really necessary, though, to make her hair so much lighter - her dark hair would have looked great in color.) The settings range from 1840s Washington DC to the unsettled expanses of the Old West. In itself, the period atmosphere works pretty well, and it also throws in one or two ironic details along the way.

As Durbin's co-star, Robert Paige is a bit bland as a character, but his singing is up to par. Akim Tamiroff has a good role as one of the scamps heading west with Durbin's character. In smaller roles, Ray Collins and Thomas Gomez give good performances. The combination of Durbin's voice, energy, and charm with the period story and settings works rather well.

Toward the end of her career at Universal, they finally splurged on technicolor and fancy scenery for an enjoyable, tuneful,colorful western-comedy-romance, 'Can't Help Singing' featuring a musical score by Jerome Kern. Deanna's father (Ray Collins) wants her to forget the Army officer she loves (David Bruce) and sends him off to California during the Gold Rush days. Deanna decides to go west to find him--but en route falls in love with a handsome cowboy (Robert Paige). Against some stunning technicolor scenery, much of the music is given the full treatment by Durbin at her best--her voice was richer than ever. She does a standout job on 'Can't Help Singing', 'More and More', and 'Cali-for-ni-ay' and even duets with Robert Paige for a reprise of the title song (both in outdoor bathing tubs up to their necks in soap bubbles). Some of the comedy routines seem a bit strained and weak--but overall it's a wonderful showcase for Deanna Durbin and her fans certainly should appreciate the chance to see her at her radiant best. AMC shows it in a beautifully restored technicolor print.

In a decade devoid of great (non-MGM, non-Rita Hayworth) color musicals, CAN'T HELP SINGING deserves a more important place among the celebrated. A female-driven western tale preceding HARVEY GIRLS, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, and CALAMITY JANE, while musically aping Broadway smash OKLAHOMA, this adaptation of GIRL OF THE OVERLAND TRAIL is the uniting of three great entertainment entities - Durbin, Jerome Kern, and the resources of the Universal Technicolor escapist machine. After losing Durbin's producer, Joe Pasternak, and her director, Henry Koster, to MGM, you'd think they would have tried more often, but no, Durbin's 1940s pictures were not expensively-mounted productions, and this is quite a distinctive product for 1943-4 Universal. However, not being a Durbin afficionado is probably the main reason this is my favorite Durbin vehicle. The superior if neglected Kern score awaits rediscovery, from the beguiling title tune (Durbin and company can't help singing from outdoor bathtubs) to lush ballads like "More and More" (also a big Perry Como hit), and a rousing, ersatz "Oklahoma" homage to "Californ-i-a." Without Maria Montez-John Hall to bolster, the populous if underused supporting company does well enough, with Robert Paige (a sort of poor man's John Carroll) not near so bad as I'd heard. Make no mistake, the "Durbin-ator" dominates the affair, surrounded by all the bright, lush colors of the Technicolor rainbow lavishly painting impressive backdrops of scenery, an extravagant, detailed, period wardrobe, and the Collector's Doll make-up adorning the star's perfect face. Durbin herself is at her gorgeous peak, and this colorful achievement is certainly the entertainment it set out to be.