It's a Date

Plot synopsis:
The movie begins with Georgia Drake (Kay Francis) performing on the stage, singing "Gypsy Lullaby" while her daughter, Pamela (Deanna Durbin), watches with her boyfriend Freddie Miller (Lewis Howard). Georgia is an older Broadway actress who was once very famous. Her daughter, Pam, also has great acting skills and hopes to be a successful actress as well. At an after-party celebrating the closing of a play that Georgia was in, Pamela convinces director Sidney Simpson (Samuel S. Hinds) and writer Carl Ober (S.Z. Sakall) to attend one of the plays she is in. After the party ends, Pamela sings "Love is All" with the maid, Sara (Cecilia Loftus), playing piano and her mother listening.
Sidney and Carl go to Connecticut and decide to try out the second act of their new play, St. Anne. They put Pamela in the role of St. Anne. In the performance of the second act, Pamela sings, "Loch Lomond." (This is a particularly acclaimed version of that folk song.) The directors are impressed with Pamela's performance and offer her the role of St. Anne in their upcoming play. Pamela is very excited, but does not know she is taking over a role which they had originally offered to her mother. Georgia is unaware of what has happened, as she is in Honolulu to prepare herself.
Pamela travels to Hawaii to ask her mother to coach her. On her journey, she is noticed by pineapple king John Arlen (Walter Pidgeon). Noticing her practicing the play, he thinks that she is a troubled girl who just got jilted by her love, and sets out to distract her by posing as a stowaway. Eventually they figure out the truth about each other, and become friends. Soon after Pamela arrives in Honolulu, she learns she is replacing her mother in the role of St. Anne. Not wanting to hurt her, she decides to give the role up. In order to keep Georgia from the truth she asks John to take the two of them to dinner in order to avoid a call from Sidney that would reveal the truth to Georgia. The three of them go out to many dinners and spend time together. Pamela becomes determined that she will quit acting and she wants to marry John.
Meanwhile, John has fallen in love with Georgia. At a ball, he tries to avoid Pamela, who wants to propose to him. He knows her intentions and wants to propose to Georgia before Pamela gets the chance. He gets her to sing for everyone at the ball. Pamela sings, "Quando me n'vo - When I go along," from "La bohème". After she finishes the song while the crowd is around her, John takes Georgia outside and proposes to her. Georgia decides that she will marry him, and then she tells the producers that she will not be performing St. Anne, for she wants a real honeymoon. Pamela is initially crushed, but she was not really in love with John. Pamela devotes herself to her role, with the help of her mother, and becomes the star of St. Anne. The movie ends with Pam portraying St. Anne, singing "Ave Maria (Schubert), as John and Georgia watch from the audience.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Deanna Durbin stars in "It's a Date," a 1940 comedy also starring Kay Francis, Walter Pidgeon and S.Z. Sakall.
Durbin plays Pam Drake, an aspiring young actress whose mother is a theater star, Georgia Drake.
After the successful run of a play, Georgia and her maid Sara Frankenstein (Cecilia Loftus) head for Hawaii for R&R before she starts her new play.
On the ship, she meets a man (Walter Pidgeon) that she thinks is a stowaway - he's actually John Arlen, a successful businessman.
Once in Hawaii, Pam finds out the truth about the role and tries to keep it from her mother; John, meanwhile, has fallen in love with Georgia, but Pam thinks she's in love with him and it's mutual.
It's a mess.In Durbin's earlier films, I found her speaking voice high-pitched and a little annoying and her acting overly energetic to the point of being hyper.
She puts a little too much weight in the middle voice and therefore has a somewhat screechy Bb at the end of "Quando M'en Vo." Still, however, she is one of the best classical singers in film.Though Durbin was a huge star at Universal, the studio never bought big properties for her.
Kay Francis is lovely as Georgia and Loftus is funny as Sarah.
The handsome Pidgeon does his usual good job.Deanna Durbin in the end out-Garboed Greta Garbo, retiring at the age of 27 and moving to the outskirts of France, and I don't believe she's been seen since or even interviewed.
I claim it is just what its producers set out to make it to be--an opportunity for young singing star Deanna Durbin to show her abilities, a nice part for Kay Francis who is young enough to play leads and mature enough to suggest that she may have to consider giving up impersonating ingenues on stage, and a chance for Walter Pidegon to play the fascinating man who falls in love with her.
Norman Krasna, a gentle-minded and very talented screenwriter, has provided a superior script here, which is believable, full of smart dialogue and never forced as so many comedies were and are; Frederick Kohner of "Gidget" fame, Ralph Block and Jane Hall also contributed to the logical story-line.
The tired old ploy of having mother and daughter compete for the same man, intentionally or not, is what is supposed to make 'It's A Date' a sparkling comedy.
She puts over all of her songs with professional skill and poise, doing an absolute standout job on "Ave Maria" and "Musetta's Waltz"--but the trouble is not enough time is spent on the vocals to showcase her amazing voice.
Instead, we get Kay Francis and Walter Pidgeon falling in love while Deanna dreams up all sorts of schemes to keep her mother from knowing that she has won her mother's role in a play.
Deanna looks lovely at eighteen and has probably never been photographed more beautifully but this is the sort of vehicle that has you wishing the silly plot would move on so we can hear Durbin sing once more.
Walter Pidgeon and Kay Francis are adequate in support.
MGM later came up with a zestier technicolored remake called "Nancy Goes To Rio" with Jane Powell.Trivia note: This was S.Z. Sakall's first screen appearance in an American film..
Seiter, and starring Deanna Durbin, the studio's top box-office attraction, ranks another popular roaster to the Durbin movie lineup.
As with her earlier success of MAD ABOUT MUSIC (1938), Durbin once again plays the daughter of an actress, this time a theatrical one with whom she's inherited both talent for acting and singing ability, with her main ambition to carry on the family trait.The plot summary revolves around Georgia Drake (Kay Francis), a successful Broadway actress just completing her 400th and final stage performance of "Gypsy Lullaby." In attendance are its producer, Sidney Simpson (Samuel S.
In a separate balcony are Georgia's daughter, Pamela (Deanna Durbin), and her escort boyfriend, Freddie Miller (Lewis Howard).
Ober is seeking for an particular leading lady for his upcoming production of "Saint Anne," and feels Georgia too old for the part.
With Georgia already vacationing in Honolulu, Pamela, knowing her mother to be her best acting coach, arranges to meet with her in Hawaii.
While on board the ship, S.S. Honolulu, Pamela lives her part to the fullest by reading her script, thus, causing John Arlen (Walter Pidgeon), a businessman and fellow passenger, to mistake her for an extremely unhappy young girl.
To spare her mother's feelings, Pamela uses Mr. Arlen as the source to keep her mind off the play, followed by some unforeseen circumstances.Other appearing in the cast include: Eugene Palette (Governor Allen); Henry Stephenson (Captain Andrews); Cecilia Loftus (Sara Frankenstein, Georgia's personal maid and no relation to the Mary Shelley novel character); along with the familiar faces of Charles Lane, John Arledge, Eddie Acuff, Fritz Feld and Virginia Brissac, among others.
Because the Drake women are depicted as part of a generation of actresses, maybe Cecilia Loftus should have played the actress grandmother discussed in conversation rather than the personal maid to make this family generation of actresses more bonding and acceptable to the plot.The musical program includes: "Gypsy Lullaby" (voice dubbed "sung" by Kay Francis); "Love is All"(sung by Deanna Durbin); Traditional Scottish song of "Loch Lamond," "It Happened in Kaola" (by Ralph Freed and Frank Skinner); "Hawaiian War Chant," "Rhythm of the Islands," "Musetta's Street Song" from the opera, LA BOHEME by Giacomo Puccini; and "Ave Maria" by Franz Schubert.
Durbin's rendition to "Ave Maria" is beautiful, but her earlier effort, "Love is All" is one of nicest songs ever sung by her.
Producer Joe Pasternak must have loved "Ave Maria" enough to use it again for Jane Powell's HOLIDAY IN Mexico (MGM, 1946), which also featured Walter Pidgeon, as well as the story for a remake, NANCY GOES TO RIO (MGM, 1950) with Jane Powell and Ann Sothern in the Durbin and Francis roles.
Because of the Pasternak style and Pidgeon in the cast, IT'S A DATE could easily be mistaken for an MGM film rather than one by Universal.Still a teenager of about 18 or 19, Durbin has developed into an attractive young lady.
For the movie in general, 103 minutes is quite a drawn-out process in storytelling, thus, standing apart from Durbin's 87 to 95 minute feature film presentations.
Yet, what makes it so watchable, other than Durbin's song interludes, are the veteran players as former Warner Brothers star, Kay Francis; the debonair Walter Pidgeon on loan-out assignment from MGM; and soon-to-be character actor for Warner Brothers, S.Z. Sakall.
With this being Francis' only assignment opposite Durbin, she would later appear opposite Gloria Warren, a Deanna Durbin look-a-like songstress, in a Durbin-type musical drama, ALWAYS IN MY HEART (Warner Brothers, 1942).
While Durbin's film career extended until her retirement by 1948, Miss Warren, following a few more screen roles for other movie studios, disappeared to obscurity by the end of the decade.Due to the aforementioned MGM remake, the 1940 original was reportedly unavailable for viewing for many years until the wake of cable television where it turned up on cable networks as Showtime (1985), a decade later on Turner Classic Movies, and availability on video cassette in the 1990s.
To the film's credit, IT'S A DATE offers more than its share with amusements, songs, and story in the finest Durbin-style tradition.
Deanna Durbin Gets the Part.
This is a fine Deanna Durbin vehicle, but an uneven film.
There are plenty of chances for Deanna to sing and be bubbly, enough to satisfy most fans, but the stars have to work overtime to keep what little drama exists moving until the inevitable resolution.Deanna is fledgling actress Pamela Drake, daughter of major Broadway star Georgia (Kay Francis).
On the ship, she meets pineapple tycoon John Arlen (Walter Pidgeon), who first woos her but then also becomes interested in mama.
It turns out that Georgia also expects to get the part already offered to Pamela and also wants John.
More importantly for these types of films, who gets the man?Durbin is amazing, as always, and really gets the chance to show what a child prodigy she was (though clearly becoming a young woman here).
She sings several standards such as "Loch Lomond" and "Ave Maria" with her fine soprano voice, and shows maturity far, far beyond her years.
There's one fine bit where Deanna, trying to convince the big-time producers (including S.Z. Sakall doing his usual hammy bit) to hire her for their show, does several wildly different characterizations in rapid-fire succession which are all excellent.
Great acting talent, great singing voice, prettier in a classic sense than Judy Garland, Deanna was the complete package.Pidgeon is great also, but he is up against formidable competition in the acting department here.
Plus, she is given almost no chance to do anything but sit and wait for John and Pamela to decide things for her, so her character and motivations are murky.Durbin gets to sing several times with her beautiful operatic voice, and she gets to emote repeatedly both as her own character and as the character she is playing within the story.
The reality, though, is that she is still just a kid playing in a grown-up world, a fight the real Deanna would be waging until she finally gave it all up and left films altogether later in that decade, hopefully for a happier life without the strain of constantly meeting her own and others' extraordinary expectations for herself.Ignore the story, but don't ignore Deanna, a true star..
"It's a Date" is a pleasant little film with Deanna Durbin.
I think the best part of this one is that although there is some singing, it's not jam-packed full of music and has a decent plot.Deanna plays Pamela Drake and Kay Francis plays her mother, Georgia.
Well, it soon looks like Pamela's dreams will come true when she reads for a relatively small part--but they offer her the lead!
He hasn't got any problems and soon she sees through his ruse--but they become good friends.When they land, Pamela introduces John to her mother--and tells her that she is in love with John, although he's twice her age.
See this cute little family comedy.As far as Deanna Durbin films go, it's a bit better than average due to a nice cast.
This alone make it a must-see!By the way, I would love to know what audiences of the day thought about their sweetheart, Miss Durbin, falling for an old guy like Pidgeon.
I think seeing a young lady who everyone adored as a child now with a much older man was just too much-- and this might have also been a problem with Durbin..
No Date For Me. I watched this to see Kay Francis, who was coming to the end of her career here.
Both she and Walter Pigeon were billed below the title; Deanna Durbin was the star, the only person billed above the title.This was the seventh movie Deanna Durbin made with producer Joe Pasternak and cameraman Joseph Valentine, and the well was running dry.
It's a trite tale of a mother (Francis) and daughter (Durbin) in love with the same man (Pigeon) as well as mother and daughter vying for the same leading role in a Broadway play.
The very contrived plot is arranged to provide Durbin with a ridiculous assortment of songs: "Musetta's Waltz" from La Boheme, Schubert's "Ave Maria," "Loch Lomond," and a bland new ballad, "Love Is All." Kay Francis was looking quite fine here, though the costume designer should have been shot for giving her unflattering turban hats.This was the first American film that S.
He was playing the sort of part here that he played throughout his Hollywood career.And the film reminded me of what an insipid actor Walter Pigeon was..
Then Pidgeon enters the picture and the movie bogs down in a romantic mix-up as implausibly an 18-year old Durbin and an adult Francis compete for the 42-year old male lead.
Still, I could have taken more of her usual bounce, while that last song (Ave Maria)-- of only three -- appears to have wandered in from another movie.
All in all, the film fritters away its three outstanding performers with a lackluster script and pedestrian direction.
Deanna chases older man in hackneyed musical comedy.
Six films and four years after her auspicious starring debut in THREE SMART GIRLS (1936), the luster of Deanna Durbin began to dim, but just a little.
In IT'S A DATE (1940), she's saddled with two high-profile grown-up co-stars, Walter Pidgeon and faded 1930s star Kay Francis, both of whom considerably slow down the normally hyperactive Deanna.The plot involves aspiring actress Deanna being offered a part that was originally promised to her stage diva mom (Kay).
Then, in Hawaii, the plot shifts to a romantic triangle as the two women grapple, not for a part, but for the attentions of a pineapple tycoon, Pidgeon, who's more interested in the mother.
Kay Francis overacts but is never given any good lines, forced too often to simply react to the bubbly, aggressive Deanna.The first section of the film offers the flavorful ambiance of a theatrical milieu, both Broadway and regional theatre, but then, after Deanna's offered the part of St. Anne, the action shifts to a cruise ship, where Deanna meets Pidgeon, and finally to Hawaii where she reunites with Mom. Once Deanna boards the ship, she leaves behind her quirky boyfriend Freddy, an aspiring actor played by the funny Lewis Howard, who then disappears from the movie.
Freddy has a great bit early on where he tries to impress a casting director by acting like a 'dope fiend' which is what he thought Deanna said when she told him to try out for the part of the Dauphin.
He starts going into withdrawal tics, rubbing his nose and scratching his arms, a daring bit at a time when the Production Code strictly forbade drug references.Norman Krasna's script (from a 'story' credited to three writers) offers plenty of bright dialogue and funny bits, but the shifts in setting make it play like three movies crammed into one.
The soundtrack is short on original songs and big on choral standards: Deanna's big numbers are 'Loch Lomond' and 'Ave Maria.'.
Although I have known Deanna Durbin's name for a long time, I had never seen one of her movies.
It would be impossible to describe all the brilliant touches in a few words but let's just say that in this movie Deanna Durbin plays an aspiring actress who not only vies with her actress mother (Kay Francis) for the same part but for the same man (Walter Pigeon).
This kind of plot which is usually played out as an intense psycho/sexual drama is here played for laughs and is all the more delicious as the center of the sexual triangle between mother, daughter and lover is none other than Deanna Durbin, America's Sweetheart, who is barely ever shown kissing a man, but nonetheless in this movie is shown kissing a man twice her age who is in love with her mother.
Nothing is ever what it seems to be and the final incredible touch which brought me to my feet, applauding, was that in the last scene in a comedy fraught with underlying sexual tension, Deanna is shown on the stage in what was meant to be her mother's part, playing a NUN singing AVA MARIA, while her mother, now married to Deanna's former lover (Walter Pigeon), both watch adoringly from the audience.
In fact, the mother is shown mouthing the words to Ava Maria which echoes the opening shot of the film which was of Deanna sitting in the audience mouthing the words to a song her actress mother was singing.
Because it's a Deanna Durbin film, you can be fooled into thinking that this is a piece of B-movie fluff but the script and the direction equals anything Preston Sturges ever made and Preston Sturges made some great movies.
Cecilia "Cissy" Loftus was born in Scotland in 1876, and was a great star of music halls, vaudeville plus stages of London and Broadway.
As a theatrical and film historian, I have researched and seen pictures of her as a very young woman, and I think that she is very beautiful, both inside and out.
She appeared in all kinds of plays and shows, plus silent films.
Cissy made some sound films, including some near the end of her life, such as both 1940's It's a Date and The Blue Bird.
She was no longer an ingenue or a star, and her role in this film was as a wise, old granny/maid character who knitted in the background.
Deanna: a better voice (beautiful high soprano) than Judy G.
I loved all of Deanna's songs here.
Seiter joins in the fun by superbly showing moments that initially look to be intimate,to in fact be scenes from auditions.After Pamela Drake is joined by John Arlen and her mum,the writers sadly allow the satirical side to fade away,to instead be replaced by a family Drama focus,which despite containing a surprisingly open ending,does lead to the film losing some of its charm and sparkle.Despite only being 19 at the time,Deanna Durbin gives an excellent performance as Pamela Drake,with Durbin showing that she is far from one note,by not only delivering each of the songs in the movie with a full force of emotion,but also display a real sense of venerability,as Pamela starts to fear that her dreams may be harder to archive then originally expected.Joining Durbin,Kay Francis gives a terrific performance as Georgia Drake,with Francis showing Georgia to be someone who knows her time in the lime light is about to fade,but is unable to turn down the chance of reaching the main stages with a major role.