I'll Be Yours

I'LL BE YOURS (Universal-International, 1947), directed by William A. Seiter, is a pleasing little comedy starring Deanna Durbin in one of her final movie roles before her retirement from the screen by 1948. While the title might indicate a dramatic love story or possibly a title song, it's neither. Taken from the screenplay by Preston Sturges that developed into a 1935 motion picture, THE GOOD FAIRY, starring Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall and Frank Morgan, with only connections between these two productions being the central character's name is Louise Ginglebusher who lands a job as an usherette at a movie theater; and that the man she likes happens to have a beard. For a Durbin movie, for a change, she's not an ambitious singer hoping for a singing career, but one with a talent for singing who helps those she befriends, even if she has to lie to do it.

The story opens with Louise Ginglebusher (Deanna Durbin), a small town girl from Cobleskill entering a train bound for New York City. While in the big city, she enters a café offering Hungarian goulash for 35 cents, but because the product is no longer available, Wechberg (William Bendix), its waiter, with an element of surprise of having a customer, offers her chicken sandwich instead to meet with her budget. Also in attendance is George W. Prescott (Tom Drake), a honest lawyer whose beard makes him distinguished, but not distinguished enough to win any cases. After acquiring a place to live at Mrs. Doogle's boarding house on 47th Street, Louise lands a job as a usherette for $25 a week at the Buckingham Music Hall (obviously a replica of Radio City Music Hall), whose manager, Mr. Buckingham (Walter Catlett), also from Cobleskill who had once been a high school classmate of her late father. With the help of Wechberg, whose ambition is to someday manage his own restaurant, invites Louise to attend a social function where he's to work as a waiter. Mistaking its host for a waiter, Louise is stunned to learn that J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou) is not only the host but president of the Pan American Meat Packing Corporation. After passing herself off as one of the entertainers, and displaying her singing talent, Nelson talks terms into starring her in a musical show, but instead, asks him to appoint "her husband," George Prescott, as his local representative. As Louise fantasizes herself as Prescott's dream wife, further complications ensue as her lies soon get her into deeper trouble. Others seen in the supporting cast include: Franklin Pangborn (The Barber); Joan Fulton (The Blonde); Patricia Alphin and Nancy Brinckman (The Usherettes); Ida Moore (The Landlady); and John Hamilton (Chairman of the Board).

Interestingly for a Durbin movie, I'LL BE YOURS has more plot than music. Whatever songs presented, they're few and far between. The motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "The Cobleskill School Song" (sung by Walter Catlett and Deanna Durbin); "Grenada," "It's Dream Time" and "The Sari Waltz." Only the beautiful rendition of "It's Dream Time" gets the full treatment on a rowboat in Central Park with Durbin and Tom Drake, accompanied by unseen angel type voices heard only on the soundtrack. "The Sari Waltz" starts off in lavish scale with Durbin singing followed with her ballroom dancing with Drake at Wechberg's Garden Café French Cuisine. After a promising start with camera capturing them slightly from higher angle dancing on heart-shaped floor, it makes one wish this could have been longer developing into something special.

While Deanna Durbin displays her genuine flair for comedy, it's a shame she didn't get to display more to the fullest. Tom Drake, an MGM actor best known as "The Boy Next Door" to Judy Garland's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1944), makes a fine counterpart of a struggling young lawyer who believes Louise should legally change her last name. Although gone for a long stretch following his introduction in the café near the start of the story, Drake's has much more to do during its second half, often competing against scene stealing support handled by William Bendix and Adolphe Menjou, who memorably played Durbin's father a decade earlier in 100 MEN AND A GIRL (Universal, 1937).

Formerly shown regularly on public broadcast stations in the 1980s, and displayed to video cassette in the 1990s, I'LL BE YOURS remained virtually forgotten until presented on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: November 20, 2016) as part of its Deanna Durbin double feature movie tribute. Clocked at 93 minutes, I'LL BE YOURS is good, not great, light comedy entertainment with some music and character types to move it along. (**1/2)

I watched William A. Seiter's 'I'll Be Yours' practically back to back with William Wyler's 'The Good Fairy' (1935) because I wanted to compare both pictures (based on the same play by Ferenc Molnar). While Wyler's film is generally rated higher I liked 'I'll Be Your's' better. 'The Good Fairy' is a delightful, funny film and Margaret Sullavan is great, but comedy was not her strong point. Also, she did not convince me as a seventeen or eighteen years old hyper-naive orphan. In 'I'll Be Yours', Seiter straightened out some of the more implausible bits of the plot (e.g. Louisa Ginglebuscher does not pick her lawyer from a phone book but gets his business card when she meets him in a restaurant). The female lead is less naive and and at least as charming as Sullavan. And finally, 'The Good Fairy' has no Deanna Durbin singing in it. That clinches it!

It appears that Universal was scrambling to get something in place for their golden meal ticket Deanna Durbin after she had her first baby and took some time off. After an hour, it is difficult to tell what the plot is. In the beginning, however, it seems predictable. A girl from a small town is going to NYC to make it big in the theater. During the movie, two scenes are borrowed from "First Love": Deanna showcasing her singing talents at a party that she sneaks into and then wins the affections of the millionaire who gave it, and then later on a dance with her prince charming the same way with her whirling around in a beautiful full gown. The worst thing they did to Deanna in this film was give her huge dark eyebrows which took something away from her natural beauty. I was glad to see that she said in her interview years later that this film was terrible.

This film is a good example of what can happen when a sure-fire box office star's movies get stereotyped. Gradually, the formula starts to get stale, the studio doesn't do anything to improve the situation, and the films deteriorate. No wonder Durbin described this movie as "terrible" in a rare interview years after she left Hollywood. It is. Besides Durbin, a bunch of good actors--William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou, Tom Drake etc.--are saddled with an amazingly trite script that insults even those willing to suspend disbelief. Fortunately, Durbin's voice is as glorious as ever, and her musical numbers at least provide respite. William Bendix has his moments, too. See it for Durbin's songs and fast-forward through the rest of it.

Deanna Durbin had such a fine singing voice that no matter how thin her screenplays were, they were always salvaged somehow whenever she was given an opportunity to sing. I'LL BE YOURS almost proves to be a contradiction to that statement. No matter how charming she is and how competent her co-stars are, there is no doubt after the first twenty minutes that she is wasting her time in a film saddled with a script that nobody can do much about that. The others try hard--William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou and Tom Drake--but nothing helps until Durbin sings.

Durbin tells a white lie to Adolphe Menjou and therein lies the pretext for a story involving her supposed "marriage" to Tom Drake (here sporting an unbecoming mustache). Needless to say, our heroine straightens everything out in a time for the finale and along the way sings a couple of songs, notably "Granada", which, as another viewer noted, is well worth the price of admission. Only Durbin's most ardent fans will appreciate this one.