I’ll Be Yours ** (1947, Deanna Durbin, Tom Drake, William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou, Walter Catlett, Franklin Pangborn) – Classic Movie Review 7949

Deanna Durbin stars in the 1947 musical romantic comedy I’ll Be Yours as small-town young woman Louise Ginglebusher, who tries to help young lawyer George Prescott (Tom Drake) by getting him a job with rich meat-packing mogul J Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou).

Director William A Seiter tries to remake Preston Sturges’s screenplay for William Wyler’s 1935 movie The Good Fairy (from Ferenc Molnar’s play) as a musical vehicle for Durbin, but it is sluggish and none of the good cast, including William Bendix, Walter Catlett and Franklin Pangborn, is at their best.

Durbin, has four songs, and her performance is only OK, and the film is not a patch on the classic original, and colour would be welcome, though Menjou is first rate.

The original poster helps out with the song titles: ‘Deanna sings “SARI WALTZ”, “GRANADA”, “BRAHM’S LULLABY” and “IT’S DREAM TIME”. 

The film’s producer Felix Jackson adapts the 1935 screenplay The Good Fairy by Preston Sturges.

Also in the cast are William Trenk, Joan Shawlee, Patricia Alphin, William Brooks, John Hamilton, Cyril Delevanti, Joseph Granby, Ida Moore, Stanley Price, George Chandler, Richard Abbott, Nancy Brinckman, Laura Treadwell, Mike Stokey, Buster Slaven, Tom Skinner, Lorin Raker, Charles F Miller, Willene Luckett, Hallene Hill, Ethyl May Halls, Beatrice Gray, Bess Flowers, Tom Dillon and Dudley Dickerson.

I’ll Be Yours is directed by William A Seiter, runs 93 minutes, is made by Universal International Pictures, is released by Universal, is written by Felix Jackson, adapted from the 1935 screenplay The Good Fairy by Preston Sturges, and the work of Jane Hinton (who translated and adapted the original play), is shot in black and white by Hal Mohr, is produced by Felix Jackson, is scored by Frank Skinner, and is designed by John B Goodman.

Speaking in 1983, Durbin rated as ‘terrible’ the quality of her last four vehicles: I’ll Be Yours (1947), Something in the Wind (1947), Up in Central Park (1948) and For the Love of Mary (1948), after which, at the age of 27, she walked away from the movies for ever.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7949

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com