Spring Parade **** (1940, Deanna Durbin, Robert Cummings, S Z Sakall, Mischa Auer) – Classic Movie Review 7743

Director Henry Koster’s 1940 Spring Parade is a sweet and entertaining featherweight romantic musical, in which Hungarian girl Ilonka Tolnay (Deanna Durbin) grows up to be the baker Latislav Teschek (S Z Sakall)’s helper in the Vienna of Emperor Franz Josef (Henry Stephenson). She falls for soldier drummer Corporal Harry Marten (Robert Cummings), who wants to be a composer.

Spring Parade is handled very lightly and easily by the expert cast and director Koster, and it is just right. It was nominated for four Oscars: Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Joseph A Valentine), Best Music, Score (Charles Previn), Best Music, Original Song (Waltzing in the Clouds by Robert Stolz [music] and Gus Kahn [lyrics]) and Best Sound, Recording (Bernard B Brown).

The songs include: ‘Blue Danube Dream’, ‘Waltzing in the Clouds’, ‘It’s Foolish but It’s Fun’, and ‘In a Spring Parade’. Based on the story by Ernst Marischka, it is an American remake of director Géza von Bolváry’s Frühjahrsparade (1934).

Also in the cast are Mischa Auer, Henry Stephenson, Anne Gwynne, Billy Lenhart, Kenneth Brown, Walter Catlett, Allyn Joslyn, Peggy Moran, Reginald Denny, Franklin Pangborn, Edward Gargan, Wade Botelier and Samuel S Hinds.

Spring Parade is directed by Henry Koster, runs 89 minutes, is made and released by Universal, is written by Bruce Manning and Felix Jackson, based on the story by Ernst Marischka, is shot in Black-and-White by Joseph A Valentine, is produced by Joe Pasternak, is scored by Charles Previn, Robert Stolz and Hans J Salter, is designed by Richard H Riedel and is choreographed by Larry Ceballos.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7743

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