Customer Reviews

I'll Be Yours [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To escape a philandering millionaire, Deanna tells him that her husband is very jealous. The only trouble is, she isn't married! Tom Drake plays thhe supposed husband and is not very happy to find out she lied about him. The movie is delightful, not to mention funny. It is one of our favorite Durbin films.

This sweet and old-fashioned offering from the lovely Deanna Durbin is very much a film of another time. A simple and liesurely paced film about a small town girl going to the big city shortly after her father's passing, there is a sweet innocence to both the humor and the love story that should not be confused as lightweight. Based on a screenplay by the great Preston Sturges, the story really gets going slowly and Deanna carries the first portion of this film on her considerable charm. By the end, you'll be smiling, glad you stuck around for a film that remains true to its intent.

Deanna is Louise Dinglebusher (!), a girl from the small town of Cobleskil not sure what to expect from the city of New York. Eating on a budget after landing a job as an usherette through a fellow Cobleskil alum, she meets and haggles with waiter William Bendix about what to eat and how much it costs and the two become friends. It is through the amusing and sometimes exasperated Bendix she meets George W. Prescott (Tom Drake), a young lawyer who is poor because he is honest.

When Bendix gets Louise into a swank party, a wealthy tycoon, played nicely by Adolph Menjou, sets his sights on the pretty Louise after she sings the magnificent "Granada" and is a big hit. To stop his advances she invents a marriage to the only other person she knows in New York, George W. Prescott. There are amusing complications from her white lie, and of course, a real romance between the two ensues.

As George begins to fall in love with Louise, so do we. One of the nicest scenes in any Durbin film is the one of she and George rowing down the lake with other couples as she sings "It's Dreamtime." Both this scene and that song alone are worth any price of admission. The ending is lovely and sweet, like the entire film. It is to the credit of everyone involved in the film that no artificial fireworks were created to "jazz" it up. The old-fashioned tone of this Durbin classic is kept through the entire hour and a half.

This film is full of quiet charm and a must have for Deanna's fans. Others in the mood for something very old-fashioned and nostalgic will enjoy this as well. Make this film yours today.

This was my first Deanna Durbin movie ever and I loved it! Her gorgeous voice blew me away, especially when she sang "Granada." I'm not a big opera fan, but after listening to Deanna, I've a new appreciation for it. She looks very pretty in this movie, too, and Tom Drake is perfect as the modest young lawyer who falls in love with her. Excellent supporting cast, wardrobe, and music!!

She sings "Granada" and it is glorious. There is also "It's Dreamland" on the lake with moonlight. Deanna is just a lovely young woman to watch as she goes through her paces.

The story is fluff but William Bendix is fun as usual, and I even liked Adolph Menjou in this role of the tycoon trying to seduce our girl, and he is not a favorite of mine usually. Of course, Bill and Tom Drake (as the love interest) come to the rescue, but Deanna has them all under control.

All in all, I'm glad I purchased this video and will enjoy watching it again and again.

Deanna Durbin, one of Universal's biggest and highest-paid stars of the 1940s, definitely deserved better than this, although she does manage to shine in a few scenes (especially when singing "It's Dreamtime"). Everything in the film, from the dialogue, to the comedy, and even the songs, seem average at best (which, sadly, was all too common in her later films). Adolphe Menjou, William Bendix, and especially Tom Drake do well in supporting roles. All in all, not one of Deanna's best films, although definitely worth the price of the video for fans of the divine Miss Durbin!

I ordered through Amazon.com and the person who sent it to me was good and timely in sending with great packaging and promt delierly I rate her 5 star rating. The movie was not new, but was in excellant condition, Thanks AMY.

A musical remake of an earlier Universal property (The Good Fairy), I'LL BE YOURS casts Deanna Durbin as Luisa Ginglebusher, a young woman who journeys from her small town of Cobleskill into the hustle of New York. There, she lands a job as an usherette at the Buckingham Movie Palace, and befriends wisecracking Café waiter Wechsberg (William Bendix); but no-one ever told Luisa about the pitfalls of her job - namely fending off the unwanted advances of older men. Luisa invents a "husband" in such situations, but the ploy backfires when one of Luisa's most ardent pursuers, meatpacking millionaire J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou), proposes that he should compensate Luisa's husband financially. Suddenly, Luisa has the ideal way to assist her phantom husband, the impoverished lawyer George Prescott (Tom Drake), but what will happen when Luisa and George truly DO fall in love?

Previously filmed in 1935 as "The Good Fairy" starring Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall (and based on the Ferenc Molnar stage play), I'LL BE YOURS is a competant but inferior relation to the earlier film, which had a charming European flavour and a sparkly screenplay by Preston Sturges to keep it floating along. I'LL BE YOURS does draw on both "The Good Fairy" and the Sturges treatment (which I suppose Universal still controlled the rights on), but the adaption of it by Felix Jackson and Jane Hinton somehow omits all the magic of "The Good Fairy". Robbing the plot of it's Budapest locale takes away from the "Neverland" appeal of the story; and having Luisa and the lawyer meet (and "meet cute", at that) quite early in the proceedings also makes the story a lot more predictable.

Deanna enlivens the proceedings with a stack of musical numbers ("Granada", "It's Dream Time", "Sari Waltz" and "Lullaby"), Tom Drake is a handsome screen partner, though looking at his "goatee", one can almost smell the spirit-glue; and William Bendix adds a good deal of comedy to cut through the treacly aspects of the plot. Travis Banton designed the costumes - including two outrageous ballgowns for Deanna and her teeny-weeny waist.

For serious Deanna fans only.