Customer Reviews

Spring Parade

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This wonderful and long-negleted film full of charm and happiness is one of Deanna Durbin's best. The mood is lighter than air in an original story by Ernst Marischka adapted to the screen for producer Joe Pasternak by Bruce Manning and Felix Jackson.

Directed by Henry Koster, who helmed many of Deanna Durbin's best films, this delicious pastry has a great cast and three memorable songs from Robert Stolz and Gus Kahn. Deanna and Anne Gwynne both look lovely in gowns by Vera West and the musical direction of Charles Previn puts the icing on the cake for a fun film to watch.

Deanna is a peasant girl from the mountains on her way to the fair to sell her goat. Ilonka (Durbin) haggles with Mischa Auer over the price and before it's all over, they have a dance to decide who will prevail that is truly fun. It is the six cents she spends on a fortune card that shows the way, however, telling her she will find romance in Vienna and love will hit her with a stick!

Ilonka has no intention of traveling to Vienna and thinks she's been had until she finds herself on a hay cart driven by baker S.Z. Sakall. His destination, of course, is Vienna, and Ilonka begins to believe there might indeed be love in her future.

There is a terrific scene full of magic where Ilonka, a simple girl from the country, sees the lights of Vienna for the first time. The baker from Poland, whose only dream is to be the official baker for the Emperor, takes Ilonka into his shop and home along with his two nephews (Butch and Buddy) and daughter Jenny (Anne Gwynne).

When a mix-up occurs regarding a note from a young Army drummer meant for the engaged Jenny, Ilonka finds herself falling in love with the brash Harry (Robert Cummings). His dream to compose music fits right in with her fortune, which says he will be an artist. The scene at the wine garden where they dine and dance to "Waltzing In the Clouds" is what the movies are all about.

There are the usual romantic complications and Ilonka will have to charm the wise Emperor (Henry Stephenson) to make it all right again. Before you get there, however, there are charming scenes like a kiss behind a pillar in the moonlight, and Ilonka getting hit in the head with a stick! It's all just sheer and delightful fluff.

Bob Cummings does everything right here, as usual, and Deanna Durbin shines in a film best described as simply, happy. Songs like "Waltzing In the Clouds," "It's Foolish but It's Fun," and "When April Sings" add some sparkling musical moments to the story. A trip to the baker may be in order after watching this sweet confection. An absolute must for Deanna's fans.

Spring Parade is a simple, sweet vehicle for Deanna Durbin to showcase her vocal talents and sweet personality. She does so winningly. She plays a Hungarian peasant girl with business savvy and a goat to sell. At the market she comes across a fortune teller who sells her a fortune telling her that she will marry an artist and several details about him, including that the two will meet in Vienna. She is angry she spent the money on such a ridiculous prophesy, but when she accidentally hitches a ride on a carriage headed to Vienna, she changes her mind. Slowly, everything begins to come true with some strange occurrences along the way.

There are several pretty songs in the film which Durbin's voice compliments beautifully. Her personality really makes the film interesting and fun to watch.

DEANNA DURBIN - "THE SONGBIRD OF WINNIPEG" and daughter of parents from England.

Thank goodness Universal were saved from financial ruin when they gave Deanna a career from 1936 to 1950 as a true "STAR" in the "Golden Days of Hollywood".
It is such a pleasure that the Studios saved her films and original recordings that we now have her films on DVD, and records on CD, to remind us of the days when Deanna Durbin was truly the world's Sweetheart of Song.
Deanna is still the major influence behind many of the great sopranos of today like Renee Fleming and Kiri te Kanawa. For example - Dame Sister Mary Leo (Kiri's singing teacher) was so taken with Deanna's "technique", that she trained her students to sing in this way.
This film "SPRING PARADE" is typical of the uncomplicated life before the war, and Deanna plays the part of a plain but "very life-loving" girl from rural Austria who manages to make it to meet "Royalty" in Vienna. This is where we get to hear her beautiful voice singing to Johan Strauss II music of the "Viennese Waltz" and the "Blue Danube" - before the days of electronic trickery in pop songs - !
Deanna's acting is also very natural but slick and enjoyable in this film. Thoroughly recommended to all who love a good lively well acted story with excellent vocals to beautiful melodies.

I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid when my Dad took me to see it. I enjoyed it immensely and it brought back many memories. The company I ordered it from thru Amazon was extremely fast in sending it to me. It is a good quality DVD.

I first saw "Spring Parade" in 1941 as a small lad. I liked it so well, that I persuaded one or the other or my parents to take me back, six more times, while it was still playing in the local theatres, over the next few months.

Then it was unavailable, and the decades rushed by, with only my distant memories. Yet, each of my four sons, grewing up in the 1970s & 1980s, into the 1990s, always knew that a movie called :"Spring Parade" was their Daddy's all time favorite.

Well over half a century, I went to the Movies, on average, at least twice a week. When Spring Parade became available, finally in DVD, I viewed it again, expecting to enjoy it, but expecting also to see flaws, more apparent to 60+ year maturer judgment, than a lad of seven. I might have noticed a few very small ones, but the movie fully measured up to my memories. It is still my favorite movie--reconfirmed by six more viewings since obtaining the DVD, last fall. I have now had the pleasure of giving copies to others in the family.

Spring Parade is not "Gone With The Wind," not the John Wayne "Alamo," Laughton's "Mutiny On The Bounty," nor Anthony Hopkins "Silence of The Lambs." But for the sheer happy pleasure it gives, it has few if any peers. This is the one movie, where one realizes the otherwise unrealized potential of the young Deanna Durbin, but hers is not the only shining performance in this true gem.

Spring Parade

At about age twelve I saw this film when it first came out. It so enchanted me, I never forgot it. Vienna, Old World Charm,its customs,dress,its music delighted me. At twelve I had not yet traveled or lived in Europe, learned any other languages, met any of their speakers or heard much classical music. I was at the brink of those things that would fill my life. Now, having lived much of my life in that world, the film no longer has quite the same appeal. Nevertheless, I feel fulfilled at having my memory of the film refreshed and will enjoy watching it again from time to time.

I don't know that Deanna Durbin dabbled in the operetta all that much, but the few times that she did, it always worked out well, what with her sweet soprano meshing seamlessly to that genre. SPRING PARADE, which came out in 1940, clings to the operetta tropes: the near fairy tale setting, the lighthearted - just about frothy - vibe to it. I half-anticipated Maurice Chevalier popping up for a cameo (he didn't). And, as ever, Durbin's singing is aces.

When perky Austrian peasant girl Ilonka Tolnay (Durbin) handed over her six pennies to have her fortune read, she should've asked for change back. What she got from the shifty soothsayer sounds fairly farfetched: that Ilonka is fated to marry an artist whom she'll meet in Old Vienna, never mind that Ilonka had never been to Vienna in all her life. "But be careful," warns the fortune teller, "true love will hit you with a stick." But later on that day, Ilonka falls asleep in a hay wagon and wakes up as it rolls into the outskirts of, yes, Old Vienna.

There, Ilonka Tolnay is taken in by a kindly old baker (played by kindly old S.Z. Sakall) and while working in his bakery shop, she meets Harry Marten (Robert Cummings), a soldier drummer who unveils a talent for composing music, except that his commanding officer frowns on such frivolous exhibitions. And what's an operetta without some royalty getting drawn into the thick of things? The old Emperor gets involved when Ilonka, who is a no-nonsense go-getter, sneaks one of Harry's compositions into one of the Emperor's pastries. You can imagine the ensuing furor, with accusations being hurled about of attempts to poison the Emperor.

Lots of laughs in this one, a sense of merriness just permeating the screen. And plenty of moments to adore Deanna Durbin and bask in her warm soprano. Songs include "When April Sings," Waltzing in the Clouds," "It's Foolish But It's Fun," and "Blue Danube Dream." Somewhere, composer/lyricist Gus Kahn has a happy smile. And, yes, somewhere in the film, Deanna Durbin gets clobbered with a stick. Enter, true love.

Pleased to receive this hard to find title, not perfect picture quality but as advertised.
Quick service, honest appraisal, thanks!