IT'S A DATE

It's a Date
Universal, 1940, B/W, 103 minutes, ***½
Released March, 1940

Pamela's (Deanna Durbin) mother (Kay Francis) is a big star in the theater, and Pamela is following in her mother's footsteps. Unbeknownst to Pamela, her mother is promised the lead in a new show being written by Carl Ober (S. Z. Sakall). Pamela forces herself on the unsuspecting Ober and convinces him that she should get a part in the show - at least a small part, like maybe the maid. But after a tryout Ober offers her the lead! Deanna is ecstatic!

Traveling to Hawaii to meet her mother, Pamela meets an older man (Walter Pidgeon) and falls in love with him. When she arrives in Hawaii, she introduces the man to her widowed mother, and they fall in love. So, Pamela and her mother are not only unwittingly competing for the same part in the new show, but they are also competing for the same man! Musical highlights include Deanna's rendition of "Musetta's Waltz" and her moving rendition of "Loch Lomond."

This film was remade in 1949 as Nancy Goes to Rio, starring Jane Powell and Ann Sothern.

Producer: Joe Pasternak
Directed by: William A. Seiter
Assistant Director: Frank Shaw
Screen Play: Norman Krasna
Original Story: Jane Hall, Frederick Kohner, Ralph Block
Musical Director: Charles Previn
Orchestrations: Frank Skinner
"Love Is All" by Pinky Tomlin and Harry Tobias
"It Happened in Kaloha" by Ralph Freed and Frank Skinner
"Rhythm of the Islands" by Eddie Cherkose, Jacques Press and Leon Beloasco
"Gypsy Lullaby" Lyrics by Ralph Freed
Song Score: various
Art Direction: Jack Otterson
Associate: Martin Obzina
Set Decorations: R. A. Gausman
Gowns: Vera West
Sound Supervisor: Bernard B. Brown Technician: Joseph Lapis
Director of Photography: Joseph Valentine
Film Editor: Bernard W. Burton

Cast: Deanna Durbin [Pamela Drake], Kay Francis [Georgia Drake], Walter Pidgeon [John Arlen], Eugene Pallette [Governor Allen], Henry Stephenson [Captain Andrew], Cecilia Loftus [Sarah Frankenstein], Samuel S. Hinds [Sidney Simpson], Lewis Howard [Freddie Miller], S. Z. Sakall [Carl Ober], Fritz Feld [Headwaiter], Virginia Brissac [Miss Holden], Romaine Callender [Evans], Joseph King [First Mate Kelly], Mary Kelley [Governor's Wife], Eddie Polo [Quarter-Master], Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians [Themselves], Additional Cast: Charles Lane [Horner], John Arledge [Newcomer], Leon Belasco [Captain], Anna Demetrio [Cook], Eddie Acuff [Ship's Steward], John Day [Sleepy-Eyed Blonde], Fay McKenzie, Linda Deane, Phyllis Ruth, Virginia Engels [Young Girls], Mary Shannon [Wardrobe Mistress], Mark Anthony [Officer]

Musical Program: [0:02] Gypsy Lullaby (sung by Kay Francis and Chorus); [0:18] Love Is All (sung by Deanna Durbin); [0:26] Loch Lomond (sung by Deanna Durbin); [0:47] Sailor's Hornpipe (excerpt played by Orchestra as ship enters the harbor at Hawaii); [1:03] It Happened in Kaloha (played by Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians, vocal by Randy Oness); [1:18] Rhythm of the Islands (played and sung by Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians); [1:28] Musetta's Waltz (referred to as "Musetta's Street Song" in the film, from the opera LA BOHÉME, sung by Deanna Durbin at the Governor's luau); [1:40] Ave Maria (sung by Deanna Durbin and Chorus); Instrumental arrangements of Aloha Oe, Love Is All, Rhythm of the Islands and It Happened in Kaloha are used in the background scrore