Mad About Music

Mad About Music
Universal, 1938, B/W, 96 minutes, ***½
Released February, 1938

Gloria's (Deanna) mother (Gail Patrick) is a big movie star. She and Gloria's father are separated, and she has sent Deanna to an all-girls school in Switzerland, because it just wouldn't look right to her public for a glamorous movie star to have a fourteen-year-old daughter. Deanna has manufactured a father for the benefit of the other girls at the school, and when Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall) shows up, she grabs him and pretends he's her imaginary father. Herbert Marshall is perfect for the role, and the film is a lot of fun. Deanna sings "I Love to Whistle," and "Chapel Bells."

This is a really cute film. Deanna is bubbly and bouncy and a lot of fun. Her story about her big game hunter father gets bigger and bigger, and when Herbert Marshall comes along, he has to really think on his feet to help Deanna out of her troubles.

Producer: Charles R. Rogers
Associate Producer: Joe Pasternak
Director: Norman Taurog
Assistant Director: Frank Shaw
Screen Play by: Bruce Manning, Felix Jackson
Original Story by: Marcella Burke, Frederic Kohner
Musical Director: Charles Previn
"A Serenade to the Stars," "Chapel Bells," "I Love to Whistle"
Music and Lyrics by Jimmy McHugh, Harold Adamson
Vocal Supervision: Charles E. Henderson
Orchestrations: Frank Skinner
Art Director: Jack Otterson
Associate: John Ewing
Gowns: Vera West
Miss Patrick's Gowns: Edith Head
Sound: Joseph Lapis, Bernard B. Brown
Director of Photography: Joseph Valentine
Film Editor: Ted Kent

Awards: Academy Award Nominations for Best Original Story (Marcella Burke and Frederick Kohner), Best Cinematography (Joseph Valentine), Best Score (Charles Previn and Frank Skinner), Best Interior Decoration (Jack Otterson)

Cast: Deanna Durbin [Gloria Harkinson], Herbert Marshall [Richard Todd], Gail Patrick [Gwen Taylor], Arthur Treacher [Tripps], William Frawley [Dusty Turner], Marcia Mae Jones [Olga], Helen Parrish [Felice], Jackie Moran [Tommy], Elizabeth Risdon [Annette Fusenot], Nana Bryant [Louise Fusenot], Christian Rub [Pierre], Charles Peck [Henry], Sid Grauman [Himself], Cappy Barra's Harmonica Ensemble [Themselves], Additional Cast: Joan Tree [Patricia], Franklin Pangborn [Hotel Manager], Bert Roach [Fat Man], Martha O'Driscoll [Pretty Girl], The Vienna Boys Choir [Themselves]

Musical Program: [0:05] I Love to Whistle (sung by Deanna Durbin and School Girls while bicycling); [0:22] Ave Maria (sung by Deanna Durbin and The Vienna Boys Choir); [0:50] Chapel Bells (sung by Deanna Durbin accompanied by Herbert Marshall at the piano onscreen); [1:01] excerpt from finale of 1812 Overture (Cappy Barra's Harmonica Ensemble); [1:03] I Love to Whistle (sung and played by Cappy Barra's Harmonica Ensemble at party, joined by Deanna Durbin and audience); [1:10] I Love to Whistle (sung by Deanna Durbin, joined by train passengers); [1:21] Serenade to the Stars (excerpt sung by Deanna Durbin); [1:33] Serenade to the Stars (sung by Deanna Durbin)