Three Smart Girls
Directed by Henry Koster
Written by Adele Comandini
1936/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing
[box] Mrs. Lyons: Believe me, Donna, ten million at the altar is worth twenty million in the bush![/box]
Deanna Durbin’s feature film debut is an entertaining, if predictable, light comedy..
Kay, Joan, and Penny Craig live with their divorced mother in Switzerland. When the newspapers run a headline that their millionaire father (Charles Winninger) intends to remarry, it makes their mother cry. So the enterprising young ladies head for New York determined to break up the marriage. When the girls meet their father’s gold-digging fiancée Donna (Binnie Barnes), they are even more eager to interfere. So they hire a penniless count (Misha Auer) to alienate Donna’s affections. Along the way, Kay and Joan find love and Penny sings a few songs. With Ray Milland as a monied aristocrat and Alice Brady as Donna’s mother.
Somehow, Deanna Durbin’s trained soprano voice doesn’t match her girl-next-door charm and comedic talents but I always enjoy her. The movie, too, was fun with a top-notch cast of character actors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFRm7c4X3NA
Trailer
