Spring Parade
Directed by Henry Koster
Screenplay by Bruce Manning and Felix Jackson; Original story by Ernst Marischka
1940/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Tagline: LIVE, LAUGH and LOVE! With a Dancing, Romancing Deanna![/box]
I’ve seen better Deanna Durbin movies but this is OK, too.
Ilonka (Durbin) is a peasant from a market village who comes into town to sell a goat. She buys a fortune from a gypsy. The fortune predicts that she will find love in Vienna, her future husband will be an artist, she will get help from a great and good person and love will hit her with a stick. Starting with her unconscious trip to Vienna on the back of a hay cart on which she has fallen asleep the whole fortune eventually comes true but not without the full quota of misunderstandings. With Robert Cummings as her true love, Mischa Auer as a prospective customer, Henry Stephenson as the Emperor Franz Josef, and S. Z. Sakall as Ilonka’s baker/benefactor.
I’m not a huge Robert Cummings fan and I found him particularly grating in this movie. The songs are also nothing to write home about. Everything else is fine – Durban is in good form and much of the comedy works.
Spring Parade was nominated for Academy Awards in the following categories: Best Black-and-White Cinematography; Best Sound Recording; Best Original Song (“Waltzing in the Clouds”) and Best Score.
Robert Cummings and Deanna Durbin singing “Waltzing in the Clouds”
