Wed 29 Sep 2010
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: IT STARTED WITH EVE (1941).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[14] Comments
IT STARTED WITH EVE. Universal, 1941. Deanna Durbin, Charles Laughton, Robert Cummings, Guy Kibbee, Margaret Tallichet, Catharine Doucet, Walter Catlett, Charles Coleman, Mary Gordon, Sig Arno, Mantan Moreland. Screenplay by Norman Krasna and Leo Townsend; cinematography by Rudolph Mate; music director, Charles Previn. Director: Henry Koster. Shown at Cinevent 42, Columbus OH, May 2010.
Tycoon Jonathan Reynolds (Charles Laughton) is expected to die momentarily, but when his playboy son Johnny (Robert Cummings) arrives at his bedside, Reynolds asks for his son’s fiancee Gloria Pennington (Margaret Tallichet), whom he’s never met.
The distraught son, unable to locate her at her hotel, persuades hatcheck girl Anne Terry (Durbin) to substitute for Gloria in what he believes to be his father’s final moments. Of course, the father recovers and is delighted with his son’s choice. And the plot is off and heating up rapidly.
Durbin is, as always, a perky delight, Laughton is wonderful as the irascible father, and Cummings is bearable. (I’ve never forgiven him for being the major casting flaw in King’s Row.)
But it’s Walter Catlett, as Reynolds’ frantic doctor, who walks off with the comedy honors. Durbin sings prettily and she and Laughton dance a mean conga in this very entertaining comedy.
September 30th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Great performance by Laughton whose comic skills were too often overshadowed by his dramatic ability. Maurice Chevalier played the part in the remake, I’D RATHER BE RICH with Sandra Dee and Andy Williams.
This may be Durbin’s best role other than LADY ON A TRAIN.
Have to say I thought Cumming’s was good in KING’S ROW, Betty Field’s performance was much more of a problem.
September 30th, 2010 at 1:33 am
I have to agree with Walter about Bob Cummings, David. I loved him in LOVE THAT BOB (AKA THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW). But he was waaay too light-weight for my taste in drama.
I saw his performance in SABOTEUR laughed at by an audience in a large Hitchcock class at UCLA back in the late 60s-early 70s.
(The only other time I ever saw such derision toward an actor was at Robert Williams in PLATINUM BLONDE in a Capra class)
September 30th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Love this film. Laughton seems to be having an absolute ball with the role, and it seems a shame that he didn’t do more comedy (check out his splendid performance as the dictatorial, drunken father in David Lean’s HOBSON’S CHOICE). Cummings is good in this movie, but you’re right about his lack of gravitas. I also feel that if he went face to face in a fight with Debbie Reynolds, I wouldn’t bet against Reynolds winning.
This is the only Durbin movie that I’ve ever seen, and she is very likeable. However, I have to say that I never realised that her singing voice was so deep. The first time she started singing, I burst out laughing!
September 30th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Robert Cummings, I think, is a notch above bearable in this one, but I’ve always thought when he wasn’t playing a comedy role, he was in way over his head.
Charles Laughton is perfect, in my opinion, but I’ve never seen in a part when he wasn’t perfect, no what what kind of role it was.
Bradstreet, I don’t know if this is the song Deanna sang that so caught your attention, but it’s a long clip, eight minutes or so, that displays all three actors well. Plus a song at the beginning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ixkQRxvbDs&NR=1
September 30th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
I’m not making any claims for Cummings as a dramatic actor, though I wonder if his portrayal in SABOTEUR would have gotten laughs if he wasn’t best known today for LOVE THAT BOB?
His reviews for KING’S ROW at the time were very good, as were his reviews for SABOTEUR — good enough Hitch used him again in DIAL M FOR MURDER. Hitch chose him for SABOTEUR because he bore a superficial resembalence to Robert Donat (the same light charm, though obviously not as good an actor)since SABOTEUR is yet another remake of THE 39 STEPS (he finally got it right with NORTH BY NORTHWEST).
His best dramatic roles are likely that TWILIGHT ZONE episode where he plays the pilot reliving his wartime crash in the desert, and John Farrow’s YOU CAME ALONG with Lizbeth Scott (remade with Cary Grant as KISS THEM FOR ME) where he plays a fighter pilot on a war bond tour with a terrible secret. Catch that one some time before you write off his acting skills completely.
Cumming’s must have thought it was his best role too since his characters name in the film (Bob Collins) was the name of his character on THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW.
And he is exceptionally good in William Dieterle’s film noir THE ACCUSSED with Loretta Young.
Though granted it is hard to see him as anything but LOVE THAT BOB and the light roles he played for the rest of his career.
But again, no one is suggesting he was anything but a good light comic actor — but then this one is a comedy, and considering the remake starred Andy Williams …
October 1st, 2010 at 12:59 am
Bradstreet
From what I know about Debbie Reynolds I’d lay odds on her in a head to head with Clint Eastwood much less Bob Cummings. I suspect half the actors in Hollywood wouldn’t be a match for her.
On the other hand I seem to recall Cumming’s had a black belt in something or other however light weight his acting skills. You never can tell about these things, after all Bob Hope boxed professionally as Packy East and had a decent record while John Wayne lost every professional match he fought as Mickey Morrison.
Of course that has nothing to do with gravitas or presence on screen, but some of those lightweight actors could fool you. Ray Milland, for instance, was an expert in hand to hand combat and with a bayonet.
October 1st, 2010 at 10:10 am
Cummings won an Emmy for the original Television production of 12 ANGRY MEN in the role Fonda played in the film.
October 1st, 2010 at 11:35 am
You’re right, Ray, but I had to look it up, because I sure didn’t remember it. “Twelve Angry Men” was actually an episode on Studio One in Hollywood (1948), which was a long time before I was watching TV.
If it weren’t for his (very successful) TV series, such as Love That Bob, My Living Doll, and seemingly endless appearances in a like vein on Gidget Grows Up, Love American Style, and so on, his image might be a lot more substantial today.
October 1st, 2010 at 1:25 pm
David:
I know what you mean about appearance and reality with actors. I watched THE SAINT IN NEW YORK again recently, and was struck by how young and boyish Louis Hayward looked. Of all the actors that I have seen in the part, he was perhaps the slightest looking physically, and yet he joined the Army at the outbreak of WWII, and was decorated.
Equally, I read recently that the serious, scholarly, dour actor Paul Scofield, famous for his serious stage and film roles, was off-stage fond of bawdy humour and practical jokes.
I wonder if Cummings was simply unlucky in never getting exactly the right part to show off his dramatic potential. After all, we tend to remember Robert Walker from STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, and perhaps forget that for about 99% of his film career he played ‘the boy next door’. I went back and watched DIAL M FOR MURDER, and I have to say that Cummings is rather better than I remembered him. There is much more steel in the performance, and it struck me that it would have been interesting to see what he would have done in the role of the murderer. The stage version was revived in the ’90s, and Peter Davison (best known for nice guy roles such as Tristan in ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL) was excellent in the Ray Milland part.
October 1st, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I saw Deanna Durbin in a mystery film, Lady on a Train, I think(Dan Duryea was in it too). She sang about three times as I recall, including an odd bit where her father made her sing a Christmas song to him over the phone. Aside from the singing I enjoyed the film!
October 1st, 2010 at 5:00 pm
LADY ON A TRAIN does indeed feature Dan Duryea and Ralph Bellamy — as brothers along with David Bruce as the leading man and a cast including George Couloris, Edward Everett Horton, and William Frawley, and is based on Leslie Charteris story. It’s an offbeat comedy noir, but a first class mystery puzzle.
Durbin was also good in the noirish CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY based on Somerset Maugham’s novel (STRANGER IN PARIS) and directed by Robert Siodmak (PHANTOM LADY) with Gene Kelly excellent as her sociopathic husband.
You don’t think of Durbin in terms of film noir, but she’s in two good ones, and gives credible performances in both. HOLIDAY is too little known and well worth looking up (I don’t think it is on DVD but it has played on TCM), and one a lot of mystery/suspense fans might miss because of the title.
Gale Sondergard and Gladys George are also in it with Richard Whorf, and it features Kelly doing a nice little rendition of “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year.” It’s something different for both Kelly and Durbin, and both rise to the occasion with Kelly really chilling as the charming killer.
What they were thinking with that title is anybody’s guess, but if you get a chance do catch it, it’s an obscure noir film, but really a good one with a good screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz.
October 2nd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Curt
I didn’t realize from your earlier comment that you didn’t care for Deanna Durbin’s singing, or perhaps her singing style (light pop to near operatic) only that her deep voice took you by surprise. (But wasn’t she a soprano?)
In any case, if I’m reading you right, you may be in the minority about this!
— Steve
October 2nd, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Steve
Make it a minority of two, because I’m not a big fan of Durbin’s light operatic voice, though oddly enough I like many of her films.
Strangly enough we owe Durbin and Shirly Temple though for one of the great films of all time. Louis B. Mayer was desperate to have his own Temple or Durbin so he promoted Judy Garland, and when he couldn’t get Temple or Durbin cast Judy — as Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Another of those serendipitous accidents of fate like Cagney turning down THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD or Raft refusing THE MALTESE FALCON.
October 2nd, 2010 at 11:30 pm
A very entertaining movie which was one of Durbin’s best vehicles. Henry Koster’s excellent direction gives this movie 5 Stars.
DEANNA DURBIN DEVOTEES