It's a Date (1940)

Why so much hype?

Simply A Masterpiece

A different way of telling a story

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I only wanted to DVR and watch It's a Date because Cissy Loftus was in it. Cecilia "Cissy" Loftus was born in Scotland in 1876, and was a great star of music halls, vaudeville plus stages of London and Broadway. This was all before World War One. She was London's second Peter Pan in 1905 (you already know that I love everything Peter Pan). Cissy got married and had a child, and later a very painful divorce, and I imagine because of that and World War One her theatrical prospects may have all but dimmed out. She became alcoholic and drug-dependent, poor thing. This is all true. I still love her very much. As a theatrical and film historian, I have researched and seen pictures of her as a very young woman, and I think that she is very beautiful, both inside and out. She appeared in all kinds of plays and shows, plus silent films. Cissy made some sound films, including some near the end of her life, such as both 1940's It's a Date and The Blue Bird. She only made three films after these two, then passed away quite soon in 1943, of a heart attack from the effects of alcoholism and other drug use. My research says that she died in poverty, with friends paying her final expenses. Was she desperate for money when she made It's a Date? She was no longer an ingenue or a star, and her role in this film was as a wise, old granny/maid character who knitted in the background. Maybe she wanted Walter Pidgeon for herself, but she knew that character parts don't get hooked up with leading men. She was only about 64 when she made this film, but looked made up to be around 84, lol. Deanna: a better voice (beautiful high soprano) than Judy G. Prettier than Judy G., but IMO D. got thrown under the bus in order for Judy's career to flourish. IMO same for Shirley T. In all three cases, their careers fizzled out sooner or later. I also feel that the proverbial casting couch became the place to make or break their futures, and that some succumbed to it while others refused. I am speaking in code here (can you spell Hays Code?). You get my drift. Refuse, and your career is over. I loved all of Deanna's songs here. Yes, IMO her voice was so divine. Great to see all of her supporting cast. 10/10

With my dad having picked up a DVD boxset titled "The Complete Deanna Durbin Collection" a few months ago,I decided to take a look on Durbin's IMDb page,to too the reaction that her films have received.Taking a look at Deanna's page,I was amazed to discover that she appeared to be credited for more titles then what was contained in the set.Taking my time to look down the list,due to wanting to make sure that I had not made a mistake,I was shocked to discover that the "complete" boxset had actually left out 2 of Durbin's feature film titles.Franticly searching round for one of the 2 titles,in the hope of being able to pick at least 1 of them up in time for my dad to receive it as a Christmas present,I sadly found myself almost giving up,due to the only edition that I could find for one of Durbin's "left out" titles (It's A Date),being a very expensive Video.Deciding to take one last shot at tracking it down,I decided to E-Mail a DVD seller about the title,who ended happily catching me by surprise,by revealing that she had actually just recently tracked down the movie,which led to me excitingly getting ready to go on a date with Deanna Durbin.The plot:Prepairing to stage their next play,theatre director Sidney Simpson and writer Carl Ober decide to offer the main role to leading actress Georgia Drake,after witnessing Georgia deliver a stunning performance in her latest production.Taking advantage of Simpson and Ober's full attention being currently on her mum,Pamela Drake decides to invite both of them to see her current stage production,in the hope that they will be able to help her get on to bigger and better things.Attending the play half-heartedly,Sidney and Carl soon find themselves left completely speechless,after Pamela delivers a breathtakingly elegant performance.Feeling that she would be a much better fit for the lead role than her mum (a casting decision that Pamela does not know about),Ober and Simpson decide to offer Pamela the lead role.Astonished to get such an offer,Drake gladly accepts their invitation.Heading out to visit her mother on a sea crew,Pamela finds herself falling for a fellow passenger called John Arlen,who joins Drake in her visit to her mother.Getting set to give her mum the great surprise news,Pamela soon discovers that her mum appears to think that she herself has the lead role,which Pamela has been recently cast in.View on the film:For the first half of the film,the screenplay by Norman Krasna,Jane Hall,Frederick Kohner and Ralph Block take a delightfully gentle,satirical shot at the stage and acting world,with the writers setting the movie in a world where everyone's fragile ego is desperate for their "big break",whilst director William A. Seiter joins in the fun by superbly showing moments that initially look to be intimate,to in fact be scenes from auditions.After Pamela Drake is joined by John Arlen and her mum,the writers sadly allow the satirical side to fade away,to instead be replaced by a family Drama focus,which despite containing a surprisingly open ending,does lead to the film losing some of its charm and sparkle.Despite only being 19 at the time,Deanna Durbin gives an excellent performance as Pamela Drake,with Durbin showing that she is far from one note,by not only delivering each of the songs in the movie with a full force of emotion,but also display a real sense of venerability,as Pamela starts to fear that her dreams may be harder to archive then originally expected.Joining Durbin,Kay Francis gives a terrific performance as Georgia Drake,with Francis showing Georgia to be someone who knows her time in the lime light is about to fade,but is unable to turn down the chance of reaching the main stages with a major role.

Although I have known Deanna Durbin's name for a long time, I had never seen one of her movies. Then, recently I saw It Started with Eve and Lady on a Train and was amazed that there were black and white movies of this high quality that I had never seen. Today I saw It's a Date and stood and applauded for the last two minutes of the movie watching it alone. It would be impossible to describe all the brilliant touches in a few words but let's just say that in this movie Deanna Durbin plays an aspiring actress who not only vies with her actress mother (Kay Francis) for the same part but for the same man (Walter Pigeon). This kind of plot which is usually played out as an intense psycho/sexual drama is here played for laughs and is all the more delicious as the center of the sexual triangle between mother, daughter and lover is none other than Deanna Durbin, America's Sweetheart, who is barely ever shown kissing a man, but nonetheless in this movie is shown kissing a man twice her age who is in love with her mother. The movie is incredibly clever in both the screen writing and direction. Nothing is ever what it seems to be and the final incredible touch which brought me to my feet, applauding, was that in the last scene in a comedy fraught with underlying sexual tension, Deanna is shown on the stage in what was meant to be her mother's part, playing a NUN singing AVA MARIA, while her mother, now married to Deanna's former lover (Walter Pigeon), both watch adoringly from the audience. In fact, the mother is shown mouthing the words to Ava Maria which echoes the opening shot of the film which was of Deanna sitting in the audience mouthing the words to a song her actress mother was singing. Because it's a Deanna Durbin film, you can be fooled into thinking that this is a piece of B-movie fluff but the script and the direction equals anything Preston Sturges ever made and Preston Sturges made some great movies. It's a Date is a subtle, brilliant comedy of the first order.

I watched this to see Kay Francis, who was coming to the end of her career here. Both she and Walter Pigeon were billed below the title; Deanna Durbin was the star, the only person billed above the title.This was the seventh movie Deanna Durbin made with producer Joe Pasternak and cameraman Joseph Valentine, and the well was running dry. This drivel would give anyone with an IQ above 70 a raging headache--even in 1940. It's a trite tale of a mother (Francis) and daughter (Durbin) in love with the same man (Pigeon) as well as mother and daughter vying for the same leading role in a Broadway play. It's nonsense with neither an ounce of plausibility nor a single bit of wit, though it fancies itself a comedy. The very contrived plot is arranged to provide Durbin with a ridiculous assortment of songs: "Musetta's Waltz" from La Boheme, Schubert's "Ave Maria," "Loch Lomond," and a bland new ballad, "Love Is All." Kay Francis was looking quite fine here, though the costume designer should have been shot for giving her unflattering turban hats.This was the first American film that S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall appeared in, though he didn't have his nickname at that time. He was playing the sort of part here that he played throughout his Hollywood career.And the film reminded me of what an insipid actor Walter Pigeon was.