This has to be my very favourite Deanna movie. One or two critics at the time sneered that "First Love" was a return to the Cinderella story but had she ever really left that formula!!! It was a revamped "Cinderella" story complete with the slipper left at the ball as the clock strikes 12 and having all the horrible, ugly stepsisters rolled into one supremely nasty cousin, Barbara, played by Helen Parrish who that same year had played one of Deanna's sisters in "Three Smart Girls Grow Up". Poor Helen having to be nasty to Deanna, no wonder her career didn't recover.Like all the best Durbins it was directed by Henry Koster, a film maker of charm and taste and as Deanna's first adult vehicle (much publicity was given to her first screen kiss by Robert Stack) it was a smooth transition away from her "little Miss Fixit" roles, probably because she had grown into such a beautiful young lady. The movie also borrowed from "My Man Godfrey" by dropping Deanna into the midst of a family of rich eccentrics complete with a very selfish daughter who makes Connie's (Durbin) life miserable and with Eugene Palette reprising his role as the exasperated father. A lot of Deanna's popularity with the depression era public was her warm rapport with the working class and the hired help and this movie was no exception.Most popular student at the young ladies academy, Connie Harding breaks down during a rendition of "Home, Sweet Home" knowing that as an orphan she doesn't have a home of her own. Crotchety old principal (with a heart of gold of course) (Kathleen Howard) urges her to go to New York and make it her own. She arrives at her uncle's doorstep feeling very small but after her soaring vocals of the beautiful "Amapola" immediately has all the staff entranced and ready to help her in every way. Her Uncle Jim (Pallette) is flabbergasted - "You like being here, you've met your aunt and your cousins and you actually like being here"!!!Following the Cinderella story, Connie is beside herself with excitement at her first ball but nasty Barbara thinks Connie is just too excited and also that Connie's dress is a bit too beautiful and doesn't believe it when Connie innocently says that the cook just fixed up her graduation dress (that's what the staff told her - in reality they all chipped in to buy her a beautiful lacy gown). At the last minute Connie is told she can't go - but in the best Cinderella tradition and with the help of her fairy godmother, I mean the butler and Uncle Jim, Barbara's car is held up and Connie gets to the ball, dances with her "handsome prince", sings a medley of Strauss waltzes (a very funny sequence) and leaves on the stroke of midnight, being careful to leave her shoe on the grand staircase.By the end everyone has had their comeuppance but Connie doesn't know - she has fled back to her old school, determined to become a teacher and an old maid. But after a beautiful rendition of "One Fine Day" from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" and seeing all the "old maids" crying their eyes out she is more than happy to live happily ever after with her Prince Charming.Leatrice Joy who during the twenties had been married to John Gilbert played the addled Aunt but something about her showed, to me, that she was just too smart for the part. I started to wonder why she hadn't succeeded in talking movies, she had clear diction and really handled the speedy delivery of the dialogue. Peggy Moran played one of Connie's pals at the beginning of the movie (the other one was Marcia Mae Jones). Peggy soon retired to marry the director Henry Koster.Highly Recommended.

Young Deanna Durbin goes to live with her uncle Eugene Palette and a group of snooty society cousins in this film. They treat her like a country cousin and snub her generally including her aunt by marriage. But little do they know that Deanna is destined to find her First Love in this story reworked from the Cinderella fairy tale.After three years Deanna was growing up on screen and the folks at Universal Pictures decided she ought to have her first screen kiss. The one tapped for the honor was a guy making his screen debut Robert Stack.The one who really treats her rotten is her débutante cousin Helen Parrish and her equally snobby friend June Storey. Deanna is not treated any better than one of the staff at her house, like Cinderella she might as well be relegated to being a chimney sweep.Stack is the guy that Parrish and Storey have set their caps for, he's another society kid. But he likes simple and unaffected Deanna who ironically Parrish sets up the meeting between them. That's a rather funny scene.Some good songs for Durbin highlighted the classic There's No Place Like Home, Amapola, and Un Bel Di from Madame Butterfly. And of course one of the most publicized kisses ever in screen history.First Love brought home Oscar nominations for Sound, Art&Set Decoration, and Musical Scoring for Universal Pictures. Little Miss Fix-It was definitely growing up and her future roles would show a maturing Durbin for the movie-going public. It still is fine entertainment.

FIRST LOVE (Universal, 1939), directed by Henry Koster, stars Deanna Durbin in one of her ever popular movie roles. Basically a retelling of the old "Cinderella" story set in contemporary New York City, the youthful Durbin, making her sixth screen appearance, and Robert Stack, in movie debut, are supported by fine movie veterans, namely gravel voice Eugene Palette, Leatrice Joy (former lead actress of the silent screen), and Kathleen Howard in a small but important role as the crusty but wise old-maid school teacher with a heart of gold. Aside from her previous works opposite W.C. Fields in three classic comedies of the mid 1930s, this is one of the few times where Howard's talent as a true character actress is fully realized. And now back to Durbin's FIRST LOVE.The plot begins at a high school graduation with the gathering of classmates receiving their diplomas, one being Constance "Connie" Harding (Deanna Durbin). With her parents dead and no relative in attendance, Connie is invited to spend the summer with her closest friend, Marcia (Marcia Mae Jones), but in good faith for all the financial support awarded her, she decides to stay with her uncle, James F. Clinton (Eugene Palette), a business tycoon, and his family. Afraid to face the challenge that awaits her, it is Miss Wiggens (Kathleen Howard), her former teacher, who encourages to move on, bringing hope and happiness to those around her. Although Connie does win over her uncle's servants, she's made to feel like an outsider by his wife, Grace (Leatrice Joy), spending much time studying astrology; Walter (Lewis Howard), their lazy son who'd rather be served than working; and Barbara (Helen Parrish), the stuck-up daughter who delights in giving orders and not taking them. Very much interested in high society's Ted Drake (Robert Stack), Barbara makes every effort keeping Connie away from him. Though invited to attend the ball with her mother and brother, and hope of meeting Ted again, Barbara purposely arranges for Connie to remain at home to entertain a visiting uncle from Washington during their absence. Feeling pity towards the disappointed Connie, the servants arrange having the family chauffeur (Jack Mulhall) purposely detain the Clintons by getting arrested while giving the opportunity for Connie to attend with the understanding she'd have to leave by midnight. After a grand evening with Ted, Connie, nearly forgetting the time, makes a hasty departure the very moment the Clintons arrive, leaving behind her one slipper found by Ted. When Barbara finds that Connie did attend the ball, their confrontation forces Connie to leave, causing Clinton, who cares for Connie, to become deeply ashamed for what his family has done.In traditional thirties films depicting rich families, the Clintons in FIRST LOVE could very well be that of the Bullocks from the 1936 Universal comedy, MY MAN GODFREY, starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, each casting Eugene Palette as the millionaire with family he would rather forget. Instead of casting Alice Brady as the scatterbrained wife, Leatrice Joy is given the assignment, as did Lewis Howard's good-for-nothing son over Mischa Auer's freeloading protégé. There's no butler named Godfrey this time around, but good natured servants enacted by lesser known actors as Mary Treen (Agnes, the maid); Dorothy Vaughn (Ollie, the maid); Lucille Ward (The Cook); and Charles Coleman (George, the Butler). Other familiar faces as Frank Jenks (a Policeman and friend of the family servants); Samuel S. Hinds, Thurston Hall and Doris Lloyd fill in the void in lesser roles while Durbin highlights with her grand singing of "There's No Place Like Home," "Amapola." "Spring in My Heart" (by Johann Strauss) and "Un Bel Di" (One Fine Day) from Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly." Regardless of its title and Durbin's then publicized first screen kiss, FIRST LOVE is far from being trite formula. In fact, it's one of her and the studio's top productions of the year. Not having to resort to storybook fashion of "Cinderella," FIRST LOVE simply modernizes an old fairy tale, resulting to something quite original thanks to the fine screenplay, and natural, low-key performances by Durbin and Palette. Palette's great moment comes when he finally lets out steam telling off his selfish family, while Durbin adds humor during the ball by unwittingly stepping onto the platform in the place originally intended for another guest singer (Grace Hayle). There's also a touch of creativity in movie making in the ballroom sequence where all the guests virtually disappear in Connie's mind (and viewers) while dancing and conversing with Ted, and reappearing the very moment Connie returns to reality.In spite of Durbin and her movies being the box office attractions at the time, presently appears to be of minor importance. Due to lack of television broadcasts since the 1980s, the time when FIRST LOVE had some exposure on public television, along with home video distribution in 1996, the Durbin products appear to be less popular due to its sugar sweet reputation. Having Durbin movies on DVD packages labeled "The Sweetheart Package" doesn't help matters either, yet looking back at these particular films whenever possible shows the entertaining values and certain star quality that has delighted audiences in an era so different from what's presented today. (***1/2)

"First Love" was a major transition for Universal star Deanna Durbin, as she was being positioned to shift from child star to engenue (something that Fox was inevitably unable to accomplish with Shirley Temple at the same time). While the film is not an overblown epic, it's lavish in the details, and carefully produced to give the whole piece a maximum of charm. To today's audiences, it might be a bit saccharine, but if you can dial down the cynicism of our age, the film's positive points grow.Durbin plays much more subtly in this film than she had in many of her earlier films--signalling that she was now "maturer" instead of being a juvenile whirlwind ball of energy like she had been in "Three Smart Girls" and "100 Men and a Girl." Her beau, played by an impossibly young (and almost scarily good looking) Robert Stack, gives Durbin her first screen kiss--a source of major publicity for the film at the time.The story is an updated Cinderella/screwball comedy, which nevertheless allows Durbin's character to break out into a few operatic arias throughout the film (this also takes some getting used to for modern audiences). The most memorable part of the film, suitably, happens during "the ball," where Durbin and Stack dance for the first time. Employing a charming idea, a shot of a crowded dance floor dissolves to a shot of just the duo dancing, to imply how the pair are so involved with each other that the rest of the world has faded away. If you like stuff like this, then you'll revel in the rest of the film.