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

This is a fine Deanna Durbin vehicle, but an uneven film. There are plenty of chances for Deanna to sing and be bubbly, enough to satisfy most fans, but the stars have to work overtime to keep what little drama exists moving until the inevitable resolution.Deanna is fledgling actress Pamela Drake, daughter of major Broadway star Georgia (Kay Francis). She works in a small regional theater but unexpectedly gets the chance to star on Broadway herself. Seeking seclusion in order to prepare for her big break, she heads home to Hawaii to spend some time with her mother. On the ship, she meets pineapple tycoon John Arlen (Walter Pidgeon), who first woos her but then also becomes interested in mama. It turns out that Georgia also expects to get the part already offered to Pamela and also wants John. Who gets the part? More importantly for these types of films, who gets the man?Durbin is amazing, as always, and really gets the chance to show what a child prodigy she was (though clearly becoming a young woman here). She sings several standards such as "Loch Lomond" and "Ave Maria" with her fine soprano voice, and shows maturity far, far beyond her years. If you aren't familiar with Durbin, be prepared to be dazzled by her talent. There's one fine bit where Deanna, trying to convince the big-time producers (including S.Z. Sakall doing his usual hammy bit) to hire her for their show, does several wildly different characterizations in rapid-fire succession which are all excellent. Great acting talent, great singing voice, prettier in a classic sense than Judy Garland, Deanna was the complete package.Pidgeon is great also, but he is up against formidable competition in the acting department here. He exudes his usual avuncular charm, and actually has some dashing moments on the ship to Hawaii as he tries to woo Pamela. Later, though, he appears bewildered at times, despite supposedly being the one in charge. Kay Francis is the clear loser. She is completely outclassed by Durbin, and is clad in weird fashions such as turbans that make her look dowdy and out of place, especially in a Hawaiian setting. It is difficult to believe that Arlen would choose her over Pamela. Plus, she is given almost no chance to do anything but sit and wait for John and Pamela to decide things for her, so her character and motivations are murky.Durbin gets to sing several times with her beautiful operatic voice, and she gets to emote repeatedly both as her own character and as the character she is playing within the story. Plus, she has several supremely Diva moments ("I am through with men!"), culminating in the glorious opportunity to stalk off in a huff, the battle won but the war lost. The reality, though, is that she is still just a kid playing in a grown-up world, a fight the real Deanna would be waging until she finally gave it all up and left films altogether later in that decade, hopefully for a happier life without the strain of constantly meeting her own and others' extraordinary expectations for herself.Ignore the story, but don't ignore Deanna, a true star.

Deanna Durbin stars in "It's a Date," a 1940 comedy also starring Kay Francis, Walter Pidgeon and S.Z. Sakall. Durbin plays Pam Drake, an aspiring young actress whose mother is a theater star, Georgia Drake. After the successful run of a play, Georgia and her maid Sara Frankenstein (Cecilia Loftus) head for Hawaii for R&R before she starts her new play. However, the author (Sakall) isn't sure she's right for the role; he thinks Georgia is too old. Ultimately he sees Pam perform and gives her the role. Not realizing her mother thinks it's hers, she takes a ship to Hawaii so her mother can help her prepare. On the ship, she meets a man (Walter Pidgeon) that she thinks is a stowaway - he's actually John Arlen, a successful businessman. Once in Hawaii, Pam finds out the truth about the role and tries to keep it from her mother; John, meanwhile, has fallen in love with Georgia, but Pam thinks she's in love with him and it's mutual. It's a mess.In Durbin's earlier films, I found her speaking voice high-pitched and a little annoying and her acting overly energetic to the point of being hyper. Here, she's delightful, bubbly without being manic, and she looks very pretty. Her singing voice has matured as well - she sings "Musetta's Waltz," "Ave Maria" and "Loch Lomond." The whole voice is richer though I will never be a fan of the way sopranos in those days were trained to back off of their high notes. She puts a little too much weight in the middle voice and therefore has a somewhat screechy Bb at the end of "Quando M'en Vo." Still, however, she is one of the best classical singers in film.Though Durbin was a huge star at Universal, the studio never bought big properties for her. This is a nice film with good performances but that's about it. Kay Francis is lovely as Georgia and Loftus is funny as Sarah. The handsome Pidgeon does his usual good job.Deanna Durbin in the end out-Garboed Greta Garbo, retiring at the age of 27 and moving to the outskirts of France, and I don't believe she's been seen since or even interviewed. The image and voice of the young girl live, and thanks to TCM, she undoubtedly has new fans. She deserves them.

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.