Deanna Durbin Film Collection One (DVD), Via Vision, Music & Performance

Four-disc set includes: Three Smart Girls (1936)The feature film debut of Deanna Durbin casts the 14-year-old soon-to-be-star as Penny, one of three sisters who go to great lengths to stop their father's marriage to a golddigger and reunite him with their mother. Nan Grey and Barbara Read play Penny's siblings, Joan and Kay; Ray Milland, Alice Brady, and Binnie Barnes also star. Henry Koster directs. Songs include "Someone to Care for Me" and "My Heart Is Singing." 84 min. BW/Rtg: NR 100 Men And A Girl (1937)With her out-of-work trombonist dad (Adolphe Menjou) at his wit's end, plucky teen soprano Patsy Cardwell (Deanna Durbin) resolves to help him-and 99 of his colleagues in the same boat-by whipping them into an orchestra! Will her sales pitch fly with a skeptical patron couple (Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette) or an also-doubtful Leopold Stokowski (as himself)? Charming hit co-stars Mischa Auer, Billy Gilbert; songs include "It's Raining Sunbeams," "A Heart That's Free." 84 min. BW/Rtg: NR Mad About Music (1938)Worried about her age, a vain Hollywood actress (Gail Patrick) decides she wants to forget about her daughter Gloria (Deanna Durbin), so she sends her to a Swiss boarding school. Gloria invents an explorer father to impress her mates, but when asked to prove he's real, she tries to find a suitable parent to play the role. With Herbert Marshall, Arthur Treacher. Songs include "I Love to Whistle." 98 min. BW/Rtg: NR That Certain Age (1938)Smitten with her family's houseguest, visiting journalist Vincent Bullitt (Melvyn Douglas), teenager Alice Fullerton (Deanna Durbin) ignores former steady beau Ken (Jackie Cooper) until Bullitt sets things right, in this song-filled romantic comedy that was co-scripted by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. Soundtrack includes "Be a Good Scout," "You're as Pretty as a Picture," and the title tune. 95 min. BW/Rtg: NR First Love (1939)After graduating boarding school, orphaned Connie Harding (Deanna Durbin) was packed off to live with upper-crust-and snobbish-relatives in Manhattan. With her invitation to the debutante ball revoked due to the scheming of her bratty cousin (Helen Parrish), can the house servants get her entry into the affair-and the attention of a handsome socialite (a debuting Robert Stack)? Modern-dress "Cinderella" marked by Durbin's first screen kiss co-stars Eugene Pallette, Leatrice Joy; songs include "Home, Sweet, Home," "Spring in My Heart." 84 min. BW/Rtg: NR Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939)A delightful sequel to "Three Smart Girls" offers Deanna Durbin as Penny Craig, a young woman who gets mixed up with sisters Joan's and Kay's' love affairs, and gets herself in a pickle when one sister falls for the other's boyfriend. Nan Grey, Helen Parrish, Robert Cummings, and Charles Winninger star; Henry Koster directs. Songs include "Because" and "The Last Rose of Summer." 90 min. BW/Rtg: NR It Started With Eve (1941)An ailing father (Charles Laughton) wants to meet his son Johnny's (Robert Cummings) future wife before he dies, but since she isn't immediately available, Johnny chooses a stand-in: spunky hat-check girl Anne (Deanna Durbin). Things get romantically complicated when Dad takes a liking to Anne and Johnny's real fiancée arrives for a visit. Margaret Tallichet co-stars. 92 min. BW/Rtg: NR Nice Girl? (1941)Deanna Durbin stars as small-town gal Jane Dana, who, in an effort to appear more mature to her friends and family concocts a kooky story about being engaged to Richard Calvert (Franchot Tone), one of her father's business partners. Will boyfriend Don Webb (Robert Stack) see through Jane's games and grasp she's still the "nice girl" he knows her to be. Musical comedy co-stars Robert Benchley, Walter Brennan. Songs include "Old Folks at Home," "Beneath the Lights of Home." 91 min. BW/Rtg: NR Hers To Hold (1943)Well-to-do debutante Penny Craig (Deanna Durbin) won't take no for an answer! An overly amorous pilot (Joseph Cotten) gets a classic case of cold feet when Penny falls for his charms but he's suddenly called up for military service overseas. Durbin and Cotten's sweetly sublime romantic jostling is enlivened by the leading lady's delightful musical numbers. Evelyn Ankers, Charles Winninger also star. 94 min. BW/Rtg: NR Standard; Soundtrack: English. Region Free