I'll Be Yours may not be one of Deanna Durbin's best movies, but it really is not a bad movie. The other actors in this movie are great, especially William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou, Walter Catlett and even Tom Drake. By comparison to most of her movies, it does seem like unbelievable fluff, although her movies are more for entertainment than realism anyway. I mention this, because I'll Be Yours is a remake of The Good Fairy from 1935, with Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall, which seems difficult to believe as it is with the naivety in that movie, but considering Good Fairy takes place in early to mid 1930's Hungary and that Sullavan's character comes from an orphanage and has never seen the real world, the plot is a little more plausible. For I'll Be Yours, The Good Fairy story is updated to 1947 and takes place in New York City, both of which really don't work for this kind of plot, no matter how good the acting is. Deanna seems too sophisticated for the plot, even though they changed the character's background from an orphanage to small town girl, and Tom Drake seems way too naive for an American male of this period. All in all, this is not a bad movie, but one does expect better for this cast.
10 Reviews
Charming
Philipp_Flersheim7 October 2021
I watched William A. Seiter's 'I'll Be Yours' practically back to back with William Wyler's 'The Good Fairy' (1935) because I wanted to compare both pictures (based on the same play by Ferenc Molnar). While Wyler's film is generally rated higher I liked 'I'll Be Your's' better. 'The Good Fairy' is a delightful, funny film and Margaret Sullavan is great, but comedy was not her strong point. Also, she did not convince me as a seventeen or eighteen years old hyper-naive orphan. In 'I'll Be Yours', Seiter straightened out some of the more implausible bits of the plot (e.g. Louisa Ginglebuscher does not pick her lawyer from a phone book but gets his business card when she meets him in a restaurant). The female lead is less naive and and at least as charming as Sullavan. And finally, 'The Good Fairy' has no Deanna Durbin singing in it. That clinches it!
Manhattan Girl
lugonian4 December 2016
I'LL BE YOURS (Universal-International, 1947), directed by William A. Seiter, is a pleasing little comedy starring Deanna Durbin in one of her final movie roles before her retirement from the screen by 1948. While the title might indicate a dramatic love story or possibly a title song, it's neither. Taken from the screenplay by Preston Sturges that developed into a 1935 motion picture, THE GOOD FAIRY, starring Margaret Sullavan, Herbert Marshall and Frank Morgan, with only connections between these two productions being the central character's name is Louise Ginglebusher who lands a job as an usherette at a movie theater; and that the man she likes happens to have a beard. For a Durbin movie, for a change, she's not an ambitious singer hoping for a singing career, but one with a talent for singing who helps those she befriends, even if she has to lie to do it.
The story opens with Louise Ginglebusher (Deanna Durbin), a small town girl from Cobleskill entering a train bound for New York City. While in the big city, she enters a café offering Hungarian goulash for 35 cents, but because the product is no longer available, Wechberg (William Bendix), its waiter, with an element of surprise of having a customer, offers her chicken sandwich instead to meet with her budget. Also in attendance is George W. Prescott (Tom Drake), a honest lawyer whose beard makes him distinguished, but not distinguished enough to win any cases. After acquiring a place to live at Mrs. Doogle's boarding house on 47th Street, Louise lands a job as a usherette for $25 a week at the Buckingham Music Hall (obviously a replica of Radio City Music Hall), whose manager, Mr. Buckingham (Walter Catlett), also from Cobleskill who had once been a high school classmate of her late father. With the help of Wechberg, whose ambition is to someday manage his own restaurant, invites Louise to attend a social function where he's to work as a waiter. Mistaking its host for a waiter, Louise is stunned to learn that J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou) is not only the host but president of the Pan American Meat Packing Corporation. After passing herself off as one of the entertainers, and displaying her singing talent, Nelson talks terms into starring her in a musical show, but instead, asks him to appoint "her husband," George Prescott, as his local representative. As Louise fantasizes herself as Prescott's dream wife, further complications ensue as her lies soon get her into deeper trouble. Others seen in the supporting cast include: Franklin Pangborn (The Barber); Joan Fulton (The Blonde); Patricia Alphin and Nancy Brinckman (The Usherettes); Ida Moore (The Landlady); and John Hamilton (Chairman of the Board).
Interestingly for a Durbin movie, I'LL BE YOURS has more plot than music. Whatever songs presented, they're few and far between. The motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "The Cobleskill School Song" (sung by Walter Catlett and Deanna Durbin); "Grenada," "It's Dream Time" and "The Sari Waltz." Only the beautiful rendition of "It's Dream Time" gets the full treatment on a rowboat in Central Park with Durbin and Tom Drake, accompanied by unseen angel type voices heard only on the soundtrack. "The Sari Waltz" starts off in lavish scale with Durbin singing followed with her ballroom dancing with Drake at Wechberg's Garden Café French Cuisine. After a promising start with camera capturing them slightly from higher angle dancing on heart-shaped floor, it makes one wish this could have been longer developing into something special.
While Deanna Durbin displays her genuine flair for comedy, it's a shame she didn't get to display more to the fullest. Tom Drake, an MGM actor best known as "The Boy Next Door" to Judy Garland's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1944), makes a fine counterpart of a struggling young lawyer who believes Louise should legally change her last name. Although gone for a long stretch following his introduction in the café near the start of the story, Drake's has much more to do during its second half, often competing against scene stealing support handled by William Bendix and Adolphe Menjou, who memorably played Durbin's father a decade earlier in 100 MEN AND A GIRL (Universal, 1937).
Formerly shown regularly on public broadcast stations in the 1980s, and displayed to video cassette in the 1990s, I'LL BE YOURS remained virtually forgotten until presented on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: November 20, 2016) as part of its Deanna Durbin double feature movie tribute. Clocked at 93 minutes, I'LL BE YOURS is good, not great, light comedy entertainment with some music and character types to move it along. (**1/2)
The story opens with Louise Ginglebusher (Deanna Durbin), a small town girl from Cobleskill entering a train bound for New York City. While in the big city, she enters a café offering Hungarian goulash for 35 cents, but because the product is no longer available, Wechberg (William Bendix), its waiter, with an element of surprise of having a customer, offers her chicken sandwich instead to meet with her budget. Also in attendance is George W. Prescott (Tom Drake), a honest lawyer whose beard makes him distinguished, but not distinguished enough to win any cases. After acquiring a place to live at Mrs. Doogle's boarding house on 47th Street, Louise lands a job as a usherette for $25 a week at the Buckingham Music Hall (obviously a replica of Radio City Music Hall), whose manager, Mr. Buckingham (Walter Catlett), also from Cobleskill who had once been a high school classmate of her late father. With the help of Wechberg, whose ambition is to someday manage his own restaurant, invites Louise to attend a social function where he's to work as a waiter. Mistaking its host for a waiter, Louise is stunned to learn that J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou) is not only the host but president of the Pan American Meat Packing Corporation. After passing herself off as one of the entertainers, and displaying her singing talent, Nelson talks terms into starring her in a musical show, but instead, asks him to appoint "her husband," George Prescott, as his local representative. As Louise fantasizes herself as Prescott's dream wife, further complications ensue as her lies soon get her into deeper trouble. Others seen in the supporting cast include: Franklin Pangborn (The Barber); Joan Fulton (The Blonde); Patricia Alphin and Nancy Brinckman (The Usherettes); Ida Moore (The Landlady); and John Hamilton (Chairman of the Board).
Interestingly for a Durbin movie, I'LL BE YOURS has more plot than music. Whatever songs presented, they're few and far between. The motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "The Cobleskill School Song" (sung by Walter Catlett and Deanna Durbin); "Grenada," "It's Dream Time" and "The Sari Waltz." Only the beautiful rendition of "It's Dream Time" gets the full treatment on a rowboat in Central Park with Durbin and Tom Drake, accompanied by unseen angel type voices heard only on the soundtrack. "The Sari Waltz" starts off in lavish scale with Durbin singing followed with her ballroom dancing with Drake at Wechberg's Garden Café French Cuisine. After a promising start with camera capturing them slightly from higher angle dancing on heart-shaped floor, it makes one wish this could have been longer developing into something special.
While Deanna Durbin displays her genuine flair for comedy, it's a shame she didn't get to display more to the fullest. Tom Drake, an MGM actor best known as "The Boy Next Door" to Judy Garland's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1944), makes a fine counterpart of a struggling young lawyer who believes Louise should legally change her last name. Although gone for a long stretch following his introduction in the café near the start of the story, Drake's has much more to do during its second half, often competing against scene stealing support handled by William Bendix and Adolphe Menjou, who memorably played Durbin's father a decade earlier in 100 MEN AND A GIRL (Universal, 1937).
Formerly shown regularly on public broadcast stations in the 1980s, and displayed to video cassette in the 1990s, I'LL BE YOURS remained virtually forgotten until presented on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: November 20, 2016) as part of its Deanna Durbin double feature movie tribute. Clocked at 93 minutes, I'LL BE YOURS is good, not great, light comedy entertainment with some music and character types to move it along. (**1/2)
Deanna deserved better material than this...
Doylenf18 November 2001
Deanna Durbin had such a fine singing voice that no matter how thin her screenplays were, they were always salvaged somehow whenever she was given an opportunity to sing. I'LL BE YOURS almost proves to be a contradiction to that statement. No matter how charming she is and how competent her co-stars are, there is no doubt after the first twenty minutes that she is wasting her time in a film saddled with a script that nobody can do much about that. The others try hard--William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou and Tom Drake--but nothing helps until Durbin sings.
Durbin tells a white lie to Adolphe Menjou and therein lies the pretext for a story involving her supposed "marriage" to Tom Drake (here sporting an unbecoming mustache). Needless to say, our heroine straightens everything out in a time for the finale and along the way sings a couple of songs, notably "Granada", which, as another viewer noted, is well worth the price of admission. Only Durbin's most ardent fans will appreciate this one.
Durbin tells a white lie to Adolphe Menjou and therein lies the pretext for a story involving her supposed "marriage" to Tom Drake (here sporting an unbecoming mustache). Needless to say, our heroine straightens everything out in a time for the finale and along the way sings a couple of songs, notably "Granada", which, as another viewer noted, is well worth the price of admission. Only Durbin's most ardent fans will appreciate this one.
A just passable remake of The Good Fairy!
JohnHowardReid24 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Copyright 18 February 1947 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Winter Garden: 21 February 1947. U.S. release: January 1947. U.K. release: 30 June 1947. Australian release: 8 May 1947. 8,928 feet. 99 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A pretty Radio City Music Hall usherette falls for an unsuccessful lawyer.
NOTES: A re-make of The Good Fairy.
PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Here's a remake which some reviewers thought was almost as good as the original.
COMMENT: The setting has been changed to New York (and the names of the characters altered accordingly) and the opening scenes have also been changed. This one opens rather neatly with a train rushing through the wayside station of Cobbleskill, being flagged down, reversing and starting again. Cut to Deanna Durbin walking down the train corridor preceded by the porter - an economical and purely visual sequence that only the cinema could attempt. Despite this initial promise, however, elsewhere the film is less pure cinema and more hybrid stage play with the emphasis on talk rather than action. Tom Drake makes a good stab at the honest lawyer but we preferred Herbert Marshall. After all, Drake is a young man. All young men we know have ideals and a passion to change the world, but in a few years 99.9% of them accept the world's values and throw their ideals overboard. So it's hard to feel the same sympathy for Drake as we do for Herbert Marshall, wearily but steadfastly clinging to his ideals despite the world's indifference.
Adolphe Menjou and Frank Morgan are much on a par. Frank perhaps has the edge as his director allowed him to be less restrained than Seiter forces Menjou to be. Bendix and Reginald Owen, although different types are also much on a par, though once again it is the player from the earlier film who has a slight edge, this time because of his greater versatility. It's a familiar part for Bendix, but for Owen it was outside his usual range and he brought it off, partly through this contrast with the usual aristocratic types he played, somewhat more amusingly.
Although it starts off differently and omits the scene in the picture theatre which was an early highlight of the original film, it follows the plot of the original quite faithfully and duplicates many of the other scenes. But despite the lavish production values in evidence here and the glossy finish of the film, the original has it all over this one so far as charm and atmosphere and style are concerned - and we prefer the sets in the original film which were far more visually attractive and had a style, an elegance and a distinction missing from the amorphously modern sets here. As a period film, the original had a considerable edge.
Deanna Durbin has the advantage of youth and her close-ups are as beautifully photographed as were Miss Sullavan's. She also has a pleasant singing voice (there were of course no songs in the original), but Miss Sullavan outclasses Miss Durbin in charm, personality and sheer acting ability.
OTHER VIEWS: This musical re-make of the old William Wyler - Margaret Sullavan vehicle, The Good Fairy, has much to recommend it. Not only is Miss Durbin in splendid voice, but she's always most attractive to look at, thanks to Hal Mohr's superlative cinematography. Seiter's direction is also remarkably slick, though he comes to grief in the long, theatrical scene in the impoverished attorney's office which the screenwriter should have broken up. Production values are lush. - G.A.
SYNOPSIS: A pretty Radio City Music Hall usherette falls for an unsuccessful lawyer.
NOTES: A re-make of The Good Fairy.
PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Here's a remake which some reviewers thought was almost as good as the original.
COMMENT: The setting has been changed to New York (and the names of the characters altered accordingly) and the opening scenes have also been changed. This one opens rather neatly with a train rushing through the wayside station of Cobbleskill, being flagged down, reversing and starting again. Cut to Deanna Durbin walking down the train corridor preceded by the porter - an economical and purely visual sequence that only the cinema could attempt. Despite this initial promise, however, elsewhere the film is less pure cinema and more hybrid stage play with the emphasis on talk rather than action. Tom Drake makes a good stab at the honest lawyer but we preferred Herbert Marshall. After all, Drake is a young man. All young men we know have ideals and a passion to change the world, but in a few years 99.9% of them accept the world's values and throw their ideals overboard. So it's hard to feel the same sympathy for Drake as we do for Herbert Marshall, wearily but steadfastly clinging to his ideals despite the world's indifference.
Adolphe Menjou and Frank Morgan are much on a par. Frank perhaps has the edge as his director allowed him to be less restrained than Seiter forces Menjou to be. Bendix and Reginald Owen, although different types are also much on a par, though once again it is the player from the earlier film who has a slight edge, this time because of his greater versatility. It's a familiar part for Bendix, but for Owen it was outside his usual range and he brought it off, partly through this contrast with the usual aristocratic types he played, somewhat more amusingly.
Although it starts off differently and omits the scene in the picture theatre which was an early highlight of the original film, it follows the plot of the original quite faithfully and duplicates many of the other scenes. But despite the lavish production values in evidence here and the glossy finish of the film, the original has it all over this one so far as charm and atmosphere and style are concerned - and we prefer the sets in the original film which were far more visually attractive and had a style, an elegance and a distinction missing from the amorphously modern sets here. As a period film, the original had a considerable edge.
Deanna Durbin has the advantage of youth and her close-ups are as beautifully photographed as were Miss Sullavan's. She also has a pleasant singing voice (there were of course no songs in the original), but Miss Sullavan outclasses Miss Durbin in charm, personality and sheer acting ability.
OTHER VIEWS: This musical re-make of the old William Wyler - Margaret Sullavan vehicle, The Good Fairy, has much to recommend it. Not only is Miss Durbin in splendid voice, but she's always most attractive to look at, thanks to Hal Mohr's superlative cinematography. Seiter's direction is also remarkably slick, though he comes to grief in the long, theatrical scene in the impoverished attorney's office which the screenwriter should have broken up. Production values are lush. - G.A.
Delightful Durbin
Greg-o-rama4 June 2000
If you enjoy the genre of fluffy musical /comedy /romances that Deanna Durbin was consistently cast in, you will certainly enjoy this one, as it is one of her better vehicles. As believable as any of the silly storylines she had to endure, the supporting cast in this one is above average. Adolph Menjou is particularly enjoyable as the lascivious business magnet with his sites on Durbin. And her performance of "Granada" is worth the price alone.
Cute, Bubbly, Light, Fun
August199116 September 2003
I'm no Deanna Durbin fan but I have to admire her for getting away from it all at such a young age and retiring to France. This was one of her last films.
By chance, it fell into my collection and I have wound up watching it on dreary weekend afternoons. I was surprised to learn that it bore several viewings. If only modern romantic comedies could be so light and unworldly as this.
Like in a good sitcom, the secondary characters support this film. But the two leads carry it.
By chance, it fell into my collection and I have wound up watching it on dreary weekend afternoons. I was surprised to learn that it bore several viewings. If only modern romantic comedies could be so light and unworldly as this.
Like in a good sitcom, the secondary characters support this film. But the two leads carry it.
Deanna saves it...sort of
davidgarnes22 June 2013
This film is a good example of what can happen when a sure-fire box office star's movies get stereotyped. Gradually, the formula starts to get stale, the studio doesn't do anything to improve the situation, and the films deteriorate. No wonder Durbin described this movie as "terrible" in a rare interview years after she left Hollywood. It is. Besides Durbin, a bunch of good actors--William Bendix, Adolphe Menjou, Tom Drake etc.--are saddled with an amazingly trite script that insults even those willing to suspend disbelief. Fortunately, Durbin's voice is as glorious as ever, and her musical numbers at least provide respite. William Bendix has his moments, too. See it for Durbin's songs and fast-forward through the rest of it.
"The Good Fairy" goes on special, like a .40 cent bowl of goulash.
mark.waltz26 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Preston Sturges scored a big artistic hit when he filmed Ferenc Molnár's 1930 play "The Good Fairy" starring Margaret Sullavan and Herbert Marshall. Today, it is considered a true classic along the lines of films by James Whale, Ernest Lubitsch and George Cukor for its shear beauty and poetry. Universal decided to remake it for their major musical star, Deanna Durbin, with it ironically coming on the tail of the musical version of Molnár's "Lilliom" ("Carousel") on Broadway. While Durbin seems right for the part, there's something about her characterization that makes her character a bit annoying, and not at all mysterious or waif like. Gone is her character's exit from an orphanage, with nothing about her past known other than the fact that she arrives in New York City (rather than the original Budapest) to work at a Radio City Music Hall like theater, meeting greasy spoon waiter William Bendix, the young, bearded attorney Tom Drake and wealthy Adolph Menjou, with Drake and Menjou both romantically interested in her after initial misunderstandings or squabbles over their first meetings. An uninvited guest at a society party Menjou throws, Durbin pretends to be Spanish, ends up singing "Granada", and all of a sudden, Menjou is taking her back to his luxurious apartment, allegedly to show her his "etchings". Bendix pops in to keep Durbin pure, plays fairy godfather between Durbin and Drake, and Menjou must take a cold shower to realize he ain't gonna get from her what he wants, especially when Durbin lies about her being married to Drake's character.
There are some amusing moments in this likable if somewhat awkward remake, with Durbin finding out that her movie theater boss (Walter Catlett) happens to be from the same small town (hence her knowing the town's high school fight song), and Drake deciding out of the blue to cut off his beard, much to the hysterical protest of the prissy Franklin Pangborn who seems to think it looks "divine". Then, there's the walk down memory lane of how ushers would guide theater goers to different sections of the huge movie theater, making Bendix upset when he can't get into the section he wants to go to. The film within the film seems to have been filmed especially for this, although I can't even find the name of the actors within that sequence. The musical highlight is Durbin's singing to Drake while rowing on Central Park Lake (sorry couldn't resist that rhyme...) of "It's Dream Time", although I don't recall ever seeing rowers on the lake after dark and for the lake to look so tropical. Still, the atmosphere is nice and romantic and there is the presence of some great character actors you may recognize but not know the names of, my favorite of whom is Ida Moore, the adorable little old lady who sparked in many a comedy, showing Menjou into Drake's office here for their confrontation and a job offer.
There are some amusing moments in this likable if somewhat awkward remake, with Durbin finding out that her movie theater boss (Walter Catlett) happens to be from the same small town (hence her knowing the town's high school fight song), and Drake deciding out of the blue to cut off his beard, much to the hysterical protest of the prissy Franklin Pangborn who seems to think it looks "divine". Then, there's the walk down memory lane of how ushers would guide theater goers to different sections of the huge movie theater, making Bendix upset when he can't get into the section he wants to go to. The film within the film seems to have been filmed especially for this, although I can't even find the name of the actors within that sequence. The musical highlight is Durbin's singing to Drake while rowing on Central Park Lake (sorry couldn't resist that rhyme...) of "It's Dream Time", although I don't recall ever seeing rowers on the lake after dark and for the lake to look so tropical. Still, the atmosphere is nice and romantic and there is the presence of some great character actors you may recognize but not know the names of, my favorite of whom is Ida Moore, the adorable little old lady who sparked in many a comedy, showing Menjou into Drake's office here for their confrontation and a job offer.
Surprisingly a Disappointment
moviewatcher201011 May 2019
It appears that Universal was scrambling to get something in place for their golden meal ticket Deanna Durbin after she had her first baby and took some time off. After an hour, it is difficult to tell what the plot is. In the beginning, however, it seems predictable. A girl from a small town is going to NYC to make it big in the theater. During the movie, two scenes are borrowed from "First Love": Deanna showcasing her singing talents at a party that she sneaks into and then wins the affections of the millionaire who gave it, and then later on a dance with her prince charming the same way with her whirling around in a beautiful full gown. The worst thing they did to Deanna in this film was give her huge dark eyebrows which took something away from her natural beauty. I was glad to see that she said in her interview years later that this film was terrible.
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