One Hundred Men and a Girl **** (1937, Deanna Durbin, Adolphe Menjou, Alice Brady, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Pallette, Mischa Auer, Billy Gilbert) – Classic Movie Review 7931

In director Henry Koster’s 1937 black and white musical One Hundred Men and a Girl, the girl is the 16-year-old Deanna Durbin, playing Patricia Cardwell, the daughter of a struggling musician John Cardwell (Adolphe Menjou), and the one hundred men are the unemployed musicians she tries to persuade the famous conductor Leopold Stokowski (playing himself) to lead, in order to turn them into a respected symphony orchestra.

Actually, the one hundred men playing on the soundtrack are the Philadelphia Orchestra, though the musicians on screen are Los Angeles-based players miming to their soundtrack. Stokowski, who was principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded the film’s classical music with the orchestra at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, using a multi-channel sound system for the first time on a film’s score.

One Hundred Men and a Girl is a seductive musical that was flavour of the month when originally released back in 1937. It cost $762,000, and earned $2,270,200 for Universal Pictures.

It is a mishmash of elements that came together in just the right way to try to combat the after-effects of the Great American Depression, and also to create a much-needed role-model for young people to combat the perceived American malaise of the previous few years.

Durbin, in only her third film role, perfectly brings the energy and enthusiasm of youth to the screen – so much so that two years later she received an Academy Award for being ‘the spirit and personification of youth’ in the cinema.

One Hundred Men and a Girl is a small, well-honed gem of a film that will always be remembered fondly. It won one Oscar for Best Music, Score for Charles Previn (head of department) and had four other Oscar nominations – for Best Picture, Best Writing, Original Story (Hanns Kräly), Best Sound, Recording (Homer G Tasker) and Best Film Editing (Bernard W Burton).

A lot of the credit has to go to director Koster, who coached Durbin intensely to prepare for the role. The comedy from Mischa Auer, Eugene Pallette and Billy Gilbert is a welcome antidote to the music and the uplifting drama.

Also in the cast are Alice Brady, Frank Jenks, Alma Kruger, Jed Prouty, Mary Forbes, Charles Coleman, Leonid Kinskey and Gerald Oliver Smith.

Durbin’s vocal coach was Andrés de Segurola, a former Metropolitan Opera bass who had sung with Enrico Caruso.

RIP Canadian-born Deanna Durbin [Edna Mae Durbin] (1921–2013), ‘Winnipeg’s Sweetheart’. At 15, she appeared in the short film Every Sunday (1936) with Judy Garland but was dropped by MGM, then picked up by Universal Pictures, which was rescued from bankruptcy by her first two features. By 18 her income was $250,000 a year and by 21 she was the world’s highest paid female star.

She is best remembered for Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), Mad About Music (1938) and That Certain Age (1938). After her final film For the Love of Mary (1948), she retired to live in France at the age of 27.

She shared the Academy Award’s 1939 Juvenile Award with Mickey Rooney ‘for their significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth, and as juvenile players, setting high standards of ability and achievement’.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7931

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