Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1947
I'll Be Yours
Buy I'll Be Yours now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'I'll Be Yours' is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Deanna Durbin. Based on the play 'A j tndr' by Ferenc Molnr, the film is about a small-town girl who tells a fib to a wealthy businessman, which then creates complications. The play had earlier been adapted for the 1935 film 'The Good Fairy' by Preston Sturges.
Plot
Louise Ginglebusher (Deanna Durbin) is a young woman from the small town of Cobbleskill who comes to New York City to make it in show business. In a caf, she's befriended by a kindhearted but ornery waiter, Wechsberg (William Bendix), and meets a bearded struggling attorney, George Prescott (Tom Drake). She gets a job as an usherette from Mr. Buckingham (Walter Catlett), the owner of the prestigious Buckingham Music Hall, who's an old friend of her father.
While working at the Music Hall she meets Wechsberg again, and later when she is accosted by a masher, she gets rid of him by claiming that Wechsberg is her husband. Wechsberg then invites her to come with him the next night when he works at an upscale social gathering at the Savoy Ritz. Louise borrows a gown and comes to the party, where they get her past the headwaiter by claiming she's one of the entertainers. Mingling, she meets the host, J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou), a philandering meat magnate, who requests that Louise sing a song. She does, so beautifully that Nelson offers to star her in a Broadway musical. To discourage Nelson's obvious physical interest in her, Louise tell him that she's married, whereupon Nelson offers buy her out of her marriage by paying her husband for his loss. Impetuously deciding to do a good deed, she gives Nelson the business card that George Prescott, the struggling lawyer, had given her, and tells him that George is her husband.
When Nelson visits George the next day in his shabby storefront law office, and offers to make him the legal representative for his company, George is suspicious and refuses the offer, but Nelson allays his concerns by telling the ethical young attorney that he needs an honest lawyer as a role model for his staff – the truth is he wants George on his staff so he can keep him occupied while he pursues Louise. Many complications ensue after Louise gets George to shave off his old-man's beard, revealing the handsome young man underneath, and a stroll in the moonlight provokes George to propose marriage to Louise.TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=78974&category=Full%20Synopsis Full synopsis]Deming, Mark [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:96132~T0 Plot synopsis] (AllMovie)
Cast
* Deanna Durbin as 'Louise Ginglebusher'
* Tom Drake as 'George Prescott'
* William Bendix as 'Wechsberg'
* Adolphe Menjou as 'J. Conrad Nelson'
* Walter Catlett as 'Mr. Buckingham'
* Franklin Pangborn as 'Barber'
* William Trenk as 'Captain'
* Joan Shawlee as 'Blonde'
* John Phillips as 'Thug'
'Cast notes:'
*Two years after making 'I'll Be Yours', Deanna Durbin retired from film acting. In an interview in 1981, she described her last four films – this movie, 'Something in the Wind' (1947), 'Up in Central Park' (1948), and 'For the Love of Mary' (1948) – as "terrible". However another interview her last husband Charles David says she liked making movie except her last three "she hated those" (not including 'I'll Be Yours').
Songs
'I'll Be Yours' was designed to be a vehicle for Deanna Durbin, and all the songs in it are sung by her.TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=78974&category=Music Music]IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039484/soundtrack Soundtracks]
*"Granada" words and music by Agustn Lara
*"It's Dream Time" by Walter Schumann (music) and Jack Brook (lyrics)
*"Cobbleskill School Song" by Walter Schumann (music) and Jack Brook (lyrics)
*"Love's Own Sweet Song" by Emmerich Kalman (music) and Catherine Chisholm Cushing and E. P. Heath (lyrics)
*"Sari Waltz"
*"Brahms' Lullaby" by Johannes Brahms
Production
In December 1940 Universal announced that Durbin would star in 'Susi' a remake of 'The Good Fairy' to be directed by Henry Koster, produced by Joe Pasternak and written by Norman Krasna. She was to make it following 'Ready for Romance' and before 'The Phantom of the Opera'. Plans to make these films were postponed so Durbin could make 'It Started with Eve'. Eventually Pasternak and Koster both left Universal; 'Ready for Romance' was never made, and Durbin elected not to do 'Phantom of the Opera'
In January 1946 the project was reactivated Universal announced it would be Durbin's first film back after having a baby, and would be called 'Josephine'. In April Morrie Ryskind was reportedly writing the script. In June 1946 it was announced that William Seiter would direct the movie, now called 'I'll Be Yours'. In August Adolphe Menjou joined the cast. Tom Drake was borrowed from MGM.
Filming started August 13, 1946. It was the first movie made at Universal after they merged with International Pictures. Background scenes were shot on location in New York City.TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=78974&category=Notes Notes] It was released on 2 February 1947.IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039484/releaseinfo Release dates] Among other taglines, it was marketed with '"Heaven Protects the Working Girl...but who protects the guy she's WORKING to get?"'IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039484/taglines Taglines]
Tom Drake fell ill during filming and Durbin had to shoot around him.
In November 1946 producer and writer Felix Jackson, who was married to Durbin, asked for and received a release from his contract with Universal. He agreed to supervise the final edit of 'I'll Be Yours'. (Jackson's marriage to Durbin would end and she married Charles David.)
Other versions and adaptations
Before being adapted by Preston Sturges for the 1935 film 'The Good Fairy', the Molnr play had been presented on Broadway with Helen Hayes playing "Lu" for 151 performances in 1931–1932, with another production playing 68 performances later that year. Preston Sturges used his screenplay for that earlier film as the basis for the 1951 Broadway musical 'Make a Wish', which had music and lyrics by Hugh Martin.
On January 23, 1950 'Lux Radio Theatre' broadcast a one-hour radio adaptation of 'I'll Be Yours', with William Bendix and Ann Blyth. For television, 'Hallmark Hall of Fame' presented 'The Good Fairy' on NBC in 1956, produced by Maurice Evans, directed by George Schaefer, and starring Julie Harris, Walter Slezak and Cyril Ritchard.
References
'Notes'
Buy I'll Be Yours now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1947