I'm sticking with Region 2 DVDs for the moment (they play on all UK players, unlike American discs), so now
Charlie Chan just yet...
DVD of the Week
#13 - Lady on a Train (Charles David, 1945)Golden-tonsiled Deanna Durbin hit the screen as a gawky, talented kid in an MGM one-reeler (
Every Sunday, alongside Judy Garland), became the little girl who saved Universal from bankruptcy via a string of enchanting, well-produced musicals, then – with the onset of her adulthood – graduated to more mature fare, before retiring to obscurity in France with husband Charles David.
In this excellent hybrid of screwball comedy and murder mystery (directed by David), the 24-year-old Durbin is ideally cast as a pleasant, energetic crime fiction fan. After witnessing the murder of an industrial tycoon, she stumbles confusedly around for an hour, singing a few songs, rubbing people up the wrong way and trying, desperately, to hold on to the fluffy, blood-stained bedroom slippers that constitute her only evidence. The backdrop is like a
Falcon film, cross-cut with
Bringing Up Baby - with Durbin bouncing around in front.
Music-wise, we get three diverse Durbin tracks. First off is a lovely reading of 'Silent Night' that's curiously imagined but exquisitely sung, reducing gun-toting trespasser Allen Jenkins to tears. Then, masquerading as a nightclub chanteuse, Deanna performs the sultry 'Give Me a Little Kiss' and Cole Porter's 'Night and Day', which is cleverly staged and given a complex, tom tom-led arrangement.
The script is smart, sharp and inventive, and the whole thing is shot like a dream by Woody Bredell, cinematographer on six other Durbin films, as well as the classic noir
The Killers. Perhaps the Christmas angle could have been hyped up a little in the story, but I've rarely seen a film that looks as Christmassy.
The supporting cast is simply as good as it gets. Edward Everett Horton is perfect as a befuddled yes man charged with chaperoning Durbin, while Allen Jenkins plays it uncharacteristically gruff and tough as the murderer's henchman. Our chief suspects are Samuel Hinds (whose part is slightly underwritten), an exceptional Dan Duryea – bristling with charm and menace – and the ever excellent Ralph Bellamy. Elizabeth Patterson shines as Duryea and Bellamy's crotchety aunt, while David Bruce, whose career as a leading man was oddly limited, is excellent, entirely lacking vanity as he racks up the laughs.
I'd recommend this film to anyone who enjoys classic comedies, or just old movies in general. It really is great fun, with comedy, music, romance and intrigue blended wonderfully.
Lady on a Train is available for around £8 on DVD, or as part of this 19-film set.
DVD of the Week archive:
#1 - Let's Get Lost (Bruce Weber, 1988)
#2 - Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 1973)
#3 - The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)
#4 - The Raven (Lew Landers, 1935)
#5 - The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
#6 - Written and Directed by Preston Sturges (Preston Sturges, 1940-44)
#7 – The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)#8 - Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)#9 - Cache (Michael Haneke, 2005)#10 - No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (Martin Scorsese, 2005)#11 - Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)#12 – A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954)