NO AWKWARD AGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 July 1940, Page 9

NO AWKWARD AGE

DEANNA DURBIN'S BRILLIANCE. Truer words were never recorded; than in a dialogue line from Deanna ■ Durbin's seventh picture, Universals -It's a Date.” Kay Francis plays Deanna's mother in the new film. Opening scenes find the pair reunited in a theatre dressing room. At the conclusion of the sequ-' ence, Deanna leaves, and Miss Francis. 1 eyeing her, says to Cecilia Loftus, "1 guess I'd better stop calling her baby. ( Hollywood, also, no longer calls, Deanna baby. j The child who made a remarkable i debut in "Three Smart Girls" in 1936 is I not a child anj r more, although her re- ’ cord of-six straight hits testifies thatshe is still remarkable. Expertly presented by producer Joe! Pasternak. Deanna has progressed nat- l urally and charmingly through what ■ has "stopped" many other youngsters —. the so-called "awkward age.” Deanna! simply did not have an awkward age. ; Now the star emerges as a young; lady in "It's a Date,” in which she has! two romantic opposites —Lewis Howard 1 of "First Love,” and Walter Pidgeon. | She enjoys the fullest meaning of the I word "glamour" with her largest and i most beautiful wardrobe, including, twenty-three costume changes. Eugene Pallette. Samuel S. Hinds. I Fritz Feld. S. Z. Sakall. Henry Stephenson and Harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiians are in "It's a Date." William Seiter directed from the screenplay by Norman Krasna. When Deanna sings "Loch Lomond. . "Cusetta's Street Song” from Puccini S| "La Boheme," Schubert's "Ave Maria. . and "Love is All,” she shows herself! to be increasing in brilliance in her vocal efforts, while Deanna's -rendition | of the difficult classics is again pheno-1 mcnal.