Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74447 in DVD
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.com
Despite its Larry Flynt-friendly title, Deanna Durbin is typically wholesome in the lavishly produced musical One Hundred Men and a Girl, which finds its heroine saving a fledgling orchestra led by financially challenged father Adolph Menjou, along with help from Leopold Stokowski. Not surprisingly, music is literally center stage for much of this delightful film; highlights include Stoki's batonless conducting of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony and Deanna's winsome trilling of Mozart's "Alleluia." The resulting package earned its star a special 1938 Academy Award (for her "spirit and personification of youth") and took home an Oscar of its own for Charles Previn's score. --Steven Smith

Customer Reviews

Best Deanna Durbin film of all time!
Criminally neglected actress these days. A wonderful, joyous performance by her in a wonderful, joyous movie.

If you like Judy Garland You'll love Deanna
Deann Durbin and Judy Garland were very alike in ages and in the way that studios used tham when they were young. But Deanna has a more operetic quality to her voice, she in fact studied opera. In 100 men and a girl you get the typical 1930's under dog winning from under what seems unsurmountable odds with the hopes and dreams of a young girl to lead them on.

Another Hit For Durbin
100 Men and a Girl is the story of a group of musicians who are out of work. They seem to be led by one man (Adolph Menjou) whose energetic daughter Patsy (Deanna Durbin) will stop at nothing to see her father and their friends find work. She decides to bother famed conductor Leopold Stokowski for help, but he only becomes annoyed. Instead, she finds a rich woman who promises nonchalantly to sponsor an orchestra if it existed. Patsy proceeds to gain hope and organizes the orchestra only to find that the woman has left for Europe. Patsy decides that her only choice is to berate the woman's husband and Stokowski for support, ensuing great comedy.

Deanna Durbin is still a little girl in this film, bright and cheerful. She has a great sense of comic timing and displays her usual charm. The songs she sings "It's Raining Sunbeams," "A Heart That's Free," "Hallelujah in F Major," and "Traviata" are operatic but well sung.

Mischa Auer plays Michael, one of the musicians, and a very funny one at that. He adds plenty of laughs to the film.

There are a few spots where a black box rims the film during montage sequences. This is a bit distracting, but otherwise, the camerawork is excellent. One notable scene is where the unemployed orchestra congregates on a staircase to play the "Second Hungarian Rhapsody," photographed artistically and beautifully.