Producer Ross Hunter was fond of remaking old movies in colour – here the Deanna Durbin classic has become a vehicle for Sandra Dee, only with Dee playing the Robert Cummings part, presumably because she couldn’t sing. The Durbin role – a person who pretends to be the fiancée of a rich person (Dee) so as not to hurt the rich person’s dying grandfather (Maurice Chevalier) – goes to Robert Goulet. Confusingly though Goulet doesn’t play a singer – he’s an inventor. But he pretends to be a singer because Dee’s real fiancée is one - Andy Williams.
Norman Krasna is still credited as a writer but so are others, so presumably they are the ones responsible for bad decisions – like dragging out the action over what seems like a couple of months instead of a short period of time (when farces work better). Or not having enough scenes where Chevalier and Goulet bond (the Charles Laughton-Durbin relationship was the heart of the original); making Andy Williams’ character really sympathetic and giving him too much screen time so you feel really bad that Dee falls for someone else; wasting too much time on a silly business plot; throwing in a pointless dream sequence (there was one in Bundle of Joy too); only having Dee fall for Goulet over Williams because she has a better response kissing him (which makes Dee shallow). It’s a real shame they didn’t just use the original script and didn’t sex change it.
Dee is a perky, fun lead – no Audrey Hepburn or Deanna Durbin, but still pretty good (much better than say Katherine Heigl). Goulet is a strong lead, handsome, capable with an excellent speaking voice. Chevalier is sprightly (his battles with the nurse have a flirtatious quality not in the original) and Charlies Ruggles offers good support.
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