Joe Pasternak and Deanna Durbin do the Cinderella story and it's very charming with the star in excellent form as a girl who goes from a happy boarding school existence to live with her uncle (Eugene Palette). He's a distracted rich dude, his wife is an airhead into astrology, his son is a lazy drunk and his daughter (Helen Parrish) is a spoilt brat who makes her life hell. The staff love her though and help her have a romantic night out - Robert Stack is Prince Charming.
For the most part this is a charming, sensitive fable, well handled with lots of lovely bits. Stack is second billed but his role isn't very big - he only gets a few scenes (at the end he just rocks up).
The key relationship again is between Durbin and a father figure, in this case Pallette. Again, he's a neglectful guy who Durbin helps see the error of his ways, which is sweet. It's not so sweet that this results in him violently tearing down his wife's astrology charts and throwing them in the fire and yelling at her, and beating his daughter with a hairbrush. I get they want the worm to turn but does it have to be so violent?
Very well handled. Good acting - Stack is more lively than he would become later. Like many early Durbin's the finale has her sing and the key action played out visually. Cute stuff with an old maid teacher bursting into tears at the end - I loved how Durbin hugged her fiercely early on. I wish there'd been a bigger role for Marcia Mae Jones as her friend.
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