This has a Norman Krasna style set up even though Krasna didn't write it... Durbin is a girl at boarding school who can't tell the world her mother is a film star, so she makes up stories about her dad. Her class mates don't believe her so she plucks out Herbert Marshall to play the role.
It's quite sweet and well done, helped by the charm of Durbin, who is remarkably unannoying. Marshall is fine too - the crux of the film is their relationship (most early Durbin films were about her and a father figure, off the back of the intensity of the scene between her and Charles Winninger in Three Smart Girls).
She sings some well known tunes including "I love to Whistle" and "Ave Maria" (the latter with the Vienna Boys Choir). There's a sweet puppy romance with an American boy at another boarding school.
There's a serious subtext, about a girl being neglected by her mother, which is very well handled.
There's some excellent support performances from Arthur Treacher (Marshall's shocked valet) and Marcia Mae Jones (Durbin's bug eyed friend). I also liked Helen Parrish as the bitch - she popped up in a few B films. The mother isn't on screen very much which is probably good because otherwise we wouldn't like her.
I'm surprised they didn't devote more time to a romance between mother and Herbert Marshall. They meet, laugh and are sitting next to each other - that's it. Their courtship really should have been act three.
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