Nice Girl?

source: Nice Girl?

Nice Girl?

If this film tries to cast Durban against type it singularly fails. She couldn't be anything else but nice and catch the boys, what with her looks and her voice. Still her father has enough to do with three good looking girls to keep in-line with home spun wisdom and a firm hand. Typical Durban. Enough said.

This is basically two movies that have nothing to do with each other. On the one hand, there are the musical numbers, mostly solos for Durbin. They are often very beautifully and movingly performed. Simple, but deeply felt. Some of Durbin's best singing. And then there is the rest of the movie, the plot. It is paper thin, not developed, not interesting, not worth watching. Which left me wondering: why didn't Universal put at least a little effort into creating a decent script to showcase Durbin's beautiful, moving performances? The cast is fine. All of the leads had given great performances in great movies. They could have handled much better material easily. Why didn't Universal bother to come up with something for them? Why did they leave Durbin stranded with nothing to work with? A mystery.