ST. JAMES THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 21, 20 October 1937, Page 6

ST. JAMES THEATRE

“100 Men And A Girl” The fourteen-year-old Deanna Durbin sings a song while sitting on a piano in her new Universal picture, ‘TOO Men and a Girl,” which will begin at the St. James Theatre on Friday. During her brief but spectacular movie career the little star has sung ou a yacht, in bed, and in a police station, but this is the first time she has ever sung a number while using a piano for a chair. The song which Deanna sing® is “It’s Raining Sunbeams.’’ Mischa Auer and Alice Brady, prominent in “Three Smart Girls',” are with Miss Durbin again in the present film. Sharing the starlight with Deannt .is Leopold Stokowski, famous conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra in -his first cinema speaking role. Adolphe Menjou and Eugene Palette are featured players. Monjou is cast, as Deanna’s father, an unemployed trombonist trying to get a job in Stokowski’s orchestra. He is able to pay the back rent at their boarding-house when he finds Alice Brady’s handbag, full of money. The delighted landlady stages a celebration. As her part in it Deanna doe® her piano-sitting and singing. As she sings this verse, Menjou, (who in real life knows nothing about music, leads this girl who is one of Hollywood’s musical notabilities. He was coached for this by Andre De Seguroln, former Metropolitan Opera star, and now Miss Durbin’s vocal tutor. In addition to her caroling on the piano. Deanna sings nt a party, nt a little rehearsal in her own living-room, and in a concert hall with a 100-piece orchestra led by Stokowski. Her selections range from simple, ballads to the “Liblamo” or drinking song from Verfdi’s ‘-‘La Traviata.”