First Love (film)

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Movie
Original title First love
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1939
length 84 minutes
Rod
Director Henry Koster
script Bruce Manning
production Joe Pasternak
for Universal Pictures
music Charles Previn
camera Joseph A. Valentine
cut Bernard W. Burton
occupation

First Love is an American romance film from 1939 in which Deanna Durbin receives her first movie kiss from Robert Stack . Henry Koster directed the film . With the film, Deanna Durbin made the leap into the field of the young naive. The film is based in the main on the fairy tale of Cinderella in the version by Charles Perrault .

action

Connie Harding is an orphan and has just finished school. Now she is forced to live in the household of her wealthy uncle James Clinton. Her arrival at the Clintons, however, is completely drowned out in the hustle and bustle the female members create in preparation for a large party. Connie quickly becomes friends with the servants while her relatives either ignore or mistreat her. When Connie has a riding accident, the young, wealthy Ted Drake comes to her aid. The two of them start singing out of sheer happiness. But then Barbara, Connie's snobbish cousin, disturbs the idyll when she makes her own claims on Ted's heart. Within a short period of time, several other young women from society took part in the competition for the affection of Prince Charming. Things come to a decision when Ted announces a ball to which the entire local female population flocks except for Connie, who has nothing to wear. Before Connie can sink into melancholy, the employees give her a designer dress that they secretly bought for Connie. But again there are complications. Barbara, who wants to prevent Connie from appearing at the ball at all costs, claims that an extended relative would arrive that night. So Connie is sent off to see the guest. Again the friendly domestics help and so Connie makes it to the ball in the end. There she surprises all the guests with her singing interludes and also Ted, who falls in love with Connie. Before it strikes midnight, Connie received her first kiss. But a short time later Connie leaves the ball, hoping to be home before the Clintons. In the rush she loses one of her ball shoes, which is found by Ted. But in the meantime the relative has arrived and found the house empty and abandoned. Barbara and her mother, foaming with rage, let their vengeance run wild. All servants are dismissed without notice and Connie is put straight into a taxi to be taken to a boarding school. However, that goes too far for the head of the Clinton clan. He sets the head of the female members of the family. Connie meets Ted again at the end and they both become happy.

background

Since her success in Three Smart Girls in 1936, Deanna Durbin had risen to become Universal Pictures' biggest star . Her films were all very successful financially, but Durbin gradually outgrew the previous roles of the innocent girl. The studio had been planning the change to adult roles with great care since 1938 via the individual films. First Love was supposed to be the first film in which Durbin was officially granted her own love life with all the associated problems in her film role. The first kiss required for this took up a large part of the publicity that accompanied the film. Producer Joe Pasternak had hundreds of young men tested with the active participation of the gossip press in order to really find the perfect partner for the epochal event. In the end, the choice fell on Robert Stack , who made his screen debut in First Love . Some critical voices even suggested that Durbin's first kiss would get more media coverage than the war events in Europe.

The film initially had the working titles Cinderella and After Schooldays , before the obvious choice fell on the title First Love . The plans to produce First Love as the studio's first color film were abandoned due to technical problems.

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1940 , the film received nominations in the following categories:

  • Best Cinematography (black and white) - Joseph A. Valentine
  • Best Music - Charles Previn
  • Best equipment - Martin Obzina , Jack Otterson

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