Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Sadly Over-hyped

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This movie was remade by Ernst Marischka, the original story writer of this film, in 1955 with Romy Schneider as Die Deutschmeister. having seen both the movies, I found that, the second one was far superior to this, which is a rarity. Normally when the movies are re-made, the so-called superiority is attained by more glitz, and in the way, it weakens the plot. But not in this case. I like both the heroines, Deanna as well as Romy and incidentally they were almost the same age when their respective movies were made, Deanna must have been about 18 and Romy about 17. If I compare the two, Deanna was a bit superior, as far as this movie-pair is concerned, but Romy matured only after she stopped Sissy and similar movies. The other superiority of this movie is obviously the Deanna's singing (Probably, to overcome that, Marischka didn't make the other one Musical). And the male lead, Robert Cummins too (in my opinion) was better than Siegfried Breuer. But there it stops. The plot and the story was far superior and engrossing in the German movie, whereas this particular movie has too many loop-holes in the plot. If I leave alone the actors, who were American, Marischka and Pasternak were Austro-Hungarians, Koster was German, under this conditions the mistakes made seem quite surprising. Thankfully Marischka corrected them, and also changed the plot a bit, in the German movie. Probably due to these glaring errors, I could not really enjoy the movie despite Deanna and some very good songs. The role of Koster's future wife, Peggy Moran seems to be interesting. She is introduced as Archduchess, but definitely she wasn't one. Emperor's Aide, Wiedlemeyer should have contradicted at that point, after all, he might have missed Counts, Minor Princess' , some Duchess' but definitely not an Arch-duchess. In addition, her behavior, or even Marten's didn't fit the chair. Similar to this there are many other loop-holes, including the meeting with Emperor, where Deanna didn't really maintain the 'Awe' which would be natural, or later, the attempt to refuse Kaiser's invitation (which everyone should know is an Order in a disguise and are non-refuse-able). To summarise, watching once was a bit drag, but not too much of it, but it is not repeatable, the other one, being more coherent, is a far better watch.

If you're looking for a deep film or a picture that will make it to the Criterion Collection, well, you won't find it here or in any of Deanna Durbin's films. Instead, her films are nice...nice family films and "Spring Parade" is certainly nice.When the story begins, Ilonka (Deanna Durbin) is at the fair and trying to sell her goat. Instead, she ends up singing and seeing a fortune telling bird...yes bird. And, although the fortune seems ridiculous, the pieces all fall together--beginning with her falling asleep in a pile of hay and the hay ending up in Vienna. This is the nice, idyllic Vienna of old...before WWI and the slaughter of millions. Illona has a bit of an adventure here and ultimately meets the man of her dreams AND the Emperor!She sings, she's sweet and she wears lovely dresses. Fortunately, she also has some nice support from the likes of Cuddles Sakall and Henry Stevenson! Well worth seeing and a bit like a fairy tale.

Thought I reviewed this the other day, but apparently, that never posted. This is probably Deanna Durbin's best effort. She is most natural in the role; one suspects that the director brought out the closest expression of the real girl, here. It gains further power from the remarkable performances of a strong supporting cast. For example, the Baker--played by a well known supporting figure in movies over a couple of decades, also seems most natural here, compared to any other role, in which this reviewer has seen him. His story nephews, here, are far more natural, far better developed than they were in a W.C. Fields movie released in the same era. So too, are other familiar performers from the same era. Was Deanna, the Director, or a combination, the spark that brought out the best in almost everyone? Who can say. But the movie, on a modest budget, perhaps, communicates real joy to the viewer--real cinema magic, that has held up for me from the time I saw it first (seven times) at age 6 1/2 and 7, till I bought DVD's for myself and some other members of my family, within the past year.It was my favorite movie in 1941. Viewed again, frequently, over the past seven months, it remains my favorite movie. (And that despite the fact that I am usually not that great a fan of musicals!)

Since I am a "Durbin freak", I do bother, but it's never much of a pleasure. The "spoiler" box is checked, but I am not sure there is anything to "spoil". Based apparently on one of those usual mittel-Europa authors' Vienna romances, this glitzy romantic comedy quickly becomes close to farce. Deanna is "Ilonka", a peasant girl from a small village far out in the boondocks, with the "hayseed" still literally sticking to her. A hawker at the village fair sells her a "fortune" which predicts she will marry an "artist" in Vienna, meet the Emperor, and other nonsense which "Ilonka" swallows whole. Arriving in Vienna almost by accident, she immediately starts rubbing her hayseed customs up against the sophistication of the city, with close to disastrous results in some cases, and situations the writers seem to have thought funny in others. Witness the scene in a ritzy Vienna café when "Ilonka" haggles with the waiter about the price of a serving of asparagus, and the waiter gives in! This kind of humour palls rather quickly. One could go on as "Ilonka" pursues her "fortune", but you get the idea. If this isn't enough for Deanna to deal with, there is the constant sabotage from those two most annoying brats of all cinema, sometimes known as "Butch and Buddy". This is something of a departure for Deanna, who tries valiantly against heavy odds, especially having to sing a succession of boring waltz songs! And contend with Bob Cummings boisterous performance at the same time.One doesn't know how well this did at the box office when in general release, but since Universal never issued a VHS or DVD they must have written it off as a regrettable mistake. Not even in the UK, where the rest of the Durbin "canon" is available in PAL format, is a good VHS or DVD available. This is a shame, for the movie is beautifully and lovingly photographed despite its shortcomings.