Best movie of this year hands down!

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Deanna Durbin's movie debut from 1936 on the Deanna Durbin collection DVD from Simply Home entertainment 2011. This DVD has stunning black and white picture quality and excellent sound, quite amazing given the age of the material. Deanna Durbin fame is less well remembered today but she became a huge star in the golden age of Hollywood, and in this movie it is easy to see why as she radiates wholesome charm and warmth. The plot is light and frothy as the three smart girls save the day and there parents while unmasking a gold digger. This is light entertainment at its very best, funny warm and very charming throughout. A great example of the polished production values and tight editing so effortlessly delivered back in the day. I loved it, and if you love the 1930's era of American cinema, and i am sure you will to.

MGM's loss was Universal Studio's gain when Louis B. Mayer sold Deanna Durbin's contract to Carl Laemmle and Universal gave her a grand debut in Three Smart Girls. The three are the Craig sisters played by Nan Grey, Barbara Read, and Durbin as the youngest and the one with the musical talent. But all three are on a mission to bring their mother and father back together.The girls are vacationing in Switzerland when word comes that dear old dad who's been divorced from mom for years is about to be married again. Back to New York come the sisters to save father Charles Winninger from the clutches of mercenary Binnie Barnes and her even more mercenary mother Alice Brady. While on the mission Grey and Read get themselves some romantic involvement also with Dusty King and Ray Milland. It gets a bit complicated though when Read thinks that Milland is a no account count that King hired to woo Barnes away from Winninger. Actually Milland is a titled gent, the guy that King hired was Mischa Auer.In the first of her many roles in the guise, Deanna Durbin plays little Miss Fix-it and solves everybody's problems in the end with a few songs to go with it. It was a formula that worked well for Universal, pulling the studio back from inherent bankruptcy. Abbott&Costello would later make it turn a profit.Three Smart Girls got Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Original Story. The fashions and mores of the time place it firmly in the Depression Thirties. I doubt it could ever be made today again.Where would you find a voice like Deanna Durbin's?

You will recognize the plot immediately. Daughters of a divorced couple trying to get Mom and Dad back together again. Yes, that was the theme of The Parent Trap in the 60s, 80s and 90s. But here's the spooky thing. Even though Deanna Durbin was younger than the 21 year old Hayley Mills while playing the doting daughter(s) roles, Durbin looks much older, as in adult. And so do all of her so-called siblings. And this confusion between adult and child goes throughout the film. The girls are dressed in cute little sailor outfits but look ridiculous in them as the director seems to take pains to point out their ample tops and tushies throughout the film. So you're constantly torn between thinking of them as children or women. When Ray Milland and others start "hitting on" them you get the feeling as if they're pedophiles, and you might be one, too for noticing those tushies and tops the director was pointing out. Teens or temptresses, little girls or little foxes, you are never quite sure what you're supposed to be thinking of them as.The parents, too, seem very old and the whole film seems very dated.It is a rusty version of the Parent Trap and you should avoid it, or at least ensure your tetanus shots are up to date if you don't believe me.

MGM dropped Deanna Durbin after one short subject she made in '36 called "Everybody Sings" with Judy Garland. They kept Garland and dropped Durbin, whereby Universal took a chance on Deanna--who turned out to save the studio from bankruptcy with a string of successful, but formula Durbin films. She would go on playing Little Miss Fix-It in a number of vehicles written for the express purpose of exploiting Durbin's wonderful soprano voice.THREE SMART GIRLS, when seen today, is a charming but very dated tale about three teen-age sisters scheming to reunite their parents. It was the sort of thing MGM would later do with JANE POWELL who, like Durbin, had a pleasing soprano voice and was routinely given the same Miss Fix-It roles, usually in an attempt to reunite her parents too.CHARLES WINNINGER is the father who hasn't seen his daughters in ten years. Daughters DEANNA DURBIN, NAN GREY and BARBARA READ are intent on breaking up their father's romance with "the other woman" BINNIE BARNES. A very youthful RAY MILLAND (looking like a matinée idol), provides the romantic interest for one of the girls.It's all played in very broad style, particularly by ALICE BRADY as Barnes' society mother, filmed in ritzy surroundings that must have seemed terribly unreal to Depression-era audiences and Durbin and the girls are a little too self-confident and condescending in their attitudes to be the likable girls they're supposed to be. But none of it bears much resemblance to reality--a fault of many a classic '30s comedy.The material isn't sufficiently bright enough to keep you from wondering when Deanna will sing again--and it's surprising to learn that this was nominated for Best Picture in 1936.Summing up: Definitely not one of my favorite Durbin films even though she shows her perky personality...nor am I fond of the "Penny" character that she plays here...but when she sings, all is forgiven.