I recently purchased this DVD as part of a six movie pack. I wished to review "Something In The Wind" because I had focused on Donald O'Connor too much. I was pleased to note that Deanna Durbin was an accomplished light comedy actress in addition to her vocal talents. The ease with which she performed her first song in this movie as a disc jockey is an excellent example of her innate acting ability.

The role played by John Dall seemed too far removed from his role in "The Corn Is Green". There seemed to be little chemistry between Durbin and Dall.

Donald O'Connor was polished as usual but then he had been in movies for over a decade by this time having debuted with Bing Crosby and Fred MacMurray in "Sing You Sinners". It was interesting to realize that the zany short routine he did for Deanna was the groundwork for his 'Make 'Em Laugh' routine in "Singing In The Rain".

Although the impact of "100 Men And A Girl" was never realized again, Deanna Durbin left an enjoyable body of work in her career in Hollywood. There were five or so as a young teen-ager beginning with "Three Smart Girls", "100 Men And A Girl", "Mad About You", "That Certain Age" and Three Smart Girls Grow Up".

With the advent of "First Love" (her'first screen kiss')and pairing with Bob Stack, she began to leave the adolescent stage. Her subsequent movies showed that she had acting ability in addition to her juvenile charm and appealing voice. She did not experience the awkward stage of Shirley Temple and graduated smoothly into adult roles. She may not have been another Irene Dunne nor Rosalind Russell but her comedy was enjoyable and her vocalization always pleasant albeit somewhat schmaltzy to some.

The Williams Bros received billing in this movie but it would be difficult to pick out which one was Andy.

For those not fortunate enough to have grown up in the Deanna Durbin 'saves Univeral Studio' era, this movie is one fine example of how she did it. Light but very entertaining.

When Mary Collins strides out utterly confident on stage to sing, I had a momentary flashback to Ethel Merman in 1959 striding down the theater aisle and calling, "Sing out, Louise, sing out!" Mary Collins, I mean Deanna Durbin at 26, was a supremely confident actress and singer, and there are a few times when you wouldn't want to get in her way. Balancing that are things Merman didn't have...a warm personality, a lovely face, a smile that could win you over and a voice that wouldn't break your eardrums. Merman was an amazing, one-of-a-kind performer; so was Deanna Durbin. What they share is a perfect confidence in their talent.

With Something in the Wind, audiences were watching a romantic comedy with songs featuring a mature young woman they'd been in love with since she was 15. Alone among the child stars of the Thirties, Deanna Durbin grew up on screen while maintaining her stardom, her poise and her box office clout. Here, as Mary Collins, she's a disc jockey who discovers that her aunt who raised her, also named Mary Collins, had been receiving regular checks from a wealthy industrialist. They had once been in love but the marriage plans had been broken up by his family. The whole thing was platonic, but when the old man died his will stated that the financial arrangements must continue. But now the young scion of the family, Donald Read (John Dall),wants to stop the arrangement and pay Mary Collins off. He wants no scandal. He thinks our Mary has been his grandfather's friend. He doesn't realize our Mary has an aunt with the same name. Mary doesn't know what he's talking about but is furious at the implication. Donald is a prig and engaged to a well-bred socialite. His grandmother is a woman who believes breeding is all. His younger brother, Charlie (Donald O'Connor),is much more unconventional. After our Mary is kidnapped and at first kept at the Read family mansion until she agrees to the arrangement, we are in for over an hour of romantic mix- ups, complicated machinations, a perfect lawyer (blind and deaf),six songs by Durbin, three songs and comedy routines by O'Connor, and then true love finding a way. What does the movie add up to? For firm Deanna Durbin fans, a delight. For those who simply like her a lot, a mixed bag.

On the plus side are Durbin and O'Connor. One almost wishes they'd been the happy couple at the end. Durbin sings everything from a bit of Verdi to a down-and-dirty "You want to keep your baby lookin' right, doncha, Daddy?" Her personality shines through. She's funny and sincere. O'Connor is O'Connor and he's great. He has one number, "I Love a Mystery," which is almost a rehearsal for his "Make 'Em Laugh" routine in Singin' in the Rain. The songs, by Johnny Green and Leo Robin, are just fine, with two better than just fine numbers, "The Turntable Song" and "Something in the Wind." And one unexpected and stylishly handled bit features a cameo by Jan Peerce, the great American tenor who had a long career at the Met, as a singing jailer. Durbin is in the jail. It's not long before before they're sharing a duet from Il Trovatore and arguing about who stepped on whose obbligato.

But the movie begins to get tedious when the Mary Collins mix-up is finally discovered, love between Mary and Donald emerges and serious complications concerning proper family breeding sets in. Most problematic is John Dall as Donald Read, the stuffy hero who learns to love. Dall always seemed to me to be not only a limited actor but a man who, just as Lawrence Harvey always seemed genuinely unlikeable, always seemed genuinely artificial. He was unnerving as the artificially sincere killer-for-thrills in Rope a year later, but here he creates a big hole in the movie. He simply isn't interesting enough or strong enough to compete in the comedy or romance departments with Durbin.

"Something in the Wind" was a big hit in Australia - my mother, who just loved Deanna Durbin, had a few of the songs in sheet music and often sang them around the house. It proves that even at the end of her career, while she did have a couple of misses, she did retire at the top. Universal had allowed her to grow up gracefully and being a teenager when she was discovered, she didn't experience any of those "awkward years" so common to almost every child star.

The problem for Deanna, who wore a very becoming upswept hairdo in "Something in the Wind", was that she was often eclipsed by her co star, lively, full of beans performer Donald O'Connor. A definite Deanna memory for me, is of her draped across her "disc jockey" desk singing "The Turntable Song" - "round and round and round and round the turntable goes". That is the first scene - Durbin plays Mary Collins, a D.J. who is kidnapped by Donald Reid (John Dall) a wealthy, pompous young heir who thinks Mary was a mistress of his late grandfather's!! As if Deanna could be that!!! Margaret Wycherley - she of the often Machiavellan roles ie Ma Jarrett in "White Heat", plays true to form as Grandma Reid, the instigator while Jean Adair plays Aunt Mary, the real recipient of the legacy. Before she is kidnapped she gets to audition (of course) with "Happy Go Lucky and Free".

Once kidnapped, Mary plays it to the hilt - trying to take those stuffed shirts down a peg or two, she mentions a "baby" and agrees to settle for a million!!! The family had tentatively offered $5,000 in hush money. The younger brother, Charles (Donald O'Connor) sides with her instantly and sings of his fondness for thrillers in "I Love a Mystery" which is very reminiscent of his "Make 'Em Laugh" from "Singin' in the Rain". Charles is also in love with Donald's fiancé, Clarissa (Helena Carter - whatever happened to her, she scored in "Invaders From Mars" and then nothing),in spite of her pretentiousness and Mary agrees to help him by pretending to fall in love with Donald. Pretend doesn't last long as to the strain of the beautiful "Something in the Wind" they really do fall in love.

It wouldn't be a Deanna Durbin movie without an opera excerpt - this time she duets Miserere from "Ill Trovatore" with a policeman (Jan Peerce, star of the Metropolitan Opera). The film ends with a reprise of the movie's songs performed by Durbin and O'Connor (who seems to get most of the finale time) for that new fangled medium (at the time) - television!!! Director Irving Pichell does an Alfred Hitchcock when he appears early on in the movie as a tone deaf mechanic.