Director: EDWARD LUDWIG. Screenplay: Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, and Bruce Manning. Based on an original screen story by F. Hugh Herbert. Photography: Joseph Valentine. Film editor: Bernard W. Burton. Art directors: Jack Otterson and John Ewing. Set decorator: Russell A. Gausman. Costumes: Vera West. Make-up: Bill Ely. Billiards coach: Harold Baker. Assistant director: Joseph A. McDonough. Sound recording: Bernard B. Brown (supervisor),Joe Lapis (technician). Producer: Joe Pasternak.

Songs: "My Own" (Durbin); "That Certain Age" (Durbin); "Be a Good Scout" (Durbin); "You're As Pretty As a Picture" (Durbin); "Has Anybody Ever Told You Before?" (Durbin),all by Jimmy McHugh (music) and Harold Adamson (lyrics). "Juliet's Waltz Song"/"Je Veux Vivre Dans Ce Reve" (Durbin) from Romeo and Juliet by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre (lyrics) and Charles-Francois Gounod (music). "Les Filles de Cadiz" (Durbin) by Alfred de Musset (lyrics) and Leo Delibes (music). Vocal supervisor: Charles Henderson. Music orchestrated by Frank Skinner, directed by Charles Previn.

Copyright 13 October 1938 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. New York opening at the Roxy, 4 November 1938 (ran 2 weeks). U.S. release: 7 October 1938. Australian release: 29 December 1938. 11 reels. 100 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Teenager gets crush on globetrotting reporter.

NOTES: Academy Award, Deanna Durbin, "for her significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth, and as a juvenile player setting a high standard of ability and achievement". (See also Mad About Music). "My Own" was nominated for Best Song (lost to "Thanks for the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938). The Sound Recording was also nominated (The Cowboy and the Lady).

COMMENT: Hardly the sort of scathing satire we would expect from Brackett and Wilder (earlier in the year they had screenplayed Bluebeard's Eighth Wife for Lubitsch),this is a rather dull and all-too-regrettably predictable teapot comedy without a smidgen of the customary Wilder wit and Brackett sparkle.

In addition to its thin, foregone plot, the picture is further saddled with Master Jackie Cooper, the most obnoxiously hammy, aggressively self-centered juvenile in the cinema. We don't blame Miss Durbin for preferring Mr Douglas, but the older man is forced by the plot conventions of 1938 to spurn her advances and re-unite her with the odious Cooper.

The only thing we like about this tiresome plot is that it provides an opportunity to introduce the lovely Nancy Carroll, here making her last movie appearance before returning (permanently as it turned out) to the stage (and later television).

Fortunately, Deanna Durbin is not only unfazed by the ho-hum turns of the plot, but manages to positively project her pleasing personality come-what-may. She's in fine singing voice too.

The support cast includes such able players as John Halliday and Charles Coleman, masters at spinning winning pleasantries from the most threadbare dialogue.

As we might expect, the picture is beautifully produced, with lustrous photography and pleasing sets. Ludwig's direction takes full advantage of the architecture, but does little or nothing to lend pace or interest to that milk-and-water script.

What I liked about this 1938 Comedy/Romance/Musical was - (1) The scenes where it was the teens who were the focus of the action. (I wish there had been more of these scenes) - and - (2) The moments when the 17-year-old Deanna Durbin thrilled us all, singing away like a trilling sparrow. Durbin sang a total of 5 songs in this film.

What I didn't like about this light-weight cinematic fluff was all of the emphasis placed on the boring, silly, and predictable crush that Durbin's character (Alice) had on the Vincent Bullitt character, who happened to be twice her age and he was the dullest dullard imaginable.

All-in-all - This was a fairly entertaining vintage "Chick Flick".

By the way - Deanna Durbin's real name was Edna Mae Durbin and she was originally from (are you ready for this?) Winnipeg, Manitoba.

*Note* - In 2013 - Deanna Durbin (91 at the time) died of natural causes.

THAT CERTAIN AGE (Universal, 1938),a Joe Pasternak Production directed by Edward Ludwig, stars Deanna Durbin in her fourth leading role for the studio. Aside from being a noted winning film at the box office at the time of its release, it's also of interest with an impressive supporting cast headed by Melvyn Douglas and Jackie Cooper, along with once popular leading ladies as Irene Rich (who played Jackie Cooper's mother in THE CHAMP (1931)),and Nancy Carroll in support. The plot, taken from an original story by F. Hugh Herbert, may be a first in a series of teenage musicals made more popular in the 1940s, along with theme quite familiar due to similar stories produced either in motion pictures or television shows in later years.

The story revolves around Alice Fullerton (Deanna Durbin),a childhood sweetheart of boy scout leader, Kenneth Warren (Jackie Cooper),who intends on staging a show to help raise money to help poor scouts to attend camp. Alice is the daughter of Gilbert Fullerton (John Halliday),a newspaper publisher who invites war correspondent, Vincent Bullitt (Melvyn Douglas) to spend a few weeks at the guest house for peace and quiet so he can provide articles on current events in Europe. It so happens Alice has promised the guest house to her friends for show rehearsals and is advised by her mother, Dorothy (Irene Rich) to have it someplace else. Upon the arrival of Bullitt, who would rather be someplace else, Alice and her friends scheme to have Bullitt leave, but because Alice has become infatuated by this older gentleman, she has arrange for him to remain, much to the dismay of Vincent as well as Ken, who finds Alice not to be a good scout by not appearing in his upcoming show.

Featured in the supporting cast are Jackie Searl (Tony, who appeared opposite Cooper in both SKIPPY and SOOKY (Paramount, 1931)); Peggy Stewart (Mary Lee); Charles Coleman (Stevens, the Butler); Grant Mitchell (The Jeweler); Addison Richards, Moroni Olson and Russell Hicks in smaller roles. Juanita Quigley, billed simply as the Pest, is amusing as Cooper's little sister, Elsie "Butch" Fullerton. Fans of Nancy Carroll, a popular leading actress for Paramount of the 1930s, now past her prime, would have to wait until the movie is nearly over before her first appearance in the story (lasting only under three minutes) as Vincent's reporter friend, Grace Bristow.

New songs by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh include: "That Certain Age" (sung during opening credits); "Be a Good Scout" (sung by Deanna Durbin, Jackie Cooper and scouts); "Waltz from Romero and Juliet," "You're as Pretty as a Picture," "My Own" (Academy Award nominee for Best Song of 1938); "Les Filles de Cadirz" by Clement Philibert and Leo Delibes; and "That Certain Age."

For this presentation, Deanna Durbin has reached that certain age of her career from peppy teenager in her feature debut of THREE SMART GIRLS (Universal, 1936) to an attractive young lady while still in her teens. Though the story is routine, it's more plot than musical for a Durbin movie, yet endearing at times during much of its 101 minutes.

Seldom seen on commercial television since the 1960s, THAT CERTAIN AGE eventually got some public television exposure in the 1980s before disappearing from view again. To date, this little known teenage musical has yet to be broadcast on cable television, but fortunately has become available for viewership on both video cassette and DVD formats to assure its rediscovery of that certain age gone by. (***1/2)