morrison-dylan-fan 2013:With my dad being a big fan of actress Deanna Durbin,I took a look at her IMDb page,and found 2 titles which have never come out on DVD or Video.Tracking down It's a Date,I was surprised to discover that there appeared to be no sign of the movie anywhere at all.2016:Realizing that my dads birthday was about to come up,I decided to do one last attempt at tracking this obscure Durbin flick down.Stumbling onto the page of a DVD seller,I was delighted to finally find the title-with a bonus short!,which led to me getting ready to finally join the spring parade.The plot:Traveling to a Viennese fair, Ilonka Tolnay picks up a card which claims that a number of events will soon happen to her,which will include Tolnay meeting the love of her life,who is passionate about music. Laughing off the claims,Tolnay gets a job at a bakery. Whilst working at the bakery,Tolnay meets Corporal Harry Marten,who dreams of becoming a famous composer,but is banned by the army from doing so.Believing that she has met her dream guy,Tolnay decides to try and make Marten's dream come true.View on the film:Blocked by Universal from being seen again after Ernst Neubach sued them for not crediting him for his role in the making of the 1934 original Frühjahrsparade/Spring Parade.Despite featuring a limited amount of songs,the writers give the title a sweet whimsical spin,where Tolnay's attempts to have Marten's music heard has a sweet folk tale atmosphere. Whilst the poor print quality blocks director Henry Koster's candy coloured sets from sparkling, Deanna Durbin gives a terrific,jaunty performance as Tolnay,thanks to Durbin joyfully casting a fairy tale breeze over Tolnay,as Tolnay and Marten go on the spring parade.

krtqaa 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!)

Fisher L. Forrest 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.

SanDiego One of the few Deanna Durbin films, almost all shot in black-and-white, not available on commercial video as of this writing. That's a shame. Universal needs to finally release this film as well Deanna Durbin's HERS TO HOLD, the final chapter in her THREE SMART GIRLS trilogy. SPRING PARADE is a charming and delightfully dated fairy tale-like film and makes a great companion to classics such as Danny Kaye's HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, Shirley Temple's HEIDI as well as Sonje Henie's series of films.