IT STARTED WITH EVE: Blu-ray (Universal, 1941) Kino Lorber

Henry Koster’s It Started with Eve (1941) proves a curiosity. For although it began life as a straight-forward drama in 1938, entitled, Almost An Angel, with plans from its producer, Joseph Pasternak, to first star, Danielle Darrieux, then later, Franciscka Gaal, the project eventually morphed into a vehicle for Deanna Durbin, who then took the proverbial backseat to Charles Laughton, as the real star of our show. The picture is distinctly more Laughton’s than Durbin’s – Laughton given the lion’s share of lampooning an old man, and, for the most part, playing wily American industrialist, Jonathan Reynolds Sr. to perfection. Casting Durbin was a problem – not, because she could not handle the role of enterprising ingenue, Anne Terry (indeed, she could run circles around this stock character – and does), but rather because Durbin’s name over the title on any marquee distinctly suggested another of those big and brassy Hollywood musicals of which It Started With Eve is decidedly not. For although Durbin warbles 3 songs in the picture, including ‘When I Sing’ – from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet, refurbished by Charles Previn and Max Terr, with lyrics by Samuel Lerner, an excerpt from Antonín Dvorák’s Goin’ Home, and Joaquín Valverde’s Clavelitos – the only razzle-dazzler here, the concentrated effort of Ralph Bock and Frederick Kohner original screenplay, later to be reworked by Norman Krasna, is on the genial father/son bond, tinged in elements of the screwball, and, stirred to ridiculous heights when the son, Johnny Jr. (Robert Cummings), decides to fake a fiancée simply to satisfy his ‘dying’ father’s last request.

It Started with Eve continued the trend to judge Deanna Durbin as an actress – first, and singing sensation second, and in reviewing the picture today, one finds Durbin more than worthy for such consideration. In the few short years since Three Smart Girls (1936), Durbin had decidedly grown up – a lot. Gone was the wide-eyed innocence of those teenage years, replaced by a young lady of qualities and ambitions. Indeed, Durbin had only just married and returned from her honeymoon at the time production began, and, in hindsight, there emerges from beneath her wholesome façade a distinctly more mature outlook to compliment her performance. In this case, her Anne Terry desperately wants to audition for the opera. Alas, she is just a lowly hat check girl, with seemingly zero opportunity to make her debut in cultured Manhattan society. Yet, this is about all we get of Anne and her ambitions as the plot shifts to the unraveling of half-truths and total lies, meant to restore Jonathan Sr.’s health and set his plan into motion to bring young lovers, so right for each other, together before the final fade out. It Started with Eve begins and ends with Laughton’s character; Durbin and Cummings bringing up the rear, or rather, increasingly manipulated as pawns in the ole boy’s romantic scheme. Durbin’s participation here effectively sunk plans to costar her with Charles Boyer in another light and frothy musical programmer, Ready to Romance (never made).

The occasion was bittersweet, as Pasternak made the announcement, he would be leaving Universal after 16-years, a decision Durbin took to heart, as Pasternak later wrote in his memoirs. “It was the only time in our years together I saw her weep…It was not easy to talk to her because a lot of water had flowed under the bridge. She had her life to live now and it could not be the same as before. She said some nice things and ran out of the office.” Regrettably, the sadness did not end there. As production began, Henry Koster had a terrible row with Norman Krasna, who walked off the picture, leaving Koster with 40-pages of script as yet to be written. Meanwhile, co-star, Richard Carle – as Doc Harvey, suffered a massive heart attack and died after shooting scenes for nearly 3-weeks. His entire performance – as yet, incomplete – had to be reshot with actor, Walter Catlett instead. Not long thereafter, Durbin fell ill with the flu, a harrowing bout, necessitating her departure for nearly a month. Production was suspended while she recovered, only to suffer another delay when Laughton was similarly felled and had to take time off to recuperate. When production resumed, an electrician fell from a scaffolding and broke his leg, while another suffered severe burns from a short in an arc lamp. Indeed, at the end of production, Pasternak happily departed for MGM, while Koster announced that the strain of the picture had resulted in his wife filing for divorce. Despite these setbacks, and Koster’s own declaration, that this was his most challenging picture to date, he reflected that Durbin had never appeared more luminous on the screen, thanks to cinematographer, Rudolph Mate's carefully lit compositions.

The plot of It Started with Eve takes some time to get off the ground, a preamble inside the New York Times, with its fictious editor, Harry (Wade Boteler) taking celebrity death bed bets, a curious opener, as it has no basis in the rest of the movie’s plot. Shortly, Jonathan Reynolds Jr., newly arrived from Mexico City, makes his way to his father’s stately manor, informed by Doc Harvey and the private nurse (Clara Blandick) that ‘the end’ is very near for millionaire, Jonathan Sr. Indeed, it would appear so, as the old man lies quietly in his dimly lit bedroom. Ah, but looks can be deceiving. After Jonathan Sr. asks his son for one final favor, to lay his eyes upon his fiancée, Gloria Pennington (Margaret Tallichet) – presumably for the first and last time – Johnny rushes to the hotel, only to discover Gloria and her mother (Catharine Doucet) have stepped out to go shopping in his hour of need. Desperate to find a suitable replacement, Johnny coaxes hat check girl, Anne Terry to accompany him to his father’s estate, promising her $50 if she will only pretend to be his fiancée for a few moments. Reluctantly, Anne agrees. Alas, almost immediately she takes a liking to Jonathan Sr. and he, to her. Sporting a miraculous recovery, as his faith in humanity has been restored, Jonathan Sr.’s burgeoning good health presents his son with a distinct problem: namely, how to inform his father that the girl he met the night before is not the one Johnny intends to marry.

From this moment on, It Started with Eve becomes a mostly light and unpretentious comedy of errors, with oodles of misdirection cleverly piled on to increasingly complicate the situation. Johnny convinces the real Gloria that his father is too sick to receive guests while bribing Anne to continue her ruse for the time-being. Dr. Harvey is brought into this deception. Concerned only with Jonathan’s health, Harvey advises the deception to go on. Alas, having brought Anne in to play the part, the ‘couple’ are met with a rude awakening when Gloria and her mother arrive for an impromptu visit and catch Jonathan with Anne’s lipstick on his lips. At the same instance, Jonathan Sr. promises to introduce Anne to all of New York’s most influential people; contacts to promote her operatic career aspirations. To this end, Jonathan decides to give a lavish house party in Anne’s honor. Regrettably, Johnny is not in favor of this plan for obvious reasons. He tries everything to buy off Anne, breaking her heart in the process. Meanwhile, Jonathan inadvertently learns of the joke being played on him. Knowing Anne is not the girl his son is planning to marry, but determined Anne will be the one he eventually does take to the altar, Jonathan decides to go ahead with the party plans. Alas, Johnny convinces Anne not to attend this soiree, leaving Jonathan to coax her into attending him ‘in private’. Instead, he takes Anne to a fashionable nightclub where everyone knows his name, and proceeds to make such a high-profile case of the girl on his arm that the papers will surely pick up the story and thus, kick-start Anne’s notoriety around town. Alerted to their whereabouts, Johnny and Dr. Harvey come to the nightclub. Johnny is insulting, however, and Anne throws a drink in his face before departing in a huff. The next day, word arrives Johnny must bring Anne to the mansion at once as it seems Jonathan has suffered a heart attack. Rushing to his side, the couple discover the old bugger feigning illness to bring them together. Recognizing their true feelings for each other, Johnny and Anne embrace as Jonathan Sr. retires to smoke his cigar.

It Started with Eve is effortless fun, Laughton’s wily Cupid a wonderful foil for the fussing and feuding Durbin and Cummings. Of all the particulars gone into this rather predictable plot, the weakest is the romance between Johnny and Anne. Throughout, there appears to be zero romantic chemistry between these two – united only in their empathy to please an old and ailing man, presumably on his death bed. And truth to tell, I have never personally warmed to Bob Cummings as an actor. Indeed, throughout most of It Started with Eve, Cumming’s Johnny remains aloof, foppish and brittle towards Anne – hardly precursors for romantic love to blossom and flourish.  Mercifully, the road to their tacked-on reconciliation is a sideline to Laughton’s effortless and enterprising old campaigner – the real manipulator of their emotions. Laughton gives one of his quickest performances here, imbued with a distinctly mischievous verve and effervescence, easily to carry the picture. When all else fails, or becomes increasingly pedestrian to accept, Laughton manages the minor coup of keeping us interested in what is to become of our star-crossed lovers, especially since his puppet master is pulling all the strings. In reflecting on the picture decades later, Durbin conceded, the movie was practically “…handed to Charles Laughton. He was marvelous in the picture and the fact that we remained very close friends even though we were both aware of ‘Eve’ being a Laughton not a Durbin film, shows how fond we were of each other.”

It Started with Eve arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s alliance with Universal Home Video. And compared to the efforts exuded – or lack thereof – on the previously reviewed One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), the results here are infinitely superior, if still imperfect.  When Universal elected to release a Deanna Durbin: Sweethearts Collection DVD set back in 2001, it did so by remastering several movies from the star’s formidable cannon, including It Started with Eve. Those remastering efforts are once again presented here, but with no additional clean-up or tweaking in the interim to marginally improve and refine the image. So, what is here is an exquisitely rendered B&W image with excellent tonality in its gray scale, that unfortunately, contains a barrage of age-related artifacts. Contrast is excellent. Some minor edge enhancement persists. This, like the age-related dirt, scratches, etc. ought to have been eradicated. Honestly, with just a bit more effort and money this could have been perfect. It falls short of that marker.  The audio is similarly excellent in 1.0 DTS mono, but sporting refined clarity that will surely please. Extras are limited to an audio commentary from Samm Deighan; well worth the price of admission. To date, It Started with Eve is only available via Kino’s 3-picture box set: Deanna Durbin Collection: Volume 1. Bottom line: a charming little movie with great heart and undeniable box office appeal.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

1