IT'S A DATE

MOVIE INFORMATION:
Universal Studios – 1940
1 Hour, 40 Minutes
Black & White

MAIN CREDITS:
Producer…Joe Pasternak
Director…William Seiter
Screenplay…Norman Krasna
Music…Charles Previn

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Pam Drake…Deanna Durbin
Georgia Drake…Kay Francis
John Arlen…Walter Pidgeon
Captain Andrew…Henry Stephenson
Sara Frankenstein…Cecilia Loftus
Sidney Simpson…Samuel Hinds
Carl Ober…Szoke Sakall
Freddie Miller…Lewis Howard

MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
Actress and singer, Georgia Drake has just finished her final performance of a stage play. Her director, Sidney Simpson and playwright, Carl Ober have organized a new play called SAINT ANNE, and they want Georgia to star in the title role. She gladly accepts and decides to go to Hawaii to study her new role. Georgia’s daughter, Pam and her friend, Freddie Miller are visiting New York. Pam convinces Sidney and Carl to visit her theatre group in Maine. Sidney decides that the theatre group should perform an act from Carl’s new play to see how it goes. They are so impressed with Pam’s performance that they give the title role to her instead of Georgia. Pam sets sail for Hawaii to join Georgia, but she does not know that she will be replacing her mother in the new play. During the voyage to Hawaii, Pam practices her lines so intently that Captain Andrew and John Arlen get the impression that Pam is despondent. They hatch a plan to try to take Pam’s mind off her troubled love life. John pretends to be a hungry stowaway wanted by the police, so Pam feeds and protects him. The plan eventually backfires and Pam gets very angry with John. They soon reconcile, but then Pam mistakenly thinks that John is in love with her. When Pam arrives at their home in Hawaii, she hears her mother rehearsing the very same lines that she was rehearsing on the ship. Saddened that Georgia is planning to play the same character, Pam decides to relinquish the role to her mother. Sidney tries to contact Georgia to tell her that she no longer is required for the new play, so Pam gets her mother out of the house by asking John to take both of them to dinner. During dinner, Pam goes back to the house where she talks to Sidney on the phone and tells him that she doesn’t want the role. Meanwhile, John has become smitten with Georgia, and at the same time, Pam wants to marry him. They all go to the Governor’s Ball where Pam finds out that John has proposed to Georgia instead of her. Georgia then tells Sidney that she is giving up her part in the play and that Pam is the best choice for the role. SAINT ANNE is a smash hit on its premiere!

THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: 22 March 1940.

Georgia Drake (Kay Francis) gives a stunning performace on closing night of her play:



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Pam Drake (Deanna Durbin) trys to convince Sidney Simpson (Samuel Hinds) to visit her theatre group.



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Pam sings to Georgia the beautiful Love Is All which was written by Pinky Tomlin & Harry Tobias.



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Pam and Freddie Miller (Lewis Howard) rehearse outside with the young theatre group while waiting for the arrival of Sidney and Carl Ober (Szoke Sakall).



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After a brilliant rendition of Loch Lomond, Pam scores the lead role in SAINT ANNE.



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Pam helps John Arlen (Walter Pidgeon) who claims to be a stowaway.



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John tells an angry Pam that they have been invited to the Captain's table for dinner:



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Georgia boards the boat to greet Pam in Hawaii:



In the scene when Kay Francis is on the boat greeting Deanna on her arrival to Hawaii, Kay actually became sea-sick even though she was on dry land. It seems that the offstage workers rocked the boat just a little too much for land lover Kay. To add to her woe, as Kay was stepping outside the stage to overcome her dizziness with some fresh air, she slipped and fell requiring the studio nurse to administer treatment!

Pam introduces John to Georgia at a nightclub:



On the set in the nightclub scene in Honolulu, the only authentic thing was Harry Owen's band. The temperature on the stage was nothing like balmy Hawaii. It was close to 50 degrees fahrenheit. All the players were freezing in their evening clothes!

Pam beautifully sings Quando M'en Vo from Puccini's LA BOHEME:



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John trys to explain to Pam without success that he is in love with her mother:

Here are two mistakes found in the movie:

Just before Pam and Freddie try to make their "grand entrance" at Georgia's party, Freddie's hair is loose at the front, but the next camera shot shows his hair perfectly combed.

Both Pam and Georgia repeatedly get the same line wrong even after carefully reading the script for SAINT ANNE. The line as stated in the script is as follows: "And now I've taken it back." But both ladies say: "And now I'm taking it back again."

Universal's hard working dress designer, Vera West created 28 costumes for Deanna Durbin for IT'S A DATE at a cost of $18,000.

Deanna Durbin and Walter Pidgeon enjoying a break together between shooting IT'S A DATE:

Deanna Durbin and Walter Pidgeon pass the time during the production of IT'S A DATE:

MEMORABLE LINES:

Pams says to John, "I understand it was alright to pretend you were in love with me because you had nothing better to do. To amuse yourself; to talk to hear the sound of your voice; to make a plaything out of me. I'm just someone with no emotions that you can use and throw aside. It's a man's world and a woman's only been put in it to amuse him. Well I hope you're amused. I hope I've given you a memory you can look back on; that you can laught about. Laugh, laugh, laugh all you please. As for me, I don't need anyone. I'm happy the way I am - alone. I'll always be alone. I'm through with men!"

During the filming of IT'S A DATE, Deanna snuck up behind Walter Pidgeon, putting her hand up close behind his ear and started to file a nail. Pidgeon jumped up with a cringe and said, "Don't do that!" Pidgeon, it seemed, couldn't stand the sound of a file rasping against a finger nail. He may of been the only masculine star in Hollywood who never had a manicure. He clipped his own nails with scissors and then shivered as he finished the job with a few hasty whacks with the file.

Deanna Durbin fans waiting to see IT'S A DATE:



The title IT HAPPENED IN KALOHA was also considered.

IT'S A DATE on the cover of Loew's Weekly:

These are comments made by some of the audience after the very first screening of IT'S A DATE:

"Most valuable player in Hollywood."

"I hadn't realized she was so beautiful."

"Sure she can sing, but the gal can act. And comedy, too."

"That settles it; she'll be a star for 15 or 20 more years."

"She's grown up."

It wasn't until IT'S A DATE that Deanna Durbin took any pride in a dramatic performance.

Deanna said: "That was my first chance to be something besides a little girl running around getting into mischief."

Lewis Howard & Walter Pidgeon are two smart men: