I'll Be Yours

{{Infobox film

| name = I'll Be Yours

| image = I'll_Be_Yours_1947_Poster.jpg

| caption = theatrical release poster

| director = William A. Seiter

| producer = Felix Jackson

| writer = Feliz Johnson (adaptation)

| screenplay = Preston Sturges

| based_on = {{based on|A jó tündér|Ferenc Molnár}}

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| music = Frank Skinner

| cinematography = Hal Mohr

| editing = Otto Ludwig

| studio = Universal Pictures

| distributor = Universal Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1947|02|02|US}}

| runtime = 93 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

I'll Be Yours is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Deanna Durbin. Based on the play A jó tündér by Ferenc Molnár, the film is about a small-town girl who tells a fib to a wealthy businessman, which then creates complications. The play had earlier been adapted for the 1935 film The Good Fairy by Preston Sturges.

Plot

Louise Ginglebusher (Deanna Durbin) is a young woman from the small town of Cobleskill who comes to New York City to make it in show business. In a café, she's befriended by a kindhearted but ornery waiter, Wechsberg (William Bendix), and meets a bearded struggling attorney, George Prescott (Tom Drake). She gets a job as an usherette from Mr. Buckingham (Walter Catlett), the owner of the prestigious Buckingham Music Hall, who's an old friend of her father.

While working at the Music Hall she meets Wechsberg again, and later when she is accosted by a masher, she gets rid of him by claiming that Wechsberg is her husband. Wechsberg then invites her to come with him the next night when he works at an upscale social gathering at the Savoy Ritz. Louise borrows a gown and comes to the party, where they get her past the headwaiter by claiming she's one of the entertainers. Mingling, she meets the host, J. Conrad Nelson (Adolphe Menjou), a philandering meat magnate, who requests that Louise sing a song. She does, so beautifully that Nelson offers to star her in a Broadway musical. To discourage Nelson's obvious physical interest in her, Louise tell him that she's married, whereupon Nelson offers buy her out of her marriage by paying her husband for his loss. Impetuously deciding to do a good deed, she gives Nelson the business card that George Prescott, the struggling lawyer, had given her, and tells him that George is her husband.

When Nelson visits George the next day in his shabby storefront law office, and offers to make him the legal representative for his company, George is suspicious and refuses the offer, but Nelson allays his concerns by telling the ethical young attorney that he needs an honest lawyer as a role model for his staff – the truth is he wants George on his staff so he can keep him occupied while he pursues Louise. Many complications ensue after Louise gets George to shave off his old-man's beard, revealing the handsome young man underneath, and a stroll in the moonlight provokes George to propose marriage to Louise.TCM [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/78974/ill-be-yours Full synopsis]Deming, Mark [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:96132~T0 Plot synopsis] (AllMovie)

Cast

Deanna Durbin as Louise Ginglebusher
Tom Drake as George Prescott
William Bendix as Wechsberg
Adolphe Menjou as J. Conrad Nelson
Walter Catlett as Mr. Buckingham
Franklin Pangborn as Barber
William Trenk as Captain
Joan Shawlee as Blonde
John Phillips as Thug

Cast notes:

Two years after making I'll Be Yours, Deanna Durbin retired from film acting. In an interview in 1981, she described her last four films – this one, Something in the Wind (1947), Up in Central Park (1948), and For the Love of Mary (1948) – as "terrible". However, in another interview, her last husband Charles David said she liked making movies except for her last three – "she hated those" (not including I'll Be Yours).{{Cite news|title=ON THE TRAIL OF DEANNA DURBIN|author=Paskov, David|date=Apr 25, 1982|work=Los Angeles Times|page=m3}}

Songs

I'll Be Yours was designed to be a vehicle for Deanna Durbin, and all the songs in it are sung by her.TCM [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/78974/ill-be-yours Music]IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039484/soundtrack Soundtracks]

"Granada" – words and music by Agustín Lara
"It's Dream Time" – by Walter Schumann (music) and Jack Brook (lyrics)
"Cobbleskill School Song" – by Walter Schumann (music) and Jack Brook (lyrics)
"Love's Own Sweet Song" – by Emmerich Kalman (music) and Catherine Chisholm Cushing and E. P. Heath (lyrics)
"Sari Waltz"
"Brahms' Lullaby" – by Johannes Brahms

Production

In December 1940 Universal announced that Durbin would star in Susi a remake of The Good Fairy to be directed by Henry Koster, produced by Joe Pasternak and written by Norman Krasna. She was to make it following Ready for Romance and before The Phantom of the Opera.{{Cite news|title=NEWS OF THE SCREEN|work=New York Times |date=Dec 27, 1940|page=22}} Plans to make these films were postponed so Durbin could make It Started with Eve.{{Cite news|title=Koster Will continue as Durbin Film Guide|author=Schallert, Edwin|date=May 28, 1941|work=Los Angeles Times|page=A10}} Eventually Pasternak and Koster both left Universal; Ready for Romance was never made, and Durbin elected not to do Phantom of the Opera

In January 1946 the project was reactivated – Universal announced it would be Durbin's first film back after having a baby, and would be called Josephine.{{Cite news|title=MACDONALD CAREY RETURNS TO FILMS: Signed by Paramount After 3 Years in Marine Corps-- Nine Openings This Week|date=Jan 21, 1946|work=New York Times|page=31}} In April Morrie Ryskind was reportedly writing the script.{{Cite news|title=Hedda Hopper LOOKING AT HOLLYWOOD|date=Apr 22, 1946|work=Los Angeles Times|page=9}} In June 1946 it was announced that William Seiter would direct the movie, now called I'll Be Yours.{{Cite news|title=BARRYMORE IS OUT OF ROOSEVELT ROLE|work=New York Times|date=June 7, 1946|page=28}} In August Adolphe Menjou joined the cast. Tom Drake was borrowed from MGM.{{Cite news|title=Powell, Loy Recalled for 'Song of Thin Man'|author=Scheuer, Philip K.|date=Aug 21, 1946|work=Los Angeles Times|page=A2}}

Filming started August 13, 1946. It was the first movie made at Universal after they merged with International Pictures.{{cite news|title=FILM STUDIO SIGNS COMPTOM BENNETT: He Will Direct for International Maugham's 'Ashenden' as First U.S. Assignment|work=THE NEW YORK TIMES.|date=Aug 14, 1946|page=34}} Background scenes were shot on location in New York City.TCM [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/78974/ill-be-yours Notes] It was released on 2 February 1947.IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039484/releaseinfo Release dates] Among other taglines, it was marketed with "Heaven Protects the Working Girl...but who protects the guy she's WORKING to get?"IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039484/taglines Taglines]

Tom Drake fell ill during filming and Durbin had to shoot around him.{{Cite news|title=Hedda Hopper: LOOKING AT HOLLYWOOD|date=Oct 17, 1946|work=Los Angeles Times|page=A3}}

In November 1946 producer and writer Felix Jackson, who was married to Durbin, asked for and received a release from his contract with Universal. He agreed to supervise the final edit of I'll Be Yours.{{Cite news|title=ARGOSY PLANNING 2 'FUGITIVE' FILMS|work=New York Times|date=Nov 9, 1946|page=24}} (Jackson's marriage to Durbin would end and she married Charles David.)

Other versions and adaptations

Before being adapted by Preston Sturges for the 1935 film The Good Fairy, the Molnár play had been presented on Broadway with Helen Hayes playing "Lu" for 151 performances in 1931–1932,{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/11450 |title=The Good Fairy (1931 production) |website=IBDB.com |publisher=Internet Broadway Database }} with another production playing 68 performances later that year.{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/11678 |title=The Good Fairy (1932 production) |website=IBDB.com |publisher=Internet Broadway Database }} Preston Sturges used his screenplay for that earlier film as the basis for the 1951 Broadway musical Make a Wish, which had music and lyrics by Hugh Martin.{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/1939 |title=Make A Wish (1951 production) |website=IBDB.com |publisher=Internet Broadway Database }}

On January 23, 1950 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast a one-hour radio adaptation of I'll Be Yours, with William Bendix and Ann Blyth.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MDkxAAAAIBAJ&pg=3228%2C3019253&q=William+Bendix+Robert+Cummings+Ann+Blyth |title=Radiolog: What's What and Who's Who on the Airwaves |newspaper=The Toledo Blade|location=Ohio |date=1950-01-23 |access-date=2021-02-27 }} For television, Hallmark Hall of Fame presented The Good Fairy on NBC in 1956, produced by Maurice Evans, directed by George Schaefer, and starring Julie Harris, Walter Slezak and Cyril Ritchard.{{TCMDb title|76697|The Good Fairy ("Notes")}}