Deanna Durbin is all grown up in Hers to Hold, the unofficial sequel to her "Three Smart Girls" films of the 1930s. Durbin plays Penelope Craig, the starry-eyed daughter of wealthy Judson and Dorothy Craig (Charles Winninger, Nella Walker). Developing a crush on much-older playboy Bill Morley (Joseph Cotton), Penelope stops at nothing to land the elusive Morley as her husband. Highlights include Durbin's renditions of "Begin the Beguine" and the "Seguidilla" from Carmen, and a captivating sequence that includes highlights from Durbin's earlier films, presented as home movies!
07-16-1943
1h 34m
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Edna Mae Durbin (December 4, 1921 – April 17, 2013), known professionally as Deanna Durbin, was a Canadian-born actress and singer, who moved to the USA with her family in infancy. She appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias. In 1946, Durbin was the second-highest-paid woman in the United States, just behind Bette Davis; her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years.
Durbin was a child actress who made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. She achieved success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936), One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), and It Started with Eve (1941). Her work was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy, and led to Durbin being awarded the Academy Juvenile Award in 1938.
As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her and attempted to move into sophisticated non-musical roles with film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945). These films, produced by frequent collaborator and second husband Felix Jackson, were not as successful; she continued in musical roles until her retirement. Upon her retirement and divorce from Jackson in 1949, Durbin married producer-director Charles Henri David and moved to a farmhouse near Paris. She withdrew from public life, granting only one interview on her career in 1983.
Joseph Cheshire Cotten (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He is associated with Orson Welles, leading to appearances in Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay, and The Third Man (1949). He was a star in his own right with films such as Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Love Letters (1945), Portrait of Jennie (1948), and The Third Man (1949).
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Charles Winninger (May 26, 1884 – January 27, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, most often cast in comedies or musicals, but equally at home in dramas.
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Nella Walker (March 6, 1886 – March 22, 1971) was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and in her teens became half of the husband and wife vaudeville team "Mack and Walker", with her husband Wilbur Mack. By 1929 she had launched a film acting career, her first film role being in Tanned Legs alongside Sally Blane, Dorothy Revier, June Clyde, and Arthur Lake. She appeared in three films in 1929, and easily transitioned to "talking films", appearing in another four films in 1930, possibly making the smooth transition because she was never an established silent film actress.
In 1931 her film career took off, with her appearing in ten films that year, five of which were uncredited. Her marriage ended not long after her film career was on the rise, and from 1932-33 she appeared in fifteen films, only five of which were uncredited. In 1935, her career improved, and between that year and 1938 she had 23 film appearances. Her biggest film appearance during that period was in Young Dr. Kildare alongside Lionel Barrymore and Lew Ayres. Throughout the 1930s her career was strong, and, despite her never being a premier "star", she repeatedly had solid acting roles. She finished that decade strong in 1939 with nine film roles, only three of which were uncredited.
The 1940s mirrored her success of the previous decade in many ways, with her appearing in 37 films from 1940 to 1947. Now later in her career, and over 60 years of age, she slowed her career for a time, not having another role until 1950 when she appeared in Nancy Goes to Rio alongside Ann Sothern and Carmen Miranda. She appeared in another two films in 1952, then had her last film acting role in 1954, in the film Sabrina alongside Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn.
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Samuel Southey Hinds (April 4, 1875 – October 13, 1948) was an American actor and former lawyer. He was often cast as kindly authoritarian figures and appeared in over 200 films until his death.
Hinds was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Joseph E. Hinds and Mary A. Beetham Hinds.
He was a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Harvard Law School and worked for over 32 years as a lawyer before becoming a professional actor. After he lost most of his money in the financial crisis of 1929, Hinds retired as a lawyer and joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse. He started acting in Broadway shows at age 54.
Hinds is perhaps best remembered for playing Peter Bailey, the father of James Stewart and founder of the Bailey Building and Loan, in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and for his part as Paul Sycamore in You Can't Take It With You (1938), both films directed by Frank Capra. Hinds was also known for his roles in the Abbott & Costello films such as Buck Privates (1941), Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942) and Pardon My Sarong (1942). He also portrayed Lew Ayres' father in the Dr. Kildare film series during the early 1940s. Hinds mostly played supporting roles, often kind and dignified authority figures; often lawyers, doctors, mayors, judges or the father of the main figure.
Hinds' first film was If I Had a Million (1932); his second film was The Road Is Open Again (1933) where he portrayed President Woodrow Wilson. His earlier career was reflected in the role of Judge Thatcher, tortured by the mad Dr. Richard Vollin (Bela Lugosi) in The Raven (1935).
Hinds acted in a total of 214 films. His last film was The Bribe, released in 1949, after his death.
Hinds died of pneumonia in Pasadena, California, on October 13, 1948 at age 73. He was married to Dorothy Cruickshack, they had two children.
Evelyn Felisa Ankers (August 17, 1918 - August 29, 1985) was an American actress best known for playing roles in American horror films during the 1940s.
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Douglas Wood (October 31, 1880 – January 13, 1966) was an American actor of stage and screen during the first six decades of the 20th century. Born on Halloween 1880 (October 31), his mother, Ida Jeffreys, was a stage actress. During the course of his career, Wood would appear in dozens of Broadway productions, and well over 100 films. Towards the end of his career, he would also make several guest appearances on television. Wood died in 1966. At the end of 1933, Wood began work on his first film, with a supporting role in David Butler's comedy, Bottom's Up, starring Spencer Tracy. The following year he would originate the role in talking pictures of Wopsle in Stuart Walker's 1934 production of Great Expectations. Over the next 20 years he would appear in over 125 films, mostly in smaller and supporting roles. In 1937 he would appear in a small role in Maytime, the sound version of the 1910s play in which he had starred. Other notable films in which he appeared include: Two Against the World (1936), starring Humphrey Bogart; the Abbott and Costello vehicle, Buck Privates (1941); Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), starring Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes, and Claude Rains; Howard Hawk's 1941 classic, Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper; and The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), starring Fredric March.
During the 1950s, Wood appeared in a handful of pictures, mostly B-films. During the early and mid-1950s Wood would make several guest appearances on several television series, including The Lone Ranger (1950–51), Fireside Theater (1952-53), and Topper (1954). His final screen performance would be in a small role in That Certain Feeling (1956), starring Bob Hope, Eva Marie Saint, and George Sanders. In 1958 Wood returned to the Broadway stage with a supporting role in Jane Eyre, it would be his final acting performance. Wood died on January 13, 1966 in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, California.
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Nydia Eileen Westman (February 19, 1902 – May 23, 1970) was an American actress and singer of stage, screen and television.
Westman's parents, Theodore and Lily (Wren) Westman were active in vaudeville in her native New York City. In addition to their working together on stage, her mother was a writer and her father was a composer. She attended the Professional Children's School.
Her sisters, Lolita and Neville were actresses, and her brother, Theodore (d. November 20, 1927), was an actor and playwright.
Westman's career ranged from episodic appearances on TV series such as That Girl and Dragnet and uncredited bit roles in movies to appearances in groundbreaking films (such as Craig's Wife, which starred Rosalind Russell, and the first film version of Little Women.
Westman's screen debut came in Strange Justice (1922). She appeared in 31 films in the 1930s.
She appeared as the housekeeper Mrs. Featherstone in the 1962–1963 ABC series, Going My Way, which starred Gene Kelly and Leo G. Carroll as Roman Catholic priests in New York City.
Westman's first Broadway play was Pigs (1924); her last was Midgie Purvis (1961).
She broke ground on stage, debuting the role of Nell off-Broadway in Samuel Beckett's Endgame, for which she won one of the first Obie awards.
Westman was married to Robert Sparks, a producer, from 1930 until 1937; they had a daughter, actress Kate Williamson, born on September 19, 1931.
Westman died of cancer at the age of sixty-eight in Burbank, California.
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Irving Bacon (September 6, 1893 – February 5, 1965) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 500 films.
Bacon played on the stage for a number of years before getting into films in 1920. He was sometimes cast in films directed by Lloyd Bacon (incorrectly named as his brother in some sources) such as The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938). He often played comical "average guys".
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he played the weary postman Mr. Crumb in Columbia Pictures' Blondie film series. One of his bigger roles was as a similarly flustered postman in the thriller Cause for Alarm! in 1952.
During the 1950s, Bacon worked steadily in a number of television sitcoms, most notably I Love Lucy, where he appeared in two episodes, one which cast him as Ethel Mertz's father.
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Ruth Lee (September 14, 1895 - August 3, 1975) was an American film and stage actress. In film she played primarily uncredited parts. As a stage actress she acted in stock theater with the National Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Lee died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. She was married to the actor Grandon Rhodes.
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William B. Davidson (June 16, 1888 – September 28, 1947) was an American film actor.
Davidson attended Columbia University where he played football. He became a popular football star. This fame eventually led to his foray into motion pictures after he had spent some time as a lawyer. He started in films in 1914 with Vitagraph and supported well known stage and film actresses such as Ethel Barrymore, Mabel Taliaferro, Charlotte Walker, Olga Petrova, Viola Dana, June Caprice, Edna Goodrich, and Mae West. He appeared in 318 films between 1915 and 1949.
He was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and died in Santa Monica, California. His first Hollywood film was For the Honor of the Crew. Afterward, he appeared in many films, his best-known role was perhaps the Ship's captain in The Most Dangerous Game. He remained in show business until his sudden death after surgery in 1947.
