Mechanic Robert Stack needed to jump start the plot of this initially creaky variation of "Four Daughters" which focuses on one (Deanna Durbin) of the three daughters of scientist Robert Benchley. Durbin is a fellow scientist who happens to sing soprano, and is upset that her boyfriend Stack is more interested in experimenting with shooting potatoes out of car mufflers than romancing her. When fellow scientist Franchot Tone comes to town to meet with Benchley, all three of the daughters set their caps for him, but it is Durbin who ends up in the ballpark with him by using him to get a reaction out of the non-romantic Stack. Durbin, it seems, is set on, as she says, not having an obituary which reads "Scientist, never married. Nice Girl." Get the drift? She is stranded overnight at Tone's mansion, and when he doesn't take advantage of her innocent pass, she storms out, offended. Back in her little home town, she becomes the victim of a prank by papa Benchley and mailman Walter Brennan who announce to a crowd of gossipy neighbors that Durbin and the wealthy Tone are engaged. Of course, Tone and Stack show up, and this sets the scene for the question mark at the end of the title.
With a romantic leading man like Robert Stack (too busy exploring those potatoes in mufflers rather than tomatoes in skirts), why Durbin would take notice of the rather long-in-the-tooth Franchot Tone is rather confusing. She of course gets to sing, but the songs are rather ordinary, more homespun and later patriotic considering the climate of the world in 1941. But Stack is rather unbelievable being cast as the young non-romantic fool more interested in mechanics than girls. In major supporting parts, Brennan and snappy Helen Broderick as Benchley's housekeeper, are extremely amusing. Broderick reminded me of Mary Wickes in the later Doris Day musicals "On Moonlight Bay" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" where her housekeeper was the Greek chorus commenting on everybody's comings and goings. Benchley basically plays the same character he played in all of those MGM shorts.
The whole premise of the title (with the question mark) is that Durbin wants to shake up her reputation, but she is simply too lovely to be believable as someone who fears she will end up as a spinster. She makes an effort to be funny, but unfortunately the script does not deliver in the laughs department unless Brennan, Broderick, and Benchley are on screen.
With a romantic leading man like Robert Stack (too busy exploring those potatoes in mufflers rather than tomatoes in skirts), why Durbin would take notice of the rather long-in-the-tooth Franchot Tone is rather confusing. She of course gets to sing, but the songs are rather ordinary, more homespun and later patriotic considering the climate of the world in 1941. But Stack is rather unbelievable being cast as the young non-romantic fool more interested in mechanics than girls. In major supporting parts, Brennan and snappy Helen Broderick as Benchley's housekeeper, are extremely amusing. Broderick reminded me of Mary Wickes in the later Doris Day musicals "On Moonlight Bay" and "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" where her housekeeper was the Greek chorus commenting on everybody's comings and goings. Benchley basically plays the same character he played in all of those MGM shorts.
The whole premise of the title (with the question mark) is that Durbin wants to shake up her reputation, but she is simply too lovely to be believable as someone who fears she will end up as a spinster. She makes an effort to be funny, but unfortunately the script does not deliver in the laughs department unless Brennan, Broderick, and Benchley are on screen.