It Started with Eve is a 1941 musical romantic comedy film directed by Henry Koster. The film stars Deanna Durbin, Charles Laughton, and Robert Cummings.
Director: Henry Koster
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Cast: Deanna Durbin, Charles Laughton, Robert Cummings, Guy Kibbee, Margaret Tallichet, Catherine Doucet, Walter Catlett
US Box Office: $3,000,000 ($114,800,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Release Date: September 26, 1941
Plot Summary: Seemingly at his deathbed, millionaire Jonathan Reynolds Sr.’s (Charles Laughton) last wish is to meet his son Johnny’s (Robert Cummings) fiancée before he dies. Johnny isn’t able to find his fiancée Gloria Pennington (Margaret Tallichet) in time, so he hires a hat check girl named Anne Terry (Deanna Durbin) to pose as Gloria to meet his father. Jonathan really likes Anne, and soon he miraculously recovers from his illness, which forces Johnny and Anne to continue to pretend that they are engaged, much to the annoyance of Johnny and the real Gloria.
Production: Universal producer Joe Pasternak began developing the film that would eventually become It Started with Eve in 1938. The film was originally titled Almost an Angel and was planned to star French actress Danielle Darrieux. The initial script was written by Ralph Bock and Frederick Kohner. The film was delayed until December of 1941, when Pasternak finally restarted the project. The film was retitled It Started with Eve, and Henry Koster was assigned to direct. Pasternak and Koster had a long history together, they worked together in Europe before emigrating to the United States. Most of Koster’s American films up to this point were produced by Pasternak. The script for It Started with Eve was written by Norman Krasna and Leo Townsend. Due to a disagreement with Koster, Krasna quit the film when there were still forty pages yet to be written.
In early March of 1941, Deanna Durbin was assigned to play the lead role in It Started with Eve. Her character was Anne Terry, a hat check girl and aspiring singer who pretends to be engaged to the son of a millionaire. Durbin became a star as a child actress due to her supporting role in the musical comedy Three Smart Girls (1936). All her films up to this point were produced by Joe Pasternak. Henry Koster had previously directed Durbin in Three Smart Girls, One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), First Love (1939), and Spring Parade (1940). Robert Cummings was cast as Johnny Reynolds, the film’s conventional leading man character and Anne’s eventual love interest. He had previously starred with Durbin in Three Smart Girls Grow Up and Spring Parade. Charles Laughton was cast as Jonathan Reynolds Sr. in February 1941.
Filming on It Started with Eve was originally supposed to begin in late March, but it was delayed for two months while Deanna Durbin and her husband Vaughn Paul went on their honeymoon. Henry Koster began shooting It Started with Eve at the end of March and production wrapped up at the start of September. Despite being shot almost entirely on set, production on It Started with Eve was very difficult for Koster. Richard Carle, who was originally cast as Dr. Harvey, died three weeks into production. Most of the scenes already shot at that point included his character, so Koster had to reshoot everything with Walter Catlett in the part. Then, Deanna Durbin fell ill for four weeks. Koster tried to shoot scenes without her character for the first five days, but the production had to shut down for the rest of this time. Shortly after Durbin recovered, Laughton became ill, which further delayed production. One electrician fell from the scaffolding on set and broke a leg, while another electrician suffered burn wounds. Later in production Pasternak announced that he was leaving Universal for MGM. To top this all off, Koster was going through a messy divorce at the time of production.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Near the beginning of It Started with Eve, one of the newspaper editors remarks that had Jonathan Reynolds Sr. lived two centuries earlier he would have made a great pirate, like “Captain Kidd himself.” A few years later Charles Laughton played Captain William Kidd in the adventure film Captain Kidd (1945) and reprised his role in the parody Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952). Despite playing father and son, Charles Laughton was not actually that much older than Robert Cummings. At the start of filming, Laughton was only forty-one years old and Cummings was thirty years old. Laughton frequently played characters who were much older than he was.
Reception: It Started with Eve was released on September 26, 1941. Despite its relatively high budget (for a comedy film shot entirely on set anyways), the film was a hit at the domestic and world box office and earned a healthy profit for Universal. It Started with Eve was the last film to pair Durbin with director Henry Koster and producer Joe Pasternak. Pasternak had recently left Universal to join MGM. Durbin got along well with Charles Laughton, and the two became friends. She later appeared with him in the comedy film Because of Him (1946). Lux Radio Theater broadcast an hour-long radio adaptation of the movie on November 20, 1944; and The Screen Guild Theater broadcast their own adaptation on April 6, 1950. Charles Laughton reprised his role as Jonathan in both adaptations. In 1964, Universal produced a remake of the film titled I’d Rather be Rich.
It Started with Eve received mostly good reviews from critics when it was first released. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times gave the film a positive review. Crowther thought that It Started with Eve would please all viewers, and he praised the performances of Durbin and Laughton, as well as Durbin’s singing. In modern times, It Started with Eve has also received a mostly positive response. Filmink praised the performances of the three lead stars and noted that the film was superior to the 1964 remake. Ken Hancke of Mountain Xpress gave the film a 4.5/5 star review and praised the cast.
Oscars: It Started with Eve was nominated for one Oscar at the 15th Academy Awards ceremony: Best Score for a Musical Picture (Charles Previn and Hans J. Salter). Previn and Salter lost the Oscar to Ray Heindorf and Heinz Roemheld for their work on Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). Despite being released in September of 1941, It Started with Eve received its Oscar nomination for the 15th Academy Awards ceremony (honoring the films of 1942) rather than the 14th ceremony (honoring the films of 1941).
Why You Should See It: It Started with Eve is a good classic romantic comedy film. The movie features plenty of plenty of charming and funny moments. The interactions between Laughton and Walter Catlett (Dr. Harvey) are particularly amusing. The two scenes set at the train station were also quite humorous. The friendship between Durbin and Laughton was cute and charming. Additionally, Durbin’s singing in It Started with Eve is quite impressive.
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