There’s a funny scene in Woody Allen’s BANANAS where South American terrorists are torturing someone…by subjecting them to endless replaying of a NAUGHTY MARIETTA recording.

A more effective way of torturing people would certainly be subjecting them to the insipid films of Deanna Durbin. Her biggest virtue was having a rather prominent unibrow, and while her screechy voice and inability to act were well matched by the cheap Universal movies in which she starred.

Her few years of popularity are a mystery to me….

Universal video has assembled a bunch of her films in this DVD collection in ratty transfers and a shoddy package. Her bevy of fans (all three dozen of them) may eat this up, but as the Amazon sales ranking suggests, this release will probably not have a follow-up.

Deanna is forgotten, and bless her heart, let her stay that way!

It’s a trade off because the pack combines 3 of her most notable and popular films with three of her films that were not!

I haven’t actually viewed any of the movies myself since I bought the dvd’d as a Christmas gift for a friend who loves old movies. I can tell you she is thrilled with this set and can’t stop watching it…it has become an addiction. She brought it to her annual “sister’s reunion” and they spent the whole week-end watching these movies. It’s unanimous…they all loved them. The dvd’s are of good quality and it seems this is a great purchase for anyone who is a Deanna Durbin fan and/or enjoys the musical genre from the 30′s and 40′s.