Up in Central Park

Thanks to DVDs, I have been able to see most of Deanna Durbin's movies. As a boy I stayed away from romances and musicals, in favor of action movies. Now I find the formulaic musical romances starring Deanna quite good entertainment, because the movies usually had clever writers and good actors -- and above all had Durbin herself, with her charming manners, good looks, and glorious voice. But Up in Central Park is hard to defend as an artistic success. The dance scenes are dull and have little relevance to the plot. Sigmund Romberg's music, as the conventional opinion goes, is far from his best--competent but hardly memorable. Dick Haymes, though he has all the required energy, must cope with an improbable script. Apart from buying votes, what is Boss Tweed actually doing to corrupt the city? To be fair, movies can hardly do justice to the high art of graft that won Tweed a huge fortune and an early death in prison. But the charming villain so elegantly potrayed by Vincent Price is from another world, remote from Tammany Hall.

Universal could not have known how poorly this Deanna Durbin film release would be received by many, but Durbin fans know it isn't so. While this Deanna film set in the New York of the 1880's has some of that artificial feel later musicals of the 1950's would have, it also has its charm. Based on a long-running Broadway musical play of the time written by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, with music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, some nice performances and a warm and sweet ending more than make up for that "they're going to sing now" feeling you get at times.Deanna is Irish immigrant Rosie Moore. She and her father Timothy (Albert Sharpe) come through the gates of Ellis Island with big dreams for Rosie, who wants to be an opera singer. Rosie's joy abounds as they get within sight of America and its most colorful city, New York. But she and her father have the misfortune to arrive at a time when New York politics is at its most corrupt, thanks to William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, portrayed with zest by Vincent Price.You can tell Price is having fun playing Tweed, a smarmy and corrupt politician who runs New York by proxy and has no conscience about it at all. When Rosie's dad falls into a plumb job as the Superintendent of Central Park after voting multiple times for Tweed's candidate for Mayor of New York, Rosie and her dad seem to be living out the dreams they'd had when boarding the ship for Ameica. Then in steps John Matthews.Dick Haymes is excellent as the reporter for the New York Times out to expose Boss Tweed and his corrupt cohorts to the people of New York, most of whom know what a crook Tweed is but don't dare say anything. The sweet and naive Rosie is fooled by Tweed, of course, and the smitten John does everything he can to protect her from the fallout. He must also convince her dad, who doesn't see what's so bad about Tweed either until a school teacher and the constitution itself opens his eyes.The songs are relatively few, as it is my understanding that some were dropped for the film version of this popular play. The beautiful duet of Deanna and Haymes on "Carousel in the Park" ranks very high with the best film songs of Durbin. The sets are lovely, as is Deanna in the fashions of the day. Even the gates of Ellis Island look gorgeous as it's just that kind of film. Price's Tweed remains a scoundrel even in defeat, but he's a scoundrel so awful you have to admire his tenacity!A brief but wonderful last few moments of this film with Rosie and her father and John reconciling in the snow in Old New York makes this a good one for Durbin fans to pick up. Others may give it only a three or four star rating, depending on your taste for this type of musical. But it does grow on you a little more each time you watch it. Collectors of Deanna's films have another chance to see their favorite in a snowy 1880's New York, so will want to give this film a look for themselves. Not her best, but still charming.

There's only so many films that stars Deanna Durbin, and to me they are all good. Some better than others but most of them have Deanna singing alongin nice little stories that are easy to digest.Deanna, sure had that golden voice to make you stop and stare and listen. In this movie she is a Irish Immigrant looking for a better life for herfather and herself. Still a good movie, even if they dropped a few songs. I cringe when i read that there would be a evil person, played byVincent Price, but i forgot these are the 50's and evil does not point togun, blood, exploding heads and foul language...crooked and evil in the 50'smovies the characters were more cunning and after material and money. SoVincent Price played quite a ' Nice' bad person,,especially compared to todaymovies. They dont and cant make these anymore as the younger audience would probablywould'nt have the patience...and probably results to texting in the cinema asthey are doing now with their electronic toys.So to whoever enjoys these types of movies....consider yourself lucky assome of them are still around..Enjoy

I have most of Deanna Durbin's movies. This one, except for her beautiful voice, wasn't one of my favorites.

For once, movie critic Leonard Maltin was on target when he called this black and white musical from 1948 disappointing. It is, in the extreme. Durbin is getting a bit too heavy to place innocent young girls any more. (This is among her last films.) Vincent Price is a parody of himself playing Boss Tweed (who in reality weighed 325). The dance sequences are alarmingly cheap and uninspired. And the music is just plain bad. The film was based on a play, and some of the music was omitted. Why? In short, Universal has done it again: a very mediocre film that wastes the great talents of Deanna Durbin and Dick Haymes.

Deanna Durbin sings beautifully as usual. Fluffy plot, but fine for a musical comedy.

Super cute movie

As always, Deanna is fantastic. Wish she had sung more. Dick Haynes was very good also.