The remainder of the film concerns Patsy's endeavours to obtain the famed conductor to agree to help, for one night, "one hundred men and a girl". Problem! The great man is committed to conduct in Europe, but from the very outset we know how it all will end. This is a 1930s fairytale, a fairytale that a world recovering from the Great Depression needed and wanted to hear. Universal's producer, Joe Pasternak, tells the heartwarming, but never cloying, story with economy - just over eighty minutes - and uses the best resources the studio had to offer. The original score, which did win an Oscar, is at times arrestingly lovely. The sets are excellent, from theatres and plush apartments, to boarding houses and basements. The script is tight, often very funny, and the lighting and camerawork are excellent. For its time the sound recording is outstanding - another Oscar nomination. The climax of the film has the unemployed musicians, having invaded Stokowski's house, ranged on the stairs of his house, playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, Stokowski conducting from the top of the stairs mentally "pushed" on by Deanna, with the camera excitingly capturing it all. It is exhilarating.

    For the second time Deanna Durbin was directed by Henry Koster. Most commentary insists that the teenager's acting was "limited" - but this is not a heavy drama. Under Koster's direction she delivers a performance that is dramatic enough at times, funny a lot of the time, charming and - the most surprising thing about Deanna Durbin - so natural and unaffected. Just look at her entrance on the stairs as she greets Adolphe Menjou (her first close-up revealing the slightly straightened dentures), a wonderful minute or so that she spends sharing a chair with Mischa Auer, and her agony at Mrs Frost's party when all she wants is food while the hostess insists that she sing.

    Once again Pasternak and/or Koster have Miss Durbin surrounded by a throng of tried and true professionals. Adolphe Menjou is excellent, charming, subtle and never maudlin in a father role that could be so corny. Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette, Mischa Auer (in this he is outstanding) and Billy Gilbert are always welcome screen faces. Finally there is Frank Jenks as the cab driver who has a couple of great "bits" as he drives the fareless Deanna around the city. You probably don't know Frank Jenks by name, but you will definitely know the face.

    The film has loads of beautiful music. Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Verdi and Liszt, all conducted by Stokowski. In addition there is the delightful It's Raining Sunbeams and the previously mentioned A Heart That's Free. This movie comes from an era when movie audiences were regularly treated to music that had endured the test of time, and when the general population knew the names of great conductors, pianists, dancers and singers. Sad how today's technology has narrowed the cultural awareness of the "general public".

    No apologies for this film. That 100 Men And a Girl is almost seventy years old has no bearing whatsoever. This is a first rate movie from the past starring one of the loveliest young talents ever projected onto the silver screen.