Hers to Hold
Cast & Crew
Frank Ryan
Deanna Durbin
Joseph Cotten
Charles Winninger
Ludwig Stossel
Nella Walker
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Friends Bill Morley and Rosey Blake both spy debutante Penelope Craig at an American Red Cross blood drive and are attracted. Bill, a playboy flyer, pretends to be a doctor in order to meet Penny and get her address and phone number for his "little black book." That night, Bill and Rosey crash Penny's parents' anniversary party at the Craigs' home, and to get even, Penny exposes Bill's deception by introducing him to some old family friends: hypochondriac Mrs. Cartwright and physician Dr. Crane. Before he leaves her parents' home, however, Bill kisses Penny, and she immediately falls in love with him. Penny then follows Bill to a Burbank nightclub, which is near the Vega Aircraft factory where Bill and Rosey work on the assembly lines. Later, Penny and Bill go to the beach, and Bill tells her that she should not get involved with him, as he is not the domestic type and is merely waiting for his papers to join the Air Force. Not to be dissuaded, Penny gets a job at the aircraft factory, and when she is unable to find Bill in the giant plant, she performs a song at lunch to attract his attention. That night, while the Craigs are screening home movies, Bill comes over to their house and tells Penny that he has gotten his orders. They try to break up, but quickly discover that they have fallen in love and decide to spend what little time he has left in the United States together. Just before Bill is about to leave for overseas duty, however, Hannah Gordon, one of Penny's friends at the factory, learns that her flyer husband has been shot down over the Pacific. Penny then goes to her father Judson and asks him to use his influence to keep Bill at the aircraft factory. Judson refuses and tells Penny that it is her duty to support Bill's induction into the military. Penny then returns to the factory to learn that Bill has decided to end their relationship. Later, Bill tells Rosey that he ended his romance with Penny to spare her the pain he saw Hannah suffer. Rosey then goes to the Craig home and tries to give Penny a note, telling her that Bill really loves her, but Judson has ordered Binns, the family butler, not to allow either Bill or Rosey in the house. Penny receives the note, however, and races to the airport in time to say goodbye to Bill. When he tells her that he is still worried about her, Penny, paraphrasing Hannah, replies that "if he flies 'em, then she'll build 'em."
Director
Frank Ryan
Cast
Deanna Durbin
Joseph Cotten
Charles Winninger
Ludwig Stossel
Nella Walker
Gus Schilling
Samuel S. Hinds
Evelyn Ankers
Fay Helm
Iris Adrian
Murray Alper
Douglas Wood
Minna Phillips
Nydia Westman
Irving Bacon
Leon Belasco
Jody Gilbert
Alice Talton
Joseph Bernard
Fay Holderness
Vangie Beilby
Marie Harmon
William Davidson
Ruth Lee
Virginia Sale
James Bush
George Chandler
Sarah Edwards
Eddie Dunn
Eddy Chandler
Charles Sherlock
Phil Warren
Eddie Acuff
Cyril Ring
Jack Gardner
Billy Young
Billy Nelson
Harry Tyler
Henry Roquemore
Gary Bruce
Billy Wayne
George O'hanlon
Dot Farley
Janet Shaw
Jack Mulhall
Ernie Adams
Bobby Barber
Jerry Mandy
Evelyn Wahl
Spec O'donnell
Carl Vernell
Teddy Infuhr
Charles Moore
Polly Bailey
Jennifer Holt
Buster Brodie
Larry Mcgrath
Bob Perry
Heinie Conklin
Charles Shrader
Dora Baker
Bill Sloan
Crew
Adrian
Georges Bizet
Woody Bredell
Bernard B. Brown
Lewis R. Foster
R. A. Gausman
John B. Goodman
Ludovic Halevy
Frank Harford
Laurence Hope
Felix Jackson
Ted Kent
John D. Klorer
Herb Magidson
Joseph A. Mcdonough
Jimmy Mchugh
Henri Meilhac
Cole Porter
Charles Previn
Robert Pritchard
Richard H. Riedel
Tex Ritter
Frank Sanucci
Andres De Segurola
Frank Shaw
Frank Skinner
Ira S. Webb
Vera West
Amy Woodforde-finden
Mack Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Song
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this film was Three Smart Girls Join Up. According to a March 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, Universal's London office purchased a story by that title from Derek Bolton, a flyer with the RAF. Bolton is not credited onscreen or in reviews, however, and his contribution to the completed film has not been confirmed. Three Smart Girls Join Up was then slated to begin production in May 1942, but it was shelved until January 1943, when Universal announced that it had renamed the project Hers to Hold. This was the third and final film in Universal's "Three Smart Girls" series, which began in 1936 with Three Smart Girls and was followed in 1939 by Three Smart Girls Grow Up (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.4623 and F3.4624). While actors Deanna Durbin, Charles Winninger and Nella Walker reprised their roles as "Penelope, Judson and Dorothy Craig," characters "Kay and Joan Craig," the two eldest daughters, were dropped for the final entry in the series.
Actor Joseph Cotten was borrowed by Universal from David O. Selznick for the film, and according to Hollywood Reporter, this was one of nine projects offered to Cotten at that time. According to Universal press information, portions of the film were shot on location at the Vega Aircraft Factory in Burbank, CA. These scenes were shot on Sundays, so that filming would not interfere with the plant workers' regular schedule. Press information also states that Deanna Durbin actually gave blood during the filming of the blood bank sequence. The home movie sequence in the picture is made up of footage from previous Universal Deanna Durbin films, including Three Smart Girls, Three Smart Girls Grow Up, Mad About Music and It's a Date (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.2185, F3.2637, F3.4623 and F3.4624). Hollywood Reporter news items include Mary Treen in the cast, but her appearance in the released film has not been confirmed. The song "Say a Prayer for the Boys Over There" by Jimmy McHugh and Herb Magidson was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Song, but lost to "You'll Never Know" by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon from the Twentieth Century-Fox film Hello Frisco, Hello (see entry above). According to modern sources, Hers to Hold was one of the top moneymaking films of 1943.
