Mad About Music
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Norman Taurog
Deanna Durbin
Herbert Marshall
Gail Patrick
Arthur Treacher
William Frawley
Photos & Videos
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Fourteen-year-old Gloria Harkinson attends a private school in Switzerland away from her widowed actress mother Gwen Taylor, because Gwen's press agent, Dusty Turner believes that her career would be ruined if the public knew that she had a teenage daughter. Although she is very proud of her mother, Gloria is unable to talk about her. Instead, she includes stories about the fabulous adventures of a pretend father in letters that she writes and mails to herself. Felice, another student at the school, is determined to prove that Gloria is lying about her father. After Gloria makes friends with a boy from a neighboring school, she arranges to meet him in town and lies to her teachers, saying that her father is arriving for a short visit. Word gets out and Gloria is forced to supply a man whom she can claim as her father. Spotting handsome Richard Todd, a composer, she tells him a phony story and leaves with him, hoping that the other girls will believe that this man knows her. Things get complicated when two teachers call on Richard to invite him to lunch at the school. Gloria is forced to tell him the truth and he kindly plays along, by pretending to be the explorer that she has created. Richard is called to Paris on business and when Gloria learns from a newspaper that Gwen is also in Paris, she tags along, in hopes of spending a few moments with her mother. Dusty prevents the meeting, however, and Gloria sadly appears at Richard's hotel. After Richard worms the story out of her, he insists that they return and confront her mother. In the meantime, Gwen learns that Gloria is in town and that Dusty turned her away. Determined that this will never happen again, Gwen tells reporters about her daughter just as Richard and Gloria arrive. The reporters believe that Richard is Gwen's husband and it appears that Gloria will have the family she wants after all.
Director
Norman Taurog
Cast
Deanna Durbin
Herbert Marshall
Gail Patrick
Arthur Treacher
William Frawley
Marcia Mae Jones
Helen Parrish
Jackie Moran
Elizabeth Risdon
Nana Bryant
Christian Rub
Charles Peck
Sid Grauman
Ann Bupp
Cappy Barra's Harmonica Ensemble
Crew
Pete Abriss
Harold Adamson
Alma Armstrong
Johann Sebastian Bach
Bernard B. Brown
Marcella Burke
Bill Ely
Jack Ewing
Roman Freulich
Charles Gounod
Edith Head
Charles E. Henderson
Felix Jackson
Agnes Christine Johnston
Ted Kent
Ted Kent
Clifton King
Frederick Kohner
Joseph Lapis
Robert Lazlo
Bruce Manning
John Marvin
Martha Mason
Lucille Mcclure
Jimmy Mchugh
Jack Mintz
Jack Mintz
Warren Munroe
M. F. Murphy
Jack Otterson
Joe Pasternak
Vaughn Paul
Charles Previn
Adell Pruitt
Charles R. Rogers
Frank Shaw
Frank Skinner
Robert Surtees
Joseph Valentine
Joseph Valentine
Mary West
Vera West
Photo Collections
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography
Best Score
Best Writing, Screenplay
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Original Story, Best Cinematography, Best Interior Decoration and Best Score. Variety notes that some scenes were filmed in the forecourt of Sid Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Deanna Durbin received a special Oscar for both Mad About Music and That Certain Age for "her significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of her youth, and as a juvenile player, setting a high standard of ability and achievement." The film was remade by Universal in 1956 as The Toy Tiger with Tim Hovey in the Durbin role.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1938
Released in United States 1938
