Main Cast: Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall, Arthur Treacher, Gail Patrick, William Frawley
Release Year: 1938
Country: US
Run Time: 98 minutes
Plot
In this musical comedy, a girl with a lively imagination gets in hot water when she tries to make her tall tales real. Gloria Harkinson (Deanna Durbin) is the teenage daughter of Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick), a well-known Hollywood actress who has shipped Gloria off to a boarding school in Switzerland to keep the girl out of the public eye, partly for her well being, and party because Gwen would prefer people not to know that she's old enough to have a teenage daughter. Gloria amuses herself and earns the awestruck admiration of her schoolmates when she begins spinning increasingly remarkable tales about the globe-trotting adventures of her millionaire father. However, in reality Gloria has no father, and after some time, her friends become skeptical and demand some sort of physical evidence that he exists. Gloria makes the acquaintance of Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall), a British composer, and she asks him if he wouldn't mind posing as her dad so that her friends could meet the man they've heard so much about. Richard agrees, but the scheme doesn't go quite as Gloria had hoped. Mad About Music was later remade as The Toy Tiger (1956), with "Gloria" turned into a young boy named Timmie, and the songs removed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Norman Taurog - Director, Phil Cahn - Editor, Charles Previn - Composer (Music Score), Frank Skinner - Composer (Music Score), Jack Otterson - Production Designer, Joseph A. Valentine - Cinematographer, Joe Pasternak - Producer, Felix Jackson - Screenwriter, Bruce Manning - Screenwriter, Frederick Kohner - Screenwriter, Marcella Burke - Short Story Author
Mad About Music is a 1938musical film about a girl at an exclusive boarding school who invents an exciting father. When her schoolmates doubt his existence, she has to produce him. It stars Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall, and Gail Patrick.
The movie begins by showing Gwen Taylor (Gail Patrick) as she leaves one of her hit movies and is surrounded by the press. Gwen goes back to her apartment after the movie and reads a letter from her daughter, Gloria (Deanna Durbin). Gloria lives in a boarding school in Switzerland that is just for girls. Gwen is a "glamour girl" so she can't have Gloria by her side; no one except her manager, Dusty Turner (William Frawley), knows that she exists. A "glamour girl" can't have a fourteen year old daughter. Next we see Gloria singing the song, "I Love to Whistle" while on a bike ride with the other girls from her school. Felice (Helen Parrish) is another girl from the school, but she constantly picks on Gloria as well as other girls at the school. She's determined to find out about Gloria's father. Gloria writes herself letters that are from her father saying that he goes on safari and is hunting at various countries. Her mother helps her back up the story (although not knowing what it is really intended for) by sending her artifacts such as an elephant tusk. Felice is suspicious and throughout the movie tries to prove her father doesn't exist. Gloria's father died when she was just a baby; he was a navy pilot during the war.
When Gloria goes to church with the other girls the boys from a nearby boarding school are there. One boy in particular, Tommy (Jackie Moran), has a crush on her, and she likes him as well. Gloria goes to sing and runs into Tommy and they set up a date to get an ice cream sandwich later in the day. For the church service Gloria sings, "Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)" with a boy's choir. Gloria needs to find someone to act as her father for a day, and so she goes to the train station to meet her "father" and the man she ends up picking is Mr. Richard Todd (Herbert Marshall). He is in town for some rest. Richard is a composer. Gloria doesn't tell him right away that that is what she is planning, but eventually he finds out. Luckily he decides to play along, and he comes to her school acting like he is her father. In order to get him out of a sticky situation, where he is supposed to be answering personal questions about his wife (that he doesn't know anything about), Gloria says that she will sing for him. Richard accompanies her on the piano, while she sings, "Chapel Bells."
Gloria finds out that her mother will be in Paris and Richard is planning on leaving and going to Paris as well. She decides to stow away and go with Richard to Paris to see her mother. She doesn't have a ticket however, and when the ticket master comes along on the train she tries to run from him and gets caught. He puts her in a room, but in order for her to notify Richard that she is on the train she starts to sing loudly, "I Love to Whistle." He finds her and then has his assistant, Mr. Tripps (Arthur Treacher) pay for the ticket.
After they get to Paris, Richard finds out who Gloria's mother is and decides that it's about time for a reunion. When they get to the hotel Gwen is staying at she is having a press conference, where she had just admitted earlier to having a fourteen year old daughter. Mother and daughter are over-joyed at being reunited and Gwen is grateful to Richard for bringing Gloria back to her. The movie ends with Gloria singing, "A Serenade to the Stars" while the girls from her school, her mother and Richard sit happily together, with Gwen and Richard holding hands.
