Plot:
Our story opens in the garden of a posh girls’ school. A chorus of voices is heard in the “Alma Mater,” and we find the oldest of the daughters, Tess (Jane Powell), about to graduate. Tess and her sisters Ilka at the piano and little Alix in the audience are oblivious to the joyful aspects of the occasion. Their attention is riveted on the empty chair next to Alix. Finally Tess and Ilka (Ann E. Todd) slip from the platform for a conference with Alix (Mary Eleanor Donahue). Something must have happened to mother. Alix is dispatched with a nickel to phone her office.
Miles away in the offices of Modern Design Publications, editor Louise Morgan (Jeanette) is out cold. As her manager, Mr. Howard (Thurston Hall) and Dr. Cannon (Harry Davenport) hover over her, she comes to and apologizes. It must have been the excitement, and, besides, she forgot to eat breakfast. Alix’s call has her on her feet and out the door over her doctor’s protest. She reaches the school just in time to hear a lovely solo, “Fleurette,” sung by Tess.
Back home in a stunning and enormous duplex overlooking Central Park, the girls await the doctor’s verdict. As he examines their mother upstairs, they arrive at their own diagnosis. Mother is pining away for their father whom she divorced years ago—only because his foreign correspondent job kept him away all the time.
Dr. Cannon’s prescription is somewhat different. He recommends a boat trip alone for complete relaxation and gets the girls to agree to support him. Louise will get no rest if they go along.
The girls pile into Louise’s room and snuggle around her on the bed. They explain that her disobeying doctor’s orders is as naughty as their disobeying her. Their indomitable servant, Jonesy (Kathryn Card), can run the house, and Mr. Howard can edit the magazine himself. Louise laughingly consents, and then asks Ilka to repeat the piano solo that she had missed that afternoon. Ilka begins Mozart’s “Turkish Sonata” which slides into the jaunty “Dickey-Bird Song” with everyone joining in.
Jeanette and her three film daughters, Ann E. Todd, Jane Powell, and Mary Eleanor Donahue.
The girls see their mother off on the boat. Louise promises to have a perfect time. Of course, to be really perfect, Alix adds, Daddy should be going with her. Louise stutters an agreement. But, she explains, divorced people don’t take trips together, and besides, they’ve all been perfectly happy, haven’t they? The false jolliness in her voice indicates a sore spot has been touched.
Dr. Cannon lingers to warn Louise. She’s made a big mistake not telling the girls the truth about their father. How could she? she asks. Tell them that he left her without a penny and doesn’t care enough about them to send them a postcard? It would break their hearts. Nevertheless, Dr. Cannon thinks her fairy stories about him may lead to trouble. The most important thing now, though, is the cruise. Louise is to get plenty of rest, and, if an eligible man should turn up, she shouldn’t turn him down. Romance is the doctor’s prescription.
The girls have romantic ideas of their own. They march on the home of their father’s boss, Mr. Nelson, the thirteenth richest man in the world. “Gee, we start with an unlucky number,” Alix notes. Mr. Nelson (Edward Arnold) is dining when three young ladies are announced. He sends his secretary, Mr. Harlow (Dick Simmons, television’s Sergeant Preston of the Yukon), to get rid of them. While Tess and Ilka “explain” their problem volubly in each of Mr. Harlow’s ears, Alix slips past him into the dining room.
Mr. Nelson asks his butler for the sugar and finds it handed to him by little Alix. She pours out a garbled version of their family history, ending in a request that her daddy come home. Mr. Nelson is distracted from this tale by a voice in the next room. Tess is keeping Mr. Harlow busy by singing “Passepied.”
Harlow is able to throw more light on the situation. Their father, Charlie Morgan, is a foreign correspondent for one of Mr. Nelson’s newspapers. His constant absence has caused a divorce. “Only temporarily,” Tess hastens to assure them. The girls would be so grateful if Mr. Nelson would make them a happy family again. Abandoning his meal, Mr. Nelson sets the wheels in motion to bring Charlie Morgan back. He is a sucker for kids, he confides to the astonished Harlow.
Far away on the high seas, Louise is happily unaware of this development. Her garrulous dinner companion, Mrs. Smith (Moyna Macgill, mother of Angela Lansbury), boasts that now she has successfully tracked down every important person on the boat, including Louise. All, that is, except José Iturbi. She nods toward the musician who is just taking a seat at a nearby table.
Mrs. Smith decides to send him a note reminding him that they once met in Newport and asking him to play. Louise tries to deter her. A man of his stature shouldn’t be asked to play in restaurants. Mrs. Smith is determined and gushingly inscribes a menu which is dispatched with a reluctant waiter.
Iturbi is predictably unenthusiastic. He asks the waiter to point out the lady in question. The waiter tells him that he can see her in the mirror by his table. The waiter is slightly to one side of Iturbi, and when the pianist glances in the mirror, it is Louise Morgan he sees. Iturbi decides to play for the lady, to the dismay of his manager, Mike Pemberton (Tom Helmore). He launches into “Liebestraum,” casting long glances at Louise while Mrs. Smith squirms happily.
When Iturbi comes to their table to renew acquaintance, he is disillusioned and introduced to the real Mrs. Smith. Retreating in horror, he lapses into voluble Spanish. The astonished Mrs. Smith accepts his “apology.”
Iturbi is not finished with Louise. He tracks her down on the deck and determines in a few moments that she would not mind his sitting next to her or smoking his pipe and that she is divorced—but “not unattached.” Mrs. Smith hadn’t told him anything about that, he says. He just happened to run across Mrs. Smith. Louise tells him that no celebrity ever “ran across” Mrs. Smith. The lady herself is spotted bearing down on them, and they flee together.
They find a quiet spot and discuss his music and his constant sense of not reaching perfection. She tries to assure him. She has been to his concerts, and the crowds love him. Crowds can be very lonely, he tells her. It takes only one person—they are interrupted by a steward with a cablegram for Louise. She takes advantage of this distraction to escape. Iturbi catches her. Won’t she dine with him the next night? Perhaps.
In her cabin, she opens the cablegram. It is from the girls, sending their love. They in turn receive a cable several days later telling them what an interesting voyage Louise is having. “Trips are always interesting,” Alix assures her sisters.
The phone rings. Mr. Nelson’s secretary is calling to inform them that their father is on his way home. Tess is just conveying this news to Ilka and Alix when their housekeeper, Jonesy, comes out on the terrace with their breakfast. Instantly Tess lapses into double talk. Jonesy is unimpressed. She wouldn’t dream of eavesdropping, and, besides, she’s going to cardarp fenabish their paracarkus.
On shipboard, the romance is progressing. Louise joins Iturbi in “Where There’s Love,” the waltz from Der Rosenkavalier, at an evening concert. Perhaps things are progressing too fast. When the ship docks in Havana where Iturbi is giving a concert, Louise decides to go on with the cruise. Iturbi comes to her cabin and begs her to stay with him in Havana. The concert is really just for her. He won’t take no for an answer.
The highlight of the concert is the “Ritual Fire Dance,” which Iturbi performs in the outdoor arena with his real life sister Amparo on twin grand pianos. The stirring music and the starlight combine to make quite a romantic evening.
Later, in the Café Allegra, Louise manages a chat with Iturbi’s manager, Mike Pemberton, while Iturbi dances with the ubiquitous Mrs. Smith. Mike tells her that, as Iturbi’s business manager, he’s traveled with him day in and day out and never tired of his company. “He wears well, does he?” Louise asks. Mike has never seen Iturbi play so well as he did tonight. Louise is certainly serious business to him.
Louise is not sure she wants to be serious business. Pleading a headache, she flees to her hotel room. Iturbi is concerned and sends roses, for which she politely thanks him on the phone. The romance seems stopped before it has really started, but fortunately Iturbi has the room just across the air well. From her darkened room, Louise can see him, but he can’t see her. He begins playing “You Made Me Love You,” and Louise slowly circles the room in the dark watching him. She first hums, then croons the song softly, stretching sensuously on the couch. Yes, Louise is ready for romance.
The phone rings. It is not Iturbi, but her daughters wishing her happy birthday. The conversation is not entirely honest on either side, for the girls don’t tell her about Charles Morgan and she doesn’t tell them about José Iturbi. They each are going to have their little surprise.
On a cruise to recover her health, divorcée Louise Morgan meets pianist José Iturbi (played by José Iturbi), and romance blossoms. Impulsively, they marry.
As Louise and Iturbi dine the next evening, a cake magically appears borne by lovely Spanish senoritas who sing happy birthday in Spanish. Sometimes Mrs. Smith conveys useful information, Iturbi comments. He wants to marry Louise. She says no. She has three daughters who still love their absentee father. They would never forgive her. Iturbi is undaunted. He loves children and they always love him. Everything will work out fine.
And so Mr. and Mrs. Iturbi return to New York City, to an apartment building on a Hollywood side street that has no resemblance to any known New York thoroughfare. Louise will tell the children of their marriage, and then Iturbi will arrive an hour later with presents for a family get-together. Her announcement goes undelivered, for the girls surprise her first. Daddy is coming home. Mr. Nelson has arranged it all. Horrified, Louise rushes off to try to undo the damage.
Mr. Nelson is in the middle of breakfast, when a lady by the name of Morgan is announced. “The little one?” he inquires. “I should say it is the big one,” the butler murmurs. “Oh, Tess—I’d better stop her before she starts singing.” He goes to greet the daughter and finds the mother who faints when he confirms the news.
Mr. Nelson is understandably disconcerted. Louise explains that she has remarried. Here she is with a new husband whom she adores, and an old one she doesn’t want is about to walk in. Mr. Nelson agrees to ship Charlie Morgan back to China.
Iturbi arrives at the Morgan apartment, his arms full of presents, for a grand meeting with his new family. The girls think he has come to rent the apartment. When they discover he is the famous pianist, they decide he has come to audition Tess.
Obviously, Louise has not told them about their marriage and so he gingerly feels his way through the audition, wondering what has happened. Louise arrives home and, in turn, is unsure what has been said in her absence. She and Iturbi manage to exchange stories and decide he will go to a hotel until things are straightened out.
Of course, the family is invited to his concert that night. The children begin to suspect something is fishy, and, when Louise sits starry-eyed all through the “Roumanian Rhapsody” (with harmonica solo by Larry Adler), they are sure.
Back home, Ilka comes to her mother’s room after everyone is asleep. She wants to know the truth about Daddy. Ilka is sure that if she ever loved anyone, it would be forever. When that happens, her mother tells her, she will be very happy—or very unhappy. Ilka returns to her room, and her sobs awaken the other girls. They decide to show Iturbi that if he tries to disrupt their little family, they’ll make his life miserable.
Louise arrives in the middle of a rehearsal, and Iturbi introduces her to the orchestra as his “soloist.” He begs her to sing for them. “But what shall I sing?” The piano begins and a violin picks up the melody: “Sweethearts.” It is a moment dripping with nostalgia and completely effective. Ten years fall away, and we are back with “Gwen Marlowe” in Sweethearts, swaying to the lilting strains of the romantic waltz.
The waltz from Sweethearts provides a transcendent moment.
Louise feels that they should tell the children right away, but now it is Iturbi who hesitates. He would like one more visit so that they can get to know him. Louise is out shopping and the children are upstairs when he arrives. He “announces” himself by sitting down at the piano. The girls hear the music, square their shoulders, and go downstairs to demolish the interloper. They hate classical music, they tell him. Well, he concedes, they are honest. What do they like?
Tess and Ilka launch into a delightful swing version of “Route 66.” They conclude and face Iturbi triumphantly. He likes it very much, he confesses, but their version is not quite in the groove. He reprises the song, boogie woogie style. The girls are reluctantly impressed but stick to their guns. They admit their purpose has been to make him as unwelcome as possible.
“Mummy belongs to us,” Alix blurts out. Iturbi sadly agrees. It is clear that he is leaving not only the apartment but their lives. He pauses at the door and turns to them. “I wish I was so sure about anything as you are about everything.”
Tess and Ilka dispatch Alix to follow him. She is to phone them if he goes near mother. And so a monumentally conspicuous little Alix, complete with dark glasses and a bobbing feather on her hat, “tails” Iturbi. She slouches along behind a fat man (Jack “Tiny” Lipson), trying not to be seen, as Iturbi pauses to light his pipe and contemplate his “shadow.”
The fat man turns into a liquor store, and Alix finds herself facing Iturbi. “Young lady,” he announces firmly, “you and I are going to have a little talk.”
Lunch is just being served when the butler announces that José Iturbi is waiting to see Mr. Nelson. Iturbi demands that Mr. Nelson snatch Charlie Morgan from the China-bound tramp steamer he is currently inhabiting and return him by the first plane to face his children. Otherwise, they will go on thinking he is Hercules, Apollo, and General MacArthur rolled into one. Mr. Nelson agrees. He also has a suggestion. If he were Iturbi, he’d get his hat and his cane and his wife and tell the kids that he is married. Iturbi enthusiastically agrees.
A telegram brings news of her husband—but which husband?
(Edward Arnold, left.)
Tess and Ilka catch Alix sneaking home with a large stuffed rabbit. She has been to the zoo with Iturbi. “Traitor!” they cry. Louise and Iturbi interrupt them and as carefully as possible, explain to the girls that they are married. Tess and Ilka are horrified and storm out of the house, leaving Louise to console the sobbing Alix. As Iturbi gets his hat and heads for the door, he hears Louise murmuring to Alix that nothing in the world will ever come between them. He puts on his hat and closes the door with finality.
Dinner is just being served in the Mr. Nelson residence when Tess and Ilka are announced. This is the last straw! Mr. Nelson gives them a royal tongue lashing. They should mind their own business! Their father refused to come home until ordered to do so. Now their mother has a fine new husband. She’s a young and beautiful woman and has a right to her own life. If they don’t know what he’s talking about, they should go find a couple of birds and bees! (The film’s original title was The Birds and the Bees.) The girls want him to help them out? Well, he cries pointing to the door, “out!”
They depart thoroughly chastened and he begins chuckling. He’d give anything to have a couple of kids like that. Mr. Nelson orders that Morgan be dispatched to Tibet with a long-term contract. Oh, yes, he adds. Cable and get a complete report on his activities for the last five years.
Tess and Ilka return home to complete chaos. Iturbi is gone, Alix is desolate, and Louise is on the phone asking for another leave of absence so that she can take the girls away for a rest. After dinner, Tess tries to tell her mother how wrong they were. Louise doesn’t want to discuss it any further. Instead, she plays an old favorite on the piano, and the two voices mingle exquisitely in a vocal version of Grieg’s “Springtide” (“An den Frühling”). Louise is resigned to devoting her life to her children.
The three young plotters again swing into action. When their mother works late at the office, they slip out. Iturbi is conducting a vigorous interpretation of the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky’s “Fourth Symphony” when three familiar faces appear in a stage box. Angrily he speeds up, and the orchestra races at breakneck speed to the finish. He turns and the girls are gone.
Backstage, Tess is waiting for him. It was all her fault, she says. He spurns her truce offer and marches on down the hallway. Ilka steps from behind a door and begs for another chance. It is all her fault, she insists. He tells her it is not a game to be started over and over. He slams his dressing room door in her face. Alix is sitting on the couch. “Hullo,” she says in a small voice. And is it all her fault? he asks. No, she assures him, it’s all Tess and Ilka’s fault. She liked him from the beginning.
Alix asks him to return home. They are all so unhappy. Iturbi pulls open the dressing room door, and Tess and Ilka, obviously listening at the keyhole, tumble in. He orders them to take Alix home to bed. He won’t change his mind. The girls regroup on the sidewalk. What can they do now?
Louise is going over some work with Mr. Howard at the office when a phone call summons her to Mr. Nelson’s house. Her ex-husband has arrived. Mr. Nelson greets her at the door. Before she goes in, she should read a cablegram he has just received. It reports that Charlie Morgan married his secretary three years earlier. She looks in amazement from the cablegram to Mr. Nelson as a familiar song comes from the next room.
“All I said,” Mr. Nelson chuckles, “is that your ex-husband is here.” The girls and Iturbi are gathered around the piano, happily waiting for her. As Mr. Nelson returns to his late-night snack with great gusto, the family sings a final joyous chorus of “The Dickey Bird Song.”
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