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Spring Parade

Spring Parade

  • Status: Released
  • 27-09-1940
  • Runtime: 89 min
  • Score: 6.8
  • Vote count: 9

In this light and lovely romantic musical, a Hungarian woman attends a Viennese fair and buys a card from a gypsy fortune teller. It says that she will meet someone important and is destined for a happy marriage. Afterward she gets a job as a baker's assistant. She then meets a handsome army drummer who secretly dreams of becoming a famous composer and conductor. Unfortunately the military forbids the young corporal to create his own music. But then Ilonka secretly sends one of the drummer's waltzes to the Austrian Emperor with his weekly order of pastries. Her act paves the way toward the tuneful and joyous fulfillment of the gypsy's prediction.

Deanna Durbin

Ilonka Tolnay

Robert Cummings

Corporal Harry Marten

Mischa Auer

Gustav

Henry Stephenson

Emperor Franz Joseph

S.Z. Sakall

Latislav Teschek - the Baker

Walter Catlett

Headwaiter

Anne Gwynne

Jenny

Peggy Moran

Archduchess Irene

Reginald Denny

The Major

Kenneth Brown

Moritz

Billy Lenhart

Max

Franklin Pangborn

Wiedlemeyer

Edward Gargan

Inga - the Fortune Teller

Wade Boteler

Sergeant

Samuel S. Hinds

Von Zimmel

Leon Belasco

Violinist Orchestra Leader

Eddie Acuff

Earl (uncredited)

John Banner

Cymbalist (uncredited)

Bobby Barber

Waiter Who Spills Tray (uncredited)

Howard Hickman

Colonel (uncredited)

Ethelreda Leopold

Townswoman (uncredited)

George O'Hanlon

Peasant (uncredited)

Morgan Wallace

Frederick - Aide-de-Camp (uncredited)

Kathryn Adams

Girl with Fortune Teller

Herbert Ashley

Detective

Michael Audley

Hans

Frank Austin

Customer

Polly Bailey

Minnie

Vangie Beilby

Townswoman

Stanley Blystone

Detective

Harry C. Bradley

Mandate

Jack Chefe

Josef - Waiter

Dora Clement

Mrs. Tressler

Polly Connell

Townswoman

Virginia Engels

Girl in Cafe

William Gould

Chief of Detectives

Ernest Grooney

Townsman

Grace Hayle

Mrs. Burkhart

Herbert Heywood

Sepp - Wagon Driver

Fay Holderness

Townswoman

Maynard Holmes

Bugler

Paul Hurst

Headwaiter

Claire James

Cafe Customer

Frank Jaquet

Detective

Sheldon Jett

Policeman

Sidney Kibrick

Boy

Leslie Kaye

Townswoman

Carl M. Leviness

Townsman

Jack Lomas

Customer

Aubrey Mather

Baron

Eric Mayne

Nobleman

Gene Morgan

Waiter

Tony Paton

Waiter

Joe Ploski

Townsman

Thomas Pogue

Customer

Eddie Polo

Cafe Proprietor

Ronald R. Rondell

Restaurant Patron

Sam Savitsky

Nobleman

Frank Sully

Bert - Shawl Salesman

Henry Victor

Dutch Officer

Douglas Wood

General

CinemaSerf

Deanna Durbin signs her heart out here as the Hungarian peasant "Ilonka". She's been told by a fortune teller that happiness is looming - and she reckons that might just have come true when she encounters "Harry" (Robert Cummings) - a drummer in the Imperial army. Meantime, though, he is fond of writing music, a skill prohibited in the military so she determines to somehow get his works in front of the Emperor (Henry Stephenson). Creatively, she takes to hiding them in the salt sticks that her boss the baker (S.Z. Sakall) makes daily for the court. That's quite a risky tactic as those who surround the throne worry that this could be a plot to poison their ruler and so the baker finds himself incarcerated, and "Ilonka" has to make a tough - and brave - decision. It's quite a charming mix of musical and romance this, with a bit of chemistry between Durbin and Cummings and with the scene-stealing Sakall and Stephenson also on good form guiding this gently evolving storyline towards it's inevitable and pleasing conclusion. "Waltzing on the Clouds" has the germ of an ear-worm to it - you might find yourself humming it long after the film has ended!