#Three Smart Girls was a big hit and Durbin became a star. She made an additional 20 films for Universal through 1948. In each, she usually sang a few songs, including a mixture of newly written material and arias from operas. Frequently, she made studio recordings of the same material for Decca. (The day of the original soundtrack album did not arrive until late in her career.) Unfortunately, her movies vastly overshadowed her recordings. Of her recordings, only My Own -- a song she also sang in the 1938 film #That Certain Age -- made the charts. By the mid-'40s, Durbin had become disillusioned with Hollywood, especially after the commercial disappointment of #Christmas Holiday (1944), an adaptation of a Somerset Maugham novel that marked her attempt to become a serious actress. Although she was the movie industry's highest-paid female star in 1947, she gave up filmmaking in 1948 at the age of 26. In 1950, she married her third husband, Charles David of Pathé Films, and moved to Normandy, France, where she remained out of the limelight. Nevertheless, her films continued to be shown on television and were made available on video. Many of her recordings, drawn from her films and radio appearances as well as the Decca catalog remained in print. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
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Brindisi |
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Nessun Dorma |
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One Fine Day |