Can't Help Singing is a 1944 musical

Musical film

The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 filmed in Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

 starring Deanna Durbin

Deanna Durbin

Deanna Durbin is a Canadian-born, Southern California-raised retired singer and actress, who appeared in a number of musical films in the 1930s and 1940s singing standards as well as operatic arias....

. The film was produced by Felix Jackson and directed by Frank Ryan. The score was by Jerome Kern

Jerome Kern

Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...

 with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg.

Plot

Set during the early years of the California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 Gold Rush

Gold rush

A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

, the film tells of the adventures of Caroline Frost, the wilful and spoilt daughter of a US Senator

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

. He does not approve of her beau, Lt Robert Latham, of the US cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

, and persuades President James K Polk to post Latham to guard gold shipments from the California mines owned by Jake Carstair.

Caroline travels by train and steamship and manages to join a wagon-train about to trek overland to the West. She falls in with Johnny, a debonair but ruthless gambler and two comically inept opportunists, Prince Gregory Stroganovsky and his much put-upon servant Koppa.

Adapting slowly to the rigours of the journey, she first claims to be married to the Prince (as no unattached women are allowed to join the wagon-train) and and then further claims to be actually married to Carstair.

She eventually reaches Sonora

Sonora

Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....

 in California. Here, her problems are quickly sorted out. After some confusion between Carstair and his real wife, Caroline decides that she really loves Johnny. Her Father, who has followed her, is reconciled.

Cast

• Deanna Durbin.....Caroline Frost
• Robert Paige
  Robert Paige
  Robert Paige was a TV star and Universal Pictures leading man who made 65 films in his lifetime and was the only actor ever allowed to sing on film with Deanna Durbin...
  
  .....Johnny Lawlor
• Akim Tamiroff
  Akim Tamiroff
  Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian actor. He won the first Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.Tamiroff was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire , of Armenian ethnicity. He trained at the Moscow Art Theatre drama school. He arrived in the U.S. in 1923 on a tour with a troupe of actors...
  
  .....Prince Gregory Stroganovsky
• Thomas Gomez
  Thomas Gomez
  Thomas Gomez was an American actor.Born Sabino Tomas Gomez in New York City, Gomez began his acting career in theater during the 1920s and was a student of the actor Walter Hampden...
  
  .....Jake Carstairs
• David Bruce
  David Bruce
  David Bruce may refer to:* David Bruce , founder of the Firkin Brewery pub chain*David Bruce , Scottish physician* David II of Scotland , David Bruce, King of Scots, son of King Robert the Bruce...
  
  .....Lt. Robert Latham
• Clara Blandick
  Clara Blandick
  Clara Blandick was an American actress. Her many film appearances include the role of Auntie Em in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:She was born Clara Dickey, the daughter of Isaac B...
  
  .....Aunt Cissy Frost
• George Cleveland
  George Cleveland
  George Alan Cleveland was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1933 and 1954.-Career:...
  
  .....U.S. Marshal, Independence, MO
• Ray Collins
  Ray Collins (actor)
  Ray Bidwell Collins was an American actor in film, stage, radio, and television. One of Collins' best remembered roles was that of Lt. Arthur Tragg in the long-running series Perry Mason.- Biography :...
  
  .....Sen. Martin Frost
• Olin Howlin
  Olin Howland
  Olin Howland was an American film actor. From 1909 to 1927 he appeared on the Broadway stage while balancing a career in silent movies. In 1921, he appeared in the play Two Little Girls in Blue with Oscar Shaw and the Fairbanks Twins. He was in Janice Meredith with Marion Davies...
  
  .....Bigelow (Wagonmaster)
• Leonid Kinskey
  Leonid Kinskey
  Leonid Kinskey was a Russian-born movie and television actor who enjoyed a long career. Kinskey is best known for his role as Sascha in the film Casablanca ....
  
  .....Koppa
• Andrew Tombes.....Sad Sam
• June Vincent
  June Vincent
  June Vincent was an American actress.-Biography:Born Dorothy June Smith in Harrod, Ohio, Vincent began her career in film in the early 1940s. She later became a successful television actress appearing in many television programs throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s...
  
  .....Jeannie McLean

Award nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Recipient
1946	Academy Award	Nominated	Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture Academy Award for Original Music Score The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...	Jerome Kern and Hans J. Salter Hans J. Salter Hans J. Salter was an American film composer.Hans J. Salter gained his education from the Vienna Academy Of Music, and studied composition with Alban Berg, Franz Schreker, and others. He was Music Director of the State Opera in Berlin before being hired to compose music at UFA studios...
			Best Music, Original Song Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...	Jerome Kern (Music) and E.Y. Harburg (Lyrics)