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the ability to preserve her wide-eyed innocence. The film's best moment comes when she sings the Puccini-inspired One Fine Day.

At the age of 19, Durbin married for the first time. The bridegroom was fellow Universal employee Vaughn Paul. That same year she landed her first role as an independent woman, in It Started with Eve. Shortly afterwards her husband enlisted in the army and she embarked on a tour of Eastern army camps.

1943 was a busy year for Durbin, she made three more successful films and also found the time to divorce Paul.

In Christmas Holiday she is almost unrecognisable as a sleazy nightclub singer, playing against type in her first straight dramatic role, as the wife of a murderer.

In 1945 she starred in Lady on a Train, and at 23 she married former European playwright Felix Jackson, 20 years her senior. They divorced in 1949 but the union produced a daughter, Jessica Louise Jackson.

She made her final film in 1948, entitled For the Love of Mary. Then, after 13 years, she not only walked away from Universal Studios, but from Hollywood too.

At 29 she married 48-year-old French film technician Charles David, who had directed her in Lady on a Train. They moved to Neauphle-le-Chateau, on the outskirts of Paris and Deanna said a final farewell to show business, longing instead for a quiet life outside of Hollywood's spotlight. She declined all offers for a comeback and has not given an interview since 1949, instead longing for a private life with her family.

Deanna Durbin David is now in her 80s and, content with her ordinary life, she has never once regretted leaving Hollywood. She had a happy life with Charles for over 48 years, until his death in 1999, and keeps busy replying to the many fan letters she still receives.

After so many years away from Hollywood it is truly amazing how many devoted fans Deanna still has, and thanks to the newly released DVDs, it looks like there's going to be a whole new generation of Durbin devotees.

Learn more about this author, Marilyn Justine.
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