The Amazing Mrs. Holliday is a 1943 American comedy drama film produced and directed by Bruce Manning and starring Deanna Durbin, Edmond O'Brien, and Barry Fitzgerald.
[2] Based on a story by Sonya Levien, the film is about a young idealistic missionary who smuggles a group of Chinese war orphans into the United States posing as the wife of a wealthy commodore who went missing after their ship was torpedoed and sunk.
[2] A young idealistic schoolteacher named Ruth Kirke is transporting a group of war orphans from South China to Calcutta when their steamship Tollare is torpedoed and sunk in the Pacific.
They are picked up by the steamship Westonia and taken to San Francisco, where immigration officials inform Ruth that the orphans will be held until a $500 bond ($8,800 today) is posted for each child.
With no money of their own, Ruth and Timothy go to the home of Commodore Thomas Spencer Holliday, the wealthy owner of their sunken cargo ship, who perished during the torpedo attack.
After learning that she, as the commodore's "widow", will inherit his vast shipping fortune, and faced with pressure from the family and press, Ruth gathers the children and attempts to sneak away during the night, but Tom discovers them.
Wanting to end the deception, Ruth confesses to Tom that she smuggled the orphans aboard the commodore's ship, believing it was headed to Calcutta.
Angered by the deception, Tom insists that Ruth stay and continue the charade until the publicity about her "marriage" dies down, after which he will care for the orphans at the mansion once she leaves.
Sometime later, at a China relief ball held at the mansion, Ruth sings an aria, Puccini's Vissi d'arte, to the assembled guests while Tom looks on with loving admiration.
In July 1941, while Deanna Durbin was finishing It Started with Eve, Universal announced her next film would be They Lived Alone based on a story by Sonya Levien originally bought for Margaret Sullavan about a girl reporter.
It was more dramatic type of role than Durbin had previously played, with singing put to the background (she had been fighting with the studio who wanted her to make Three Smart Girls Join Up which became Hers to Hold).
According to the New York Times Renoir left the film because of recurring pain caused by an old World War I leg injury which was aggravated while shooting a battle sequence.
It would have been interesting to see what Renoir might have done with the material had he seen it through from beginning to end, for his skill and delicacy might have softened some of Holliday's more awkward moments and given the final film a more consistent tone.