It Started with Eve is a 1941 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Henry Koster and starring Deanna Durbin, Robert Cummings, and Charles Laughton. Based on a story by Hanns Kräly, the film is about a man whose dying father wants to meet his son's new fiancée, but she is unavailable, so he substitutes a hatcheck girl. Complications arise when the father unexpectedly recovers. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Music Score (Charles Previn and Hans J.