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Plot |
Annie Rooney (Shirley Temple) is being driven to an informal party by her platonic boyfriend, Joey (Roland Du Pree). In route to the party Miss Rooney inadvertently causes Joey to run into the stopped car in front of him. The driver, Marty (Dickie Moore), is the son of an affluent business man. Marty offers to take Miss Rooney to the party when Joey’s vehicle won’t start. Soon after that party Marty begins spending plenty of time with Miss Rooney and eventually invites her to his fancy upscale birthday party with his socialite friends. Meanwhile Annie's father (William Gargan) is having all sorts of finically problems. He quit his job and banked his future in making rubber from milkweed. When it comes time to buy Annie’s dress for the party her father doesn’t have the funds and it falls to Grandpa (Guy Kibbee) to come to the rescue. Once Annie is safely off to the big party her father is faced with debt collectors. Now Mr. Rooney must think fast or his daughter won’t have a home to come back to. |
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Character Development |
At 82 minutes there was not much time for a story to development any dramatic characters. Most characters are barely deep enough to get your feet wet. The leading roles do display a great deal of emotion, yet they are just surface emotions that change from scene to scene and don’t express any true depth. Again the writing here just wanted to tell a simple story without any real villains, with only one major conflict and one minor correction. No one important was displaced, but a story with so many niceties doesn’t really drive a compelling tale. |
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Acting |
The acting was serviceable for the most part; it went hand and hand with the writing. It was also entertaining to hear the common vernacular spoken by teenagers from this time period and watch them dance what they thought were the most modern steps. But the drama was nothing special and didn’t break away from the most common fair that is on network TV today, yet all the happenings here were splendidly sweet and without any harsh conclusions. |
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Overview |
I have read that this movie selling point was that this was going to be the first time that Shirley Temple was going to be kissed on film, needless to say that that moment will be missed if you blink. Certainly, the reason to watch this film is not the kissing. It has more to do with the simple story telling that is no longer done in a Hollywood pictures these days because I image it is thought outdated and not edgy enough. The things that make this film dull in contemporary times also make it special, like how a Windsor chair would catch the eye of an antique collector. Of course with a slight rewrite and some added minutes this could have been a whole lot more, but then it wouldn’t be the mean to reminisce the past with rose-colored glasses. |
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