Bright Eyes

Up until recently, I never watched Shirley Temple movies and deliberately avoided them. I assumed the were cloying and I hate child actors. However, I ran into a problem on Netflix--I'd seen just about everything and ALL of the classic films. So, reluctantly, I decided to try a couple. To my surprise, the films are, for the most part, delightful--much of it because Temple was a simply amazing child actress. No matter how much I knew the studio was manipulating the audience, I just couldn't help but adore the child. Despite being almost like the product of some unholy breeding experiment because she was SO perfect, I just couldn't resist her charm.

Of all the Shirley Temple movies I've seen (and by now I've seen most), I would have to say that "Bright Eyes" is the best. It is sweet but it also has a nice balance of nastiness that really helps the film along. Let me explain...while Shirley is wonderful, counter-balancing it with the Smythe family, and especially their bratty child (Jane Withers). I loved Withers in the film--she played the most bratty and nasty little girl--and it took a lot of talent to make her character THIS awful! So, we have two of the greatest child actresses of all-time in one film! The plot is, in some ways, a bit like Cinderella...just a bit. It begins with Shirley and her widowed mother living and working at the home of the rich but horrid Smythe family. Aside from their uncle (played WONDERFULLY by Charles Sellon), the entire brood are worthless people--and they couldn't care less about sweet Shirley or her mother. However, when Shirley's mother is killed, the uncle INSISTS the child be treated like a member of the family and move out of the servants' quarters. The Smythes can't stand her--but they want the uncle's money and they agree. But what about her guardian, Luke (James Dunn)? He adores the child and can't think of living without her. So what will become of all this? See this nice film and see.

A wonderful blend of sentiment and comedy, I can't help but recommend this film. In addition, you'll get to hear Shirley's terrific rendition of "Good Ship Lollipop"--an amazingly toe-tapping tune. With all the wonderful acting (Dunne, Sellon, Withers and Temple especially), this is the Twentieth Century-Fox formula at its very best. Unless you are even more cynical than me, you will find you can't help but love this film.

Jane Withers, at age four, started as one of the deep South's most popular radio stars on Aunt Sally's Kiddy Club. She was so small she had to be lifted up to reach the microphone. She was the mischief-maker of the Kiddy Club program, called "The Little Pest". Like Mitzi Green, she had an uncanny ability to imitate the voices and facial expressions of actors, actresses and other people, something she learned playing with the mirror. On stage by age five, she became a famous actress throughout the South, finally moving to Hollywood at five-and-a-half. In Hollywood, Jane began by playing in a weekly radio-revue and gave numerous stage performances for beneficial organizations.

"Bright Eyes" was Jane's first credited movie role and led to a long-term contract with Twentieth Century-Fox. She stared in numerous movies of the thirties, and was Shirley Temple's main competition. Jane was one of the great child actresses of all times, very popular with the children of her era, and after watching Shirley's goodie two-shoes act in Bright Eyes playing against Jane's power-house comedy performance, I can see why. Shirley Temple was her usual cute, sugar-coated, man-worshiping self with everyone giggling politely at her jokes except the audience. In contrast, Jane Withers had my daughter and I laughing our heads off until we had stomach-aches. Jane in Bright Eyes was bratty, adorable and hilarously funny. Her brat act has seldom, if ever, been equaled in the annals of film.

It is really a shame, and I hope the studios who own Jane Withers' many films as a child take note, that Bright Eyes is the only Jane Withers performance to survive to contemporary video. What ever happened to her movies "Ginger", Paddy O'Day", "Gentle Julia", "Little Miss Nobody", "Can This be Dixie?" and "Pepper"? In a published chat-room article Jane, who is still very much alive, says that she will eventually finish her book on her child star days. Like the kids of Our Gang, she remembers a fun, privileged childhood and has nothing in the way of sob stories. Let's hope that the studios will stop suppressing her films and release them on video soon, perhaps coinciding with her book.

When tragedy befalls a curly topped toddler, her care is assumed by a familiar but dysfunctional family, her spirits buoyed by the crusty old patriarch and a crew of friendly commercial fly boys. So funny, so precious (On the Good Ship Lollipop), so fantastic (parachute drop) and, at times, so poignant (Mom's cake run), that I rate Bright Eyes the most sacred cinema in the Temple of Shirley.

Co-stars James Dunn as the kid's godfather and personal pilot, Charles Sellon is Ned Sparks on wheels, the hard-shelled uncle with a soft center, and little Jane Withers amuses as baby Blake's nemesis, cleverly named, Joy. Directed for 20CF by Temple believer, David Butler (4) (Leave It to Beaver), I think Mr Spade would've agreed, this one has all the "stuff(ing) that dreams are made of (3/4)."

Little BRIGHT EYES wins the hearts & changes the lives of a lonely aviator and a cranky old coot.

This movie was a very big hit for Shirley Temple, who certainly deserved all the attention: she is adorable. Although the film tends to lag into melodramatics during the final half hour, Shirley brightens everything considerably when she appears. With her undeniable talent & elfin smile, it's easy to see why she became Hollywood's top box office star.

However, the Mighty Mite does have competition. Jane Withers is on hand as the Ultimate Brat, a dreadful child who likes to play with imaginary machine guns and amputate body parts off of dolls. Although she looks alarmingly like OUR GANG's Alfalfa in drag, Withers is wonderful and the perfect antidote for those who may find Miss Temple a tad bit icky sticky. To say that Miss Withers practically plunders the picture from The Moppet is high praise, indeed.

James Dunn appeared in four films with Shirley in 1934; in BRIGHT EYES he has his finest scenes with her. As her dead father's best buddy, Dunn is quite touching in his devotion to the child. Elderly character actor Charles Sellon has some funny scenes as a most obstreperous old blister. His contempt for Miss Withers is a joy to behold.

Jane Darwell was always a welcome addition to any cast; here she plays a lovable Irish cook. Brandon Hurst as her prim English butler husband, Judith Allen as Dunn's love interest, Lois Wilson as Shirley's doomed mother, and Theodore von Eltz & Dorothy Christy as Withers' pestilential parents all add to the movie's enjoyment.

Shirley sings what was to become her signature song - ‘On The Good Ship Lollipop' - and it is a highlight of the film. Many first time viewers, having heard the song all their lives, may be surprised to learn it's about a plane, not a boat - in this case, from American Airlines.

Five-year-old Glendale, California tyke Shirley Temple (as Shirley Blake) hitch-hikes to the airport to visit her godfather pilot James Dunn (as James "Loop" Merritt). Not many kids could do that today. While she's away, we meet the curly top's family. She lives with mother Lois Wilson (as Mary Blake), who works as the maid for a wealthy family headed by another former "silent film" star, Theodor von Eltz (as J. Wellington Smythe). His snooty wife Dorothy Christy (as Anita) decides to fire mother Wilson for receiving too many telephone calls. However, their obnoxious but deep-down softie uncle Charles Sellon (as Ned Smith) likes Ms. Temple. He calls her "Bright Eyes". The illustrious cast includes servants Jane Darwell and Brandon Hurst. But the most memorable member of the household is Ms. Temple's antithesis – the classic spoiled brat character played by Jane Withers (as Joy Smythe). She decapitates dolls and terrorizes wheelchair-bound uncle Sellon from her tricycle...

"Bright Eyes" was a very successful early vehicle for Temple. The cartoon-like film captures all of her adorableness. Temple sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" with the girlish innocence (some say sexuality) of a bygone era. Her amateurish vocals balance the perfect doll-like looks. The film has all the subtext depression-weary audiences loved – most importantly, undeserving and insufferable rich characters are put in their place by the angelic, suffering poor. Temple won an "Academy Award" for her cumulative work in 1934; this film has been mentioned as the one most responsible for bringing her the juvenile acting award, but contemporary reviews and research give the honor to "Little Miss Marker" (1934). In the earlier film, "The New York Times" rated Temple's performance higher than co-star Adolphe Menjou. Until the end of the decade, Temple would play variations of her "Bright Eyes" character, ringing up box office cash registers like no other child star, before or since.

****** Bright Eyes (12/20/34) David Butler ~ Shirley Temple, James Dunn, Jane Withers, Charles Sellon