Shirley aviatrice

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

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.

One of Shirley Temple's best movies is stolen by an absolutely riotous performance by Jane Withers as Temple's bratty nemesis-the mean rich kid who picks on poor,noble motherless Shirley. This is the movie that boasts Temple's anthem- On the Good Ship Lollipop.Worth seeing if you haven't seen a Shirley Temple movie.And this was one of the major hits of the 1930's.

Even though there is very little singing and dancing, which is a big part of the appeal of Shirley Temple, it's still a solid film.

This was the first movie in which was Shirley was the big star, I believe, and you can see why she quickly won the hearts of Americans.

Although there is only one song, it's perhaps her most famous: "On the Good Ship Lollipop." The rest of the film is almost as charming as that song with many sweet, touching moments that made her films so endearing.

It also helped to have James Dunn as the male lead. Dunn was one of the more likable guys in classic Hollywood, on and off the screen. He and Shirley make a great pair.

Other interesting people to watch in this movie are the crabby old grandfather, played by Charles Sellon; the spoiled brat played by Jane Withers, who is so bad she's funny and an assortment of other characters from fliers to cooks to old girlfriends.

The only negative is the ending. It looked like they didn't know how to end this, so they rushed to finish it without much thought. Oh, well, the main thing is Shirley's charm.....and that's there in abundance.