Our Little Girl

Dr. Donald Middleton (Joel McCrea) wanted to be a research physician, discovering important cures. However, when his wife, Elsa (Rosemary Ames) became pregnant, he settled for being a smalltown, New England family physician. Still, he is conducting his own experiments on the side but the result is that he works extremely long hours. Elsa has been patient, for she loves her husband and knows he cares for her and their daughter, Molly (Shirley Temple). Dr. Don still manages to take a break for Molly's "May and September Saturdays", that is, two picnics at a local park called Heaven's gate, where Don and Elsa met. One day, a handsome, rich male neighbor returns to his mansion next door. He invites Elsa and Don to ride with him on various mornings, but only Elsa has time for it. Trouble starts to brew when the neighbor makes a big play for the beautiful Elsa and Dr. Don continues to spend more time away from the house. Just what will be the result? This is a tearjerker of a film which, nevertheless, produces giggles, also, when Shirley is on the screen with her beloved doggie, Sniff. Just like any little girl, Shirley's Molly is pretty oblivious to problems at home so she continues to sing, dance, and crack jokes, even when her parents are having severe problems. McCrea is very good as the fine but workaholic father while Ames is pretty and touching as the neglected wife. All other lesser actors do a nice job, too. The picnic scenes are beautiful, the costumes quite acceptable, and the storyline is a true heartgrabber. Therefore, if you want to see Shirley in a smile-through-my-tears little flick, get this one soon. It might even bring estranged couples together again, for its support of marital reconciliation is very uplifting, even as the kiddies are entertained, too.

Haul out the bathtowels on this one. No parents like Joel McCrea and Rosemary Ames are getting divorced as long as they have an offspring like Shirley Temple to keep them together.

Our Little Girl finds America's favorite moppet the daughter of the aforementioned couple. Joel is a research doctor who takes a small country practice to both support his wife and his daughter. But he gets so involved in his experiments he's leaving his wife alone to the attention of his playboy neighbor Lyle Talbot. And he's looking like someone his nurse Erin O'Brien-Moore just might be able to catch on the rebound.

The film had a great deal more potential than what we got. It could have been a serious look at divorce through a child's eyes. I think that's what they were trying for at Fox, but the problem was that Shirley's audiences expected things to go a certain way in her films. So Fox gave them the typical Shirley and then some. It was the 'and then some' that doomed this film to a weepy soggy mess.

While I enjoy the old Shirley Temple films, I am occasionally shocked at how depressing and scary many of the plots were. In one, she is separated from her father and is pursued by a creepy guy who keeps offering to take her out and buy her candy, in MANY she's an orphan and in this one she's in the middle of two parents who are divorcing! Family-friendly, perhaps, but definitely films with a dark side.

In this film, it begins with the Middleton family being happy as can be. Their daughter, Molly (Temple) is adored and everything seems just peachy. However, over time you notice that Dr. Middleton (Joel McCrea) is often so wrapped up in his work that he neglects his sweet wife, Elsa (Rosemary Ames). It's obvious to everyone but him that his wife is lonely and needs him. Eventually, she sets her eyes on the Doc's best friend, Rolfe Brent (Lyle Talbot) and soon she and Brent are in love...and she's seeking a divorce! Molly naturally is effected by all this and eventually runs away! Will these dopey parents give up their selfish ways and make a family for Molly once again? What do you think?!

Like so many of Shirley's films, this one is an obvious object lesson on good parenting and the importance of family. So, despite being a tiny bit traumatic, it does all end well and emphasizes good old fashioned values. It is a bit of a departure, though, as in this one Shirley does NOT sing and the film has a much more compact plot than usual...hence its very short running time compared to her other full-length films. Well worth seeing and sweet.

OUR LITTLE GIRL struggles valiantly to understand why her loving parents can no longer love each other.

Little Shirley Temple, Hollywood's greatest star at the time, enlivens what might without her have been just another soap opera. With smiles & tears, she beguiles the audience into completely identifying with her joys & tribulations. Even in a minor picture such as this, her abundant charm & talent still bare testimony to her utterly unassailable niche in American film history.

As her parents - and it's rare for Shirley to have both throughout an entire film - Rosemary Ames & Joel McCrea both nicely underplay their roles, providing strong assistance to Shirley but without overshadowing her, as is proper. McCrea's medical researches & Miss Ames' horseback riding are mere contrivances used to move the plot along - they are never allowed to eclipse the Tiny Tot.

Lyle Talbot & Erin O'Brien-Moore deftly play the significant others in the lives of Shirley's parents; thankfully, each is presented gently, leaving the story without any unnecessary abrasion. Wonderful character actor J. Farrell MacDonald sparks the end of the film with his sympathetic portrayal of a wise, friendly tramp.

Shirley Temple was in a few - not many - movies that just were not appealing. In most of her films, she overcomes a bad start in life (orphanages, etc.) or overcomes an evil, nasty person (usually Edna Mae Oliver or someone similar) but is seen happy most of the time and singing and dancing here and there. It's when the negative elements of the story are overemphasized (i.e. Blue Bird, Baby Take A Bow) that her films often lose appeal. That's the case in this movie.

"Our Little Girl" is simply too depressing, a negative storyline in which Shirley's parents are ready for a divorce. Her mother has an affair with a friend and the father is away all the time on business, ignoring the family.

When Temple ("Molly Middleton") is happy or cute, she's too cute in here, her sugary personality overdone. Meanhwhile, there is only one song and no dance numbers. People buy or rent Shirley Temple movies to feel good, not to get depressed or weighed down with broken-family soaps. There are plenty of other movies like that.