Miss Annie Rooney

As Miss Annie Rooney, we have Miss Shirley Temple officially reaching adolescence in a Hollywood motion picture. The acceptable effort is a production from Edward Small's company distributed through United Artists. Despite the obviousness of its limited budget, the movie has plenty of merit, though its script could easily have undergone a rewrite to remove some of the more blatant stereotypes about the Irish-American culture.

Guy Kibbee is cast as Temple's grand-pop and serves stew along with an authentic-sounding brogue. However, William Gargan, who plays his son and Temple's father curiously does not attempt to convey the Irishness of his character much at all. For that matter, he does not attempt to convey much in the way of acting, either.

There are some charming moments in this film that make up for the occasional inconsistencies. One such moment is a teen party where our blossoming star dances with Dickie Moore, who has also officially reached puberty in this film. Like Temple, he suffers the pangs of young love in between fits of barely decipherable young folk slang.

This is an adorable coming of age story starring Shirley Temple as the Irish American Miss Annie Rooney. Having lost her mother, Annie lives with her father the dreamer Tim (William Gargan) and her retired police officer grandfather Grandpa Rooney, played by the always fabulous Guy Kibbee.

While on the way to a friends house for a get together and jitterbug dance party she and her friend Joey (Roland Dupree) run into Marty White (Dickie Moore). Marty is from a different social bracket, but seems to become instantly smitten with Annie. Not only does Annie teach him to jitterbug, but she speaks to him of Romeo and Juliet. It's not long before Marty sends her red roses and asks her to his birthday party, which creates all sorts of financial issues for Annie's family as her father has just become unemployed.

This is one of those feel good movies where everything works out...and it is notable as Shirley Temple's first on screen kiss. I hadn't really seen a picture of her in the throws of growing up and she is just as adorable as when she was pint sized. The dancing is a real highlight for me as a dancer and fun to watch. I also got a kick out of the slang and the adults attempts to catch on to the contemporary lingo. Just a fun film that I recommend to classic film fans.

"May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows your dead."-Grandpa Rooney.

Poor Irish teen, living with her crusty grandpa and unemployed inventor-father, needs a party frock after a wealthy boy she likes asks her to his birthday bash. Naturally, along with a new dress, she'll need a matching wrap and evening sandals, too! Shirley Temple on the wane: she proves not to be a natural movie talent in her teenage years, nor does she seem to connect with this character or with the other kids in the cast (though one can hardly blame her for steering clear of Peggy Ryan's over-the-top Myrtle!). William Gargan, playing Shirl's father--a purveyor of a new technique which turns weeds into a rubbery substance--manages a nice sense of loving desperation, and Temple does break out her dancing shoes in the party sequence. But these teen-trials are completely unreal. This is the kind of penniless movie family with one foot on the street who still manage to live in a large apartment complete with telephone extension in the daughter's room! The film failed to get Temple's career on the right track, and her manner is blasé and indifferent throughout. ** from ****

Annie Rooney (Shirley Temple) is a 14-year-old romantic and Myrtle is her best friend. Her salesman dad's newest get rich scheme is a new form of synthetic rubber. They live check to check on her grandpa's pension. Joey is a boy and a friend. He's driving Annie when they run into 16-year-old Marty White. Annie has love at first sight for Marty who comes from a wealthy rubber family fortune.

Shirley Temple is trying to be more than a child star. She's still plenty cute but she comes off as a try-hard. Worst still, Marty is terribly stiff and her love for him does not shine a good light on her. Joey isn't much either but at least, he has a little bit of charisma. It would be a much better move to have the best friend show his worth for her love. All the characters are mostly two dimensional and the tire story is tired. This is not a movie with depth. This is notable for Shirley's first on-screen kiss which is no more than a peck on the cheek and quite awkward at that. The big question is whether Shirley ever had a chance at prolonging her career. She could have been a Nancy Drew type but she isn't really a romantic type. She tries hard and that's the character type that she should concentrate on.

Shirley had left Fox and was in a sort of limbo waiting for suitable roles when she did 'Miss Annie Rooney' for Edward Small, her first teen-age role before the more successful one in 'Since You Went Away'. I saw this in the colorized video version and, although certainly not one of her best films, it was passable enough and fun seeing Shirley develop into her "older" roles. A lot of teen-age jive talk (1940s-style) makes up most of the dialogue and the plot is a slender one about a poor girl infatuated with a rich boy and facing disapproval of his friends. Guy Kibbee is enjoyable as Shirley's grandfather and William Gargan and Peggy Ryan do well enough in supporting roles. Shirley's teen-age poise is impressive and she looks charming--but this is a distinctly minor item among her credits, an interesting curiosity piece if you want to compare today's teen-agers to the swinging juveniles shown here. The script is weak, and yet Temple manages to be her charming self. As far as the colorization goes, it's one of the better jobs I've seen.