Kiss and Tell

Very shortly after the picture starts Shirley, as 15 year old Corliss Archer gets herself and best friend Mildred Pringle played by Virginia Wells into hot water with their parents. Shirley was 17 at the time this was filmed and still the scene stealer and still the talented, funny and cute actress she was as a child despite those critical of her films in the 1940's and the poor treatment she was sometimes subjected too. Walter Abel who played Harry Archer (Corliss's father), was also quite funny and stole a few scenes of his own in this movie. Katharine Alexander as Janet Archer (Corliss's mother) blames the trouble the girls get into on Mildred and it begins a feud between the two families. When the two girls are forbidden to see each other, Corliss's brotherLenny tells Corliss a secret she must keep from everyone and things snowball out of control as she plots and fibs trying to keep the secret and patch things up between the families. From the start of this movie until her final film in 1949, Shirley just grew more beautiful , attractive and talented with each scene and it didn't matter if she was in raggedy pajamas and a bathrobe or stylish fashions of the time, I always felt I'd miss something if I looked away. A look, a smile or something only very talented actors( Lauren Bacall, Steve McQueen are good examples) often do to hold your attention. In her childhood films Shirley would flip another actors tie around or fiddle with a shirt collar or an object on the set somewhere. In Kiss and Tell there's a few brief scenes when she's plotting something, she chews on a bobby-pin and at one point her boyfriend Dexter yells at her to "Take that bobby-pin out of your mouth!". I also found Her mispronouncing words in some of her lines quite amusing. Overall its funny and well acted and also shows support for the military as many of Shirley's films did. Supporting cast members Jerome Courtland as Corliss's boyfriend Dexter and Darryl Hickman as Mildred's little brother Raymond were a little over the top a times but also had some good moments and added to the mischief snowballing from the feud. Even Shirley herself would later admit her films in the 1940's could have been better, but that was mostly Hollywood's fault for cheeping out and not taking better care of this amazing actress among other things. She was the best she could be in each and every one of her films and she is the reason we watched them, and still continue to watch them today, but definitely!

KISS AND TELL with Shirley as Corliss Archer is the kind of family comedy rampant in the '40s and '50s--but what seemed mighty funny back then doesn't have quite the same punch today. In other words, all the material is slightly dated and the genuine laughs in the script by F. Hugh Herbert are few and far between.

Nevertheless, it's one of Shirley's most appealing performances as a teen-ager and she seems to be enjoying herself immensely. She has good support from Jerome Courtland, as an awkward neighborhood boy, and Walter Abel as her exasperated father and Katharine Alexander as his patient wife. I believe Shirley had already played Corliss Archer on radio and certainly had an affinity for this sort of role.

I recall enjoying it much more years ago. A recent viewing of the film left me much less impressed with the overall result. It seemed to be straining a bit hard for laughs and the material was very thin.

Shirley Temple is Corliss Archer, the perpetually fifteen-year-old girl whose imagination and stubbornness always gets her into trouble. Here, through a series of events, she's covering up for her secret sister-in-law, pretending to be expecting and married to boy-next-door Jerome Courtland. It's typical idiot plotting, with Walter Abel as Miss Temple's apoplectic father, Katherine Alexander as her long-suffering mother, and Robert Benchley, who pops into view to keep things bubbling for another few minutes.

I thought it was pretty racy for a Production Code movie, but it's based on a stage play that had been produced on Broadway a couple of years earlier. Corliss had been created by F. High Herbert, who turned it into quite a franchise opportunity, with movies, stage shows, the long-running radio show, a television series, and even a comic book; that ran only three issues. Miss Temple would reappear as Corliss in a second movie four years later. With Porter Hall, Darryl Hickman, Carlyle Blackwell Jr, and Daisy the Dog on loan from Blondie.

Enjoyed this film immensely.

Good acting all round.

I wish it would come round on english telly.

Made me feel very happy.

. I saw this movie one time, on TV. I was 12. That would have been around 1960. And I've never forgotten it. My mother and myself, and my younger sister, laughed through the whole thing til our sides hurt. It struck so close to home for all three of us. I've been looking for the thing to come out on tape all my adult life. But it doesn't matter when it comes out. As long as it does one day, I won't have outgrown it. .