Ginger

Jane Withers was a wonderful child actress and Ms. Withers just celebrated her 90th birthday this year! She was Twentieth Century Fox's counterpoint to their super-successful Shirley Temple. While Shirley was sugary sweet and delightful, Jane played characters who could be bratty, very spunky and earthlier than Shirley ever played. And, in a brilliant move, the studio put them together in BRIGHT EYES....one of the best movies of Temple's career. But Withers also made quite a few films of her own and "Ginger" is one of her best--and every bit as enjoyable as the Temple films.

When the film begins, you learn that Ginger (Withers) is an orphan who lives with her uncle, Rex Whittington...a drunk has-been actor. While he does love her, he clearly cannot stop drinking and stay out of trouble. During one of his benders, he's arrested and poor Ginger is left to fend for herself. During this time, Ginger steals a bunch of small things as this little girl has the audacious plan of raising money to get him out of jail this way! When she is caught, however, the authorities get involved and she's taken home to live with Mrs. Parker and her family. The problem is that Mrs. Parker is incredibly intent on being sophisticated and a paragon of society...and there just isn't a lot of room for fun in this household. Her son, Hamilton (played wonderfully by Jackie Searl), is a prissy kid and at first gets along poorly with Ginger. However, through the course of the film, Ginger is able to not only win him over but Mr. Parker as well. But what about Mrs. Parker and the all-too-proper home? And, what of poor Uncle Rex?! Can Ginger and Mr. Parker possibly do anything to take care of these problems?

This is a schmaltzy family film...I admit it. But Withers' performance and the script so well written that I didn't mind in the least. I loved every minute of the film and can't see why you wouldn't as well...unless, of course, you are an old curmudgeon. I may be old...but not quite a curmudgeon!

Jane Wither's first starring vehicle has her living on 9th Avenue with her guardian, O.P.Heggie, a washed-up Shakespearean actor. When he gets into a fight and sentenced to thirty days in jail, Park Avenue dame Katherine Alexander, who is writing a book she intends to call ARE CHILDREN PEOPLE, decides to take her home to see if a good environment can save her --it's already turned her son, Jackie Searle, into one of those milquetoast horrors that Our Gang warned us against. Fortunately, Ginger finds an ally in the house's paterfamilias, Walter Woolf King.

It's soapy and sappy and decently done. Clearly the folks at the rapidly disintegrating Fox --- soon to be taken over by Darryl Zanuck's 20th Century -- hoped for another Shirley Temple. Miss Withers clearly was not Shirley -- she was tough and pugnacious and her vehicles were clearly B movies. That was all right, since Fox' B division had plenty of talent grown used to doing things on the cheap. Her movies were lively and popular and her career prospered in parallel to Miss Temple's for another seven years.

Happily, Miss Withers is still with us in her nineties and can be seen from time to time. Here's hoping more of her movies can be made available!

A plucky young girl struggles to adapt to live with the wealthy foster family with whom she must stay while her impoverished uncle is in jail. Diverting enough comedy-drama held together by a winning performance from Jane Withers; she might not have been as cute as Shirley Temple, but she was a far better actor - and even delivers a couple of bang-on impersonations in this one.