Una povera bimba milionaria

"Poor Little Rich Girl" is an interesting Shirley Temple movie because it seems to have been, at least in part, the inspiration for the 90s film "Baby's Day Out"!

When the film begins, Barbara (Shirley Temple) is a pampered little girl living in a mansion. But she's also lonely and begs her father to send her to school. Instead of having her live at home and go to school (what normal folks would do), he decides to send her off to a residential school. On the way, however, she's separated from her governess when the lady is run over!!! This part sure shocked us! And Barbara just wanders off and ends up in the poor section of town. There she recognizes characters from a story book she loved and sees everything as a big adventure...and she tells everyone she's the little orphan girl, Bonny, from the book.

During the course of Barbara's adventures, she meets up with the Dolans (Alice Faye and Jack Haley). The Dolans just accept Barbara's story that she's an orphan and take her in...never contacting the police or children's services! Much of this might be because she's a great singer and they want to put her in their singing/dancing act. Oddly, Barbara doesn't seem to miss her father nor does he seem to notice that she never arrived at the school!!! What a weird story.

During the course of the film, Shirley sings a lot of cute but forgettable songs (there's no "Good Ship Lollipop" song in this one!), dances with Haley and Faye and is gosh-darned adorable. Pretty much, all the stuff you'd normally expect in a Temple movie...but with a MUCH weirder and nonsensical plot than usual. In addition there's a weird guy who likes to look in the windows at Barbara and offers to take her out to buy her candy--and I think he's supposed to be a pedophile (my wife, incidentally, thought maybe he was just a fortune-hunter who wanted to kidnap her)!!! Because of this, I wouldn't rank it among he better Temple outings but like almost all her other films (with the exception of "The Blue Bird") she made as a child, it's fun and worth seeing--and the kid is just adorable. Among the best part of the movie, by the way, is the cute portion where Barbara wins the heart of a grouchy old guy who looks to be the inspiration for Jeff Dunham's character 'Walter'! Well worth seeing despite its flaws.

By the way, at the very end, Faye, Haley and Temple dress up and do a song AND dance routine...and it's supposed to be on the radio!! Does this make any sense at all?!

The precocious & incredibly talented little daughter of a widowed soap merchant dreams of living like a normal child. On her way to boarding school, she loses herself in New York City, changes her name and ends up living with a couple of ex-vaudeville performers. With spunk & vitality, the child makes them all stars of a radio show sponsored by her father's greatest business rival. Will she continue to enjoy her new freedom, or will her identity be revealed so that she once again becomes a POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL?

Shirley Temple is in top form in this winning film which gives her ample opportunity to display her many charms. She lights up the screen with her youthful joy. It's no wonder she was Hollywood's biggest star for several years.

Shirley is given fine support from Jack Haley & Alice Faye as her musical partners, and Michael Whalen & Gloria Stuart as her father & his new lady love. Claude Gillingwater is very good as the crotchety business rival who is melted by Shirley's affection. That's Jane Darwell as Shirley's nanny & Henry Armetta scores as an Italian organ grinder. Film mavens should keep an eye out for Billy Gilbert, in a tiny bit as a hilarious waiter.

Shirley sings `Oh, My Goodness', `When I'm With You' & `But Definitely' and joins with Faye & Haley in `You Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby' & "Military Man".

Not only does SHIRLEY TEMPLE have the opportunity to co-star with ALICE FAYE and JACK HALEY (just slightly before both of them hit it big), but she gets a chance to shine in a made to order Temple vehicle that closes with a memorable 'Military Man' tap routine, easily keeping up with the talented adult troupers.

Of all the show biz stories associated with Temple's films, this is one of the best. The story has Temple as the neglected daughter of MICHAEL WHALEN, skipping off after her nanny is involved in an auto accident and attracting the attention of entertainers Faye and Haley. A sub-plot has her father winning the love of the lovely GLORIA STUART--and, of course, the outcome is a predictable one when he is reunited with his missing daughter after hearing her perform on a radio show.

The slender plot serves mainly as a vehicle for Temple to be adored by her legion of fans. She doesn't disappoint, her winning ways fully exploited in either song or dance. In fact, this is probably one of her most charming song-and-dance performances.

Alice Faye, Jack Haley, Michael Whalen, Gloria Stuart, Billy Gilbert and Henry Armetta add to the enjoyment. All of it is directed in fine style by Irving Cummings (who also served as host on the Lux Radio Theater shows) so popular on radio.

Henry Armetta has a funny bit as an organ grinder with a monkey who has Shirley enjoy an Italian spaghetti dinner with his family. The only serious moments in the film involve, surprisingly, a stalker who seems to be lurking in doorways waiting for an opportunity to snatch Shirley off the streets. Fortunately, she survives for a happy ending and the stalking incident, while sinister enough, is given minor treatment in the story.

Summing up: Good family entertainment.

Here is another very nice Shirley Temple film, one of the above-average ones for her (and most of hers were above-average to start with!). This one featured really nice characters, downplayed the villain, and had a lot of songs.

It didn't have as much tap dancing as I would like to have seen, but it did feature a prolonged dance at the end with Shirley, Jack Haley and Alice Faye.

The villain was some mysterious dude who was either a child molester or a kidnapper. It was never really explained. Thankfully, he had a small role. Otherwise, it was all good people and fun ones to watch. I like seeing Gloria Stuart in her early days, too.

The story is predictable, but most of them are and everyone winds up happy in the end. I find nothing wrong with that! It's all the better that Shirley winds up with vaudeville performers, guaranteeing we get a lot of musical entertainment in this movie. And.....where else but a Shirley Temple movie, would you have a song called "You've Got To Eat Your Spinach, Baby?"

...it's still vastly entertaining. It was common practice for 20th Century Fox to buy film rights to a classic novel, and turn it into a Shirley Temple vehicle that has not even a passing resemblance to the original. The book "The Poor Little Rich Girl" is far more tragic than this cute-fest, but as an entertainment film, it certainly succeeds.

The performances are right up there. One of my favourite screen stars Alice Faye is so brilliant, she never gets lost in Temple's glare as do so many of her costars. Jack Haley is hilarious, and the songs are amazing. Alas, Gloria Stuart isn't given much to do but she looks wonderful.

Favourite moments include the spaghetti-eating scene, Shirley's conversation with the curb-side porter and of course "You Gotta Eat Your Spinach Baby." Fine film for parents to watch with their kids.

Try to get the original black and white version if you can, the colorized version looks a little weird.