Donnine d'America

Utterly charming lightweight comedy about two teenage girls coming of age in 1940's Manhattan. Director Seaton and the writers add a number of expert touches that lift the 90- minutes above the ordinary. I love the way the luckless teenage suitors keep shuffling in and out of the apartment as the girls' grouchy dad (Joslyn) gives them the better-be-home-by-ten evil eye. And was there ever a more beguiling early teen than Garner (Judy). What I like most is her utter lack of affect. She's a natural, not particularly pretty, but with a winning personality.

Here Judy has a bouncy neighbor Fluffy (Whiting) to conspire with. Their project is to get recovering alcoholic Uncle Willis (Dunne) together with the lovely Ellen (Marlowe) in order to save what they believe is Judy's parent's marriage. Naturally, complications arise, particularly when it looks like Dad will lose his good job because of the girls' shenanigans.

The movie's adapted from a stage play, which is apparent since nearly all the action occurs in the Manhattan apartment. But notice how things never drag as Seaton keeps moving people in and out with lots of sassy dialog, particularly between Judy and older sister Lois (Freeman). Also, catch a very young Mel Torme as one of the obnoxious suitors in an early walk-on. Hard to believe teens were ever like this, but then it is a movie, and though dated, is still quite entertaining, thanks mainly to the wonderful Miss Garner. In my little book, it's an unexpected sleeper.

It didn't take long for "Junior Miss" to hook me in. The dialogue in this light family comedy is unusually lively and laugh-worthy, likely owing to its origins as a play adapted from Sally Benson's autobiographical short stories. Peggy Ann Garner is perfect as wannabe matchmaker Judy. She's a very natural actress for her age: although precocious, she knows knows when to keep it low-key and is never overly spunky in that grating kid actor way.

The movie's best bits are Judy's scenes with her best friend Fuffy Adams, played by Barbara Whiting. Fuffy is a total hoot, reeling off endless movie references and snappy lines while scheming with Judy. Although Fuffy fits the "homely best friend" stock character typically played by someone like Nancy Walker, the movie never mocks or derides her. Fuffy just gets to be Fuffy!

Set during Christmas and New Year's, there's plenty of fun seasonal content, making this a nice addition to any Old Hollywood Christmas playlist. It's puzzling that this this forgotten gem has managed to avoid finding an audience for so long!

Next to A tree Grows in Brooklyn Junior Miss is Peggy Ann Garner's greatest production!If she did not say one word in her movies she would speak to us using her beautiful eyes.Her talent is second to none and she has earned the respect of all of her fans who knew and loved her. My Peggy Ann is gone having left this world on Tuesday,October 16,1984 but she will live in my heart forever.There is only one Peggy Ann Garner and my love and respect for her will never die. I own all of her movies but I am really trying to find any tapes that exist of her long lost TV series Two Girls Named Smith which appeared on Saturadys at 12 P.M.on ABC.God bless you, my angel and you will always have my love.

Based on a series of stories by Sally Benson, this movie covers the trials and tribulations of lawyer Allyn Joslyn's family in Manhattan. It centers itself on Peggy Ann Garner, a dramatic 13-year-old girl whose imagination compares every situation to a vague memory of a movie she has seen, brings forth problems that don't exist, which she attempts to solve..... creating real problems which grow increasingly out of hand as the movie goes on.

It was made into a Broadway show directed by Moss Hart, and the property was bought by Mary Pickford for her own production. Then she sold it to 20th Century-Fox, and it was handed over to their resident G-rated auteur, George Seaton.

There are many things I enjoyed about this movie, particularly the jokes and the peripheral roles, like Miss Garner's friend, Barbara Whiting, whose character rejoices in the name 'Fuffy', one of those thirty-going-on-thirty characters. Yet it was difficult not to compare this to MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS -- same source material author, same adolescent girls-in-crisis model -- and find it curiously lacking. While these days, the essential audience of movie theaters in adolescent and young adults, back then everyone went to the movies, and this was released to the armed forces before the public. Its audience was everyone, fresh from the battlefield or seeking an evening's entertainment free from worries about the war after the newsreels were done. Therefore it has a sort of slick, unsympathetic, mocking view of its juvenile subjects that made it seem mean-spirited, even as I laughed at the gags and the restrained comic reactions of Mr. Joslyn. It's a movie which has not aged well.

This is a movie I remember from those days back in the late 50's when I was a teenager myself, staying up late to watch it on TV. It was a delightful period piece and, I think, nearly on a par with "The Bachelor and Bobby-Soxer". It is not as lively as Bobby-Soxer, but the sympathetic treatment of what it meant to be a teen girl back in 1945 New York City is charming. It doesn't contain an A-List cast like Bobby-Soxer either but those wonderful second string character players really shine. Peggy Ann Garner is excellent but Mona Freeman and Barbara Whiting, as the wise-cracking sister and her best friend(respectively), steal the picture, in my opinion. But then Mona Freeman steals the picture in "Dear Ruth" too. A sadly underrated actress. I see "Junior Miss" is not available on either VHS or DVD and I have not seen it broadcast on TV in many years. It would be a shame if this was a "lost" film.