Miss Annie Rooney

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.

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.

In my opinion, "Miss Annie Rooney" is the best Shirley Temple movie ever made. The movie features a fourteen year-old Annie Rooney(Temple) who meets a young man(Moore) from a wealthy family by accident(literally). He invites her to his birthday party and Annie's family(her father and grandfather) go through many changes to raise the money for Annie's evening gown and accessories. After she arrives at the party, she soon discovers that the fireworks has just begun. Real good PG family entertainment.

Shirley Temple was now a teenager and she may have left 20th Century Fox, but even as a young teen she was busy raising the adults in her life. In Miss Annie Rooney the adults are grandfather Guy Kibbee complete with the brogue of an Irish cop which he was in the film and father William Gargan who has big dreams of hitting it big not unlike Frank Sinatra's character in A Hole In The Head.

A chance encounter with rich young teen Dickie Moore and invite to his birthday party has Temple mixing with society. But Gargan sees it as an opportunity to pitch his latest cause, synthetic rubber. The results are a social disaster.

Just like she did when she was a toddler on up Shirley sticks by her dad or father figure as the picture would have it. The ending was way too much to swallow though. I prefer the far more realistic ending of the Frank Sinatra film.

Still Shirley Temple fans will approve.

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 ****