Finally logged a full feature-length from America’s darling Shirley Temple, and gosh I get the appeal. In this piece of historical fiction she does it all - she sings, she dances, she feels joy, she feels sadness. Truly a phenomenal child actor, perhaps the best to ever do it.
The premise suggests Temple takes on the search for her dad, who was sent off to the war, but it’s more of a daughter yearning for her father and having her suspicions than a detective film about her actively seeking him out; not super disappointed at this, of course, but a Temple rescue film could have also been very interesting. Instead, this script does feel a bit generic at times; you know regardless of her trials and tribulations that she’s gonna be right and things will all work out in the end of the story and it’s going to happen under circumstances that in real life would be a bit dubious. The British soldiers are the good guys and the orphanage owner is a mean nasty lady. Sometimes it feels like it writes itself.
For a technicolor film from a director I’ve previously praised (Walter Lang, who I gave a glowing review to for Snow White and the Three Stooges) I’m actually feeling mixed on his efforts here. The Technicolor, an innovation of film for its time that I still stand by for its vibrancy, feels a little underwhelming and colors feel a little muted; the costume work, on the other hand, is very nice. I suppose you win some and you lose some - it’s not supposed to be a bright film visually.
A decent film, won’t call it Temple’s best (as I have no gauge for this) but it’s certainly passable.
Finally logged a full feature-length from America’s darling Shirley Temple, and gosh I get the appeal. In this piece of historical fiction she does it all - she sings, she dances, she feels joy, she feels sadness. Truly a phenomenal child actor, perhaps the best to ever do it.
The premise suggests Temple takes on the search for her dad, who was sent off to the war, but it’s more of a daughter yearning for her father and having her suspicions than a detective film about her actively seeking him out; not super disappointed at this, of course, but a Temple rescue film could have also been very interesting. Instead, this script does feel a bit generic at times; you know regardless of her trials and tribulations that she’s gonna be right and things will all work out in the end of the story and it’s going to happen under circumstances that in real life would be a bit dubious. The British soldiers are the good guys and the orphanage owner is a mean nasty lady. Sometimes it feels like it writes itself.
For a technicolor film from a director I’ve previously praised (Walter Lang, who I gave a glowing review to for Snow White and the Three Stooges) I’m actually feeling mixed on his efforts here. The Technicolor, an innovation of film for its time that I still stand by for its vibrancy, feels a little underwhelming and colors feel a little muted; the costume work, on the other hand, is very nice. I suppose you win some and you lose some - it’s not supposed to be a bright film visually.
A decent film, won’t call it Temple’s best (as I have no gauge for this) but it’s certainly passable.
