Curly Top *** (1935, Shirley Temple, John Boles, Rochelle Hudson) – Classic Movie Review 10,521

Director Irving Cummings’s 1935 film is Curly Top, and, with that title at that time, who else could it be but Shirley Temple?

The moppet is winsome in this mild reworking of Jean Webster’s novel and play Daddy Long Legs (filmed under that title in 1919, 1931 and notably in 1955 with Fred Astaire as Daddy Long Legs). However, neither the play nor the novel is mentioned in the screen credits.

John Boles also stars as wealthy bachelor Edward Morgan  – still young and handsome – who adopts sweet little orphan Elizabeth Blair (Shirley Temple) and he soon sparks up a romantic interest in her sexy older sister Mary (Rochelle Hudson).

Curly Top is a tasty, traditional Temple soufflé with lashings of sentiment, plenty of charm and some memorable character acting (Jane Darwell, Rafaela Ottiano, Esther Dale, Arthur Treacher, Etienne Girardot), plus the star singing her all-time great ‘Animal Crackers in My Soup’ and her little-known, though also appealing, song ‘When I Grow Up’.

Patterson McNutt and Arthur J Beckhard write the screenplay.

It is shot in black and white but it is also available in a computer colorized version.

Also in the cast are Maurice Murphy, Stanley Andrews, Lynn Bari, and Billy Gilbert.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,521

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