Curly Top | |
---|---|
Directed by | Irving Cummings |
Screenplay by | Patterson McNutt Arthur J. Beckhard |
Based on | Daddy-Long-Legs 1912 novel by Jean Webster |
Produced by | Winfield Sheehan |
Starring | Shirley Temple John Boles Rochelle Hudson |
Cinematography | John F. Seitz |
Edited by | Jack Murray |
Music by | Ray Henderson R.H. Bassett Hugo Friedhofer Arthur Lange |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Fox Film |
Release date |
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Running time | 75 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Curly Top is a 1935 American musical romantic comedy film starring Shirley Temple, John Boles and Rochelle Hudson.
Elizabeth and her older sister Mary are in a heavily regimented orphanage where her attempts at play are discouraged by the overly stern superintendent Mrs. Higgins. Orphanage matron Henrietta Denham, is much more understanding towards the children. During a meeting of the orphanage trustees, Elizabeth is caught doing a devastating impersonation of the oldest and crabbiest trustee, Mr. Wycoff. She is saved from punishment by Edward Morgan, a newly minted millionaire who takes an instant liking to her.
Discovering that Elizabeth's older sister had promised their dead parents that they would never be separated, Morgan takes them both into his home, but invents an imaginary guardian for whom he is only the middleman. This strategy develops some serious hitches when he realizes he is in love with the older sister.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, wins over Morgan's eccentric Aunt Genevieve and the stuffy butler, who eventually warms to taking care of her pet pony and duck. Edward eventually confesses his deception, to everybody's relief, and he and Mary will be married.
Helen Brown Norden wrote in Vanity Fair that Temple "has great charm and a phenomenal ease which permit her to dominate even such an absurd situation and stupid dialogue as are forced on her in her latest picture, Curly Top. [1] Maclean's critic Ann Ross was of the opinion that "Admirers of the screen's first child wonder will dote on Curly Top. People who find that all child performances on the screen, even Temple performances, stir up the wicked old Herod in them, had better stay away." [2]
Arthur Veary Treacher, Jr. was an English film and stage actor active from the 1920s to the 1960s, and known for playing English types, especially butler and manservant roles, such as the P.G. Wodehouse valet character Jeeves and the kind butlers opposite Shirley Temple in Curly Top (1935) and Heidi (1937). In the 1960s, he became well known on American television as an announcer and sidekick to talk show host Merv Griffin, and as the support character Constable Jones in Disney's Mary Poppins (1964). He lent his name to the Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips chain of restaurants.
Jane Darwell was an American actress of stage, film, and television. With appearances in more than 100 major movies spanning half a century, Darwell is perhaps best remembered for her poignant portrayal of the matriarch and leader of the Joad family in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bright Eyes is a 1934 American comedy drama film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by William Conselman is based on a story by David Butler and Edwin J. Burke.
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Jeanette Nolan was an American actress. Nominated for four Emmy Awards, she had roles in the television series The Virginian (1962–1971) and Dirty Sally (1974) and in films such as Macbeth (1948).
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.
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