Plot
The film opens with an elderly woman named Ms. Bee Bee, who reveals herself to be a kindly witch, telling the audience about the town of Grisham Heights, owned by the selfish, wealthy and dance-obsessed Count Grisham. She explains that she was Grisham's former dance teacher, until he chased her into hiding when he accidentally discovered that she was a witch, and was forced to live in an abandoned house far outside of the village, with only her magic broom Bristles for company. She then goes on to explain the town's workhouse mill, which is where all orphans and poor debtors are sent to work off their debts, and that it takes thirteen pieces of silver to buy your freedom. Ms. Bee Bee then introduces the audience to Polly, an orphan girl who has been living in the mill nearly her whole life, but has been saving her silver coins and hiding them at the foot of her scarecrow (without realizing that Ms. Bee Bee lives at the house). Because she is lonely, Ms. Bee Bee decides to bring her scarecrow to life after Polly leaves, using a magic feather to do so, which also allows a pessimistic mouse, Max, who lives in the Scarecrow's pocket, to talk.
As the years pass, Scarecrow begins to fall in love with Polly after her constant visits. It's shown by Ms. Bee Bee that Polly had already earned her required amount of silver a long time ago-(6 years prior), but she decided to stay when three new orphans, Cooper, Farley, and Gretchen had arrived at the workhouse, and wished to help them so they could all leave together. Seeing that Scarecrow is in love with Polly, and worried she'll be discovered and chased away again, Ms. Bee Bee leaves the village, telling Scarecrow that she will miss him and teaches him how to dance. Scarecrow is saddened, but determined to find a way to be with Polly and watch over her money until she is able to free herself and all the children at the workhouse.
Meanwhile, Count Grisham, fully aware of the amount of money she has, wants Polly to be his, and constantly attempts to woo her with promises of giving her and the children a good life and home, though Polly is able to see right through his selfish act and continuously turns him down. On the day she earns the last silver coin they need, Grisham finds out and sends the workhouse mill overseer, Cheswick, to find Polly's silver. Cheswick follows Polly to the old garden, and digs up her money after she leaves, but Scarecrow reveals himself in an attempt to retrieve it and frightens Cheswick, who runs to Grisham's two thugs for help. They corner Scarecrow in the old house, where he discovers a magic feather and a message left to him by Ms. Bee Bee, which tells him that the feather (when worn) will turn him human, but that "real life" will never be his until he is willing to give that life for another.
Scarecrow dons the feather and easily fools Grisham's thugs into believing he is merely a traveler named Feathertop, and they leave, though Cheswick is not convinced. Meanwhile, Polly returns to the garden to find her money gone, and weeps in despair. The next morning, Grisham comes up with a plan to ensnare Polly with his "love spell dance" to make her his by holding a dance contest, with 52 pieces of silver (the exact amount she needs) as the prize. Feathertop shows off his dancing skills to a crowd in the town square, which prompts Polly to ask him to teach her and be her partner at the dance. During her lesson, the two share a romantic dance and begin to fall in love, until Grisham interrupts to ask Polly to be his partner. He is angry to learn that she already has a partner, and on the night of the contest sends his thugs to trap Feathertop so he cannot attend. Feathertop escapes the thugs and he and Polly win the contest. Feathertop gives all the money to Polly, and the two confess their love for each other, and plan to marry the next morning.
Grisham confronts Feathertop, discovering his true identity. He ties Scarecrow up in the same field and steals his feather, which transforms him into Feathertop upon wearing it, hoping to trick Polly into marrying him, but Bristles and Max manage to remove the feather off of him just before he enters the Church. Grisham tries to force her to marry him, but she, and the priest, refuse to go along with it. Scarecrow manages to escape, and retrieves his feather thanks to Max, but decides to leave Polly because he knows he can never truly be with her. Polly is still waiting for him at the church when Grisham angrily tells his manservant Wooden that he intends to kill Polly for rejecting him, but Wooden abandons him to warn Polly. Bristles, who was eavesdropping, flies off to warn Feathertop.
Polly and the children attempt to escape town in Grisham's carriage, but the only way out is across a bridge over a gorge that Grisham ordered his thugs to weaken. Feathertop arrives and climbs under to hold the supports together until Polly and the children are safely across. Grisham tries to intervene, and in the struggle falls to his death. Feathertop manages to hold the bridge together long enough for the carriage to cross, then falls into the gorge as it collapses. Max and Bristles search the rubble and find him apparently dead, but are overjoyed to see him alive, and they climb out of the gorge together. Polly is waiting at the top, and joyfully embraces Feathertop, who tries to explain why they can't be together, only to realize that his feather fell out of his hat when he climbed out of the gorge, meaning he is now human permanently. He and Polly kiss, and the town celebrates Grisham's demise by cleaning up and holding a large dance in the town square and renaming the town Swingtown, while Ms. Bee Bee brings a girl broom to life for Bristles, and closes the film by addressing the audience the same way she did at the beginning.
Love Finds Andy Hardy is a 1938 American romantic comedy film that tells the story of a teenage boy who becomes entangled with three different girls all at the same time. It stars Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden, Cecilia Parker, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford, Mary Howard and Gene Reynolds.
The Keys of the Kingdom is a 1941 novel by A. J. Cronin. Spanning six decades, it tells the story of Father Francis Chisholm, an unconventional Scottish Catholic priest who struggles to establish a mission in China. Beset by tragedy in his youth, as a missionary Chisholm endures many years of hardship, punctuated by famine, plague and war in the Chinese province to which he is assigned. Through a life guided by compassion and tolerance, Chisholm earns the respect of the Chinese—and of fellow clergy who would mistrust him—with his kindly, high-minded and courageous ways.
Crazy for You is a romantic comedy musical with a book by Ken Ludwig, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. Billed as "The New Gershwin Musical Comedy", it is largely based on the songwriting team's 1930 musical Girl Crazy, but also incorporates songs from several other productions. It won the 1992 Tony Award (Broadway), the 1993 Olivier Award (London), and the 1994 Dora Award (Toronto) for Best Musical.
Niagara is a 1953 American noir thriller film directed by Henry Hathaway, produced by Charles Brackett, and written by Brackett, Richard L. Breen and Walter Reisch. The film stars Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, and Max Showalter. It was one of 20th Century Fox's biggest box-office hits that year.
Uneasy Money is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 17 March 1916 by D. Appleton & Company, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 4 October 1917 by Methuen & Co., London. The story had earlier been serialised in the U.S in the Saturday Evening Post from December 1915, and in the UK in the Strand Magazine starting December 1916.
The Scarecrow is a play written by Percy MacKaye in 1908, and first presented on Broadway in 1911. It is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Feathertop", but greatly expands upon the tale. Mackaye himself stated that he hoped that the play would not be taken as a dramatization of "Feathertop", since the intentions of the two works are so different: "The scarecrow Feathertop is ridiculous, as the emblem of a superficial fop; the scarecrow Ravensbane is pitiful, as the emblem of human bathos."
"Feathertop" is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1852. The moral tale uses a metaphoric scarecrow named Feathertop and its adventure to offer the reader a conclusive lesson about human character. It has since been used and adapted in several other media forms, such as opera and theatre.
Bunty was a British comic for girls published by D. C. Thomson & Co. from 1958 to 2001. It consisted of a collection of many small strips, the stories typically being three to five pages long. In contrast to earlier and contemporary comics, it was aimed primarily at working-class readers under the age of 14, and contained mostly fictional stories. Well-known regular strips from Bunty include The Four Marys, Bunty — A Girl Like You, Moira Kent, Lorna Drake, Luv, Lisa, The Comp, and Penny's Place.
Lady Victorian is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Moto. It was serialized in Princess magazine from 1998 to January 2007 and published as 20 tankōbon volumes by Akita Shoten. Set during the Victorian era, the story follows the adventures of Bluebell Lily Everrose, nicknamed Bell, a young girl who travels to London to find a job as a governess.
Pollyanna is a 1960 American comedy-drama film starring child actress Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Karl Malden, and Richard Egan in a story about a cheerful orphan changing the outlook of a small town. The film was written and directed by David Swift, based on the 1913 novel Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. The film won Hayley Mills an Academy Juvenile Award. It was the last film of actor Adolphe Menjou.
Bundle of Joy is a 1956 American Technicolor musical film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Adolphe Menjou. It is a remake of the 1939 comedy film Bachelor Mother, which starred Ginger Rogers and David Niven, and was itself an English remake of the 1935 Austrian-Hungarian comedy film Little Mother.
The Boy Friend is a 1971 British musical comedy film written and directed by Ken Russell, based on the 1953 musical of the same name by Sandy Wilson. The film stars Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Tommy Tune, and Max Adrian, with an uncredited appearance by Glenda Jackson. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made extensive edits to the film for its American release. The missing material was restored and the film was re-released in 1987. The Boy Friend was released on DVD on 12 April 2011.
The Search for Santa Paws is a 2010 Christmas adventure fantasy film released on November 23, 2010. The title is the tenth film in the Air Bud franchise and is also a prequel to Santa Buddies, as well as a spin-off from the Air Buddies film franchise.
Edith Marilyn Fellows was an American actress who became a child star in the 1930s. Best known for playing orphans and street urchins, Fellows was an expressive actress with a good singing voice. She made her screen debut at the age of five in Charley Chase's film short Movie Night (1929). Her first credited role in a feature film was The Rider of Death Valley (1932). By 1935, she had appeared in over twenty films. Her performance opposite Claudette Colbert and Melvyn Douglas in She Married Her Boss (1935) won her a seven-year contract with Columbia Pictures, the first such contract offered to a child.
Sapphire Battersea is the 2011 sequel to Hetty Feather, written by English author Jacqueline Wilson. It is the second installment in the Hetty Feather Trilogy. The story continues where Hetty Feather left off. Hetty, now 14 years old, is discharged from the Foundling Hospital and begins life as a scullery maid.
"Destiny" is the first episode and origin story of the syndicated television series Queen of Swords, airing October 7, 2000.
The Walking Target is a 1960 crime film directed by Edward L. Cahn and starring Joan Evans, Merry Anders, and Ronald Foster. The screenplay concerns an ex-con who, upon release from prison, sets out to retrieve the $260,000 he hid before he was arrested, and finds unexpected romance with the widow of his former partner in crime.
Judge Hardy and Son (1939) is the 8th film, of 16, in the Andy Hardy series. It is the last MGM film in the 1930s.
