Cynical New Yorkers must have rolled their eyes to see the glamorous art deco court room featured in the climax of this Shirley Temple vehicle which turns Chambers Street into 42nd Street when tap-dancing George Murphy goes up against his pickle-pussed aunt (Edna May Oliver) to keep a hotel for actors which they own open. Temple starts off this charming comedy with a few musical numbers by singing "Be Optimistic". Of course, she's got a lot to be optimistic about. She's been adopted by the old man who runs the hotel (Edward Ellis) and his pretty daughter (Phyllis Brooks), not realizing that the crabby old pumpkin next door (Oliver) is furious over bandleader Jimmy Durante's constant interruptions of her desire for quiet and decides to demand the back rent building renter Ellis owes.It's obvious from the start that Oliver's crabby old bat is really a big pile of mush hidden under that fabulous horse face. She threatens to steal the picture just by her name in the title, and her comic genius is evident when she visits the hotel and is visited by a marching penguin and various acrobatic acts. Donald Meek comes close second as her milquetoast brother who secretly performs on the side and stands up to a butler who reports everything to his bossy sister. When he breaks out in a fight dance, it is one of those delicious moments of visual comedy that proved that the character performers were often better than the stars.For one of the few times in his career, "Swedish" comic El Brendel is unobtrusive, commenting on the action with the aforementioned penguin who basically makes his presence in the film more tolerable than his early talkie appearances in the Fox musicals. The musical finale towards the end is of course outrageously ostentatious, turning a courtroom into the equivalent of a Mickey/Judy barn! The reactions from Claude Gillingwater as the judge is worth the price of admission alone, and of course, he applauds with his gavel. One of the oddest bloopers in film history appears in this sequence which shows George Murphy plain as day sitting in the court room in a suit watching Shirley perform, then magically re-appearing moments later swinging open the courtroom doors in tuxedo and tap-dancing his way back in. This "Little Miss Broadway", of course, never appeared on Broadway, but for post depression and pre-war audiences needing escapism, this didn't matter. Pure entertainment is entertainment, no matter how off the wall it ends up being.

This might be the best of all the Shirley Temple movies of the 1930s because its so interesting start-to-finish.The only annoying person is Edna May Oliver, who plays the standard mean old lady who is out to ruin things for the ""good guys" Fortunately, she's not in a lot of scenes and eventually even changes her thoughts for the better.The rest of the film is nothing but nice people who are a lot of fun to watch. George Murphy and Phyllis Brooks are the typical (for Temple movies) super nice, handsome young couple which gets together in the end.Edward Ellis plays a nice old man and Donald Meek nearly steals the show with some funny lines and funny faces. I thought James Durante would be funny, but he had more of a straight than comedic role.Other features which make this movie stand out from normal Temple fare were unique characters (midgets, twins, penguins and more) and a tremendous amount of songs and dances (much more than normally heard).All the elements that made Shirley Temple's films so successful are rolled up into this movie. Great stuff!

I'm not the biggest fan of black and white films but this was still good. That shouldn't interfere with the acting and story itself, but that's just me. I actually enjoyed this even though it lacked color. During the first ten or fifteen minutes, I was pretty determined that I was going to hate this film. It was kind of slow and the writing wasn't all that great. Then I realized that it was made in the '30s and should think how this would have appeared back then. I thought and began to enjoy it. I'll be honest, this is the first Shirley Temple film that I have ever seen. I've heard of her and had been wanting to see her in something for a while, but never did. I was so impressed with her acting ability. Plus, she's so cute dancing around that office. The rest of the cast is pretty good but I especially liked the part of Betsy Brown. While 'Little Miss Broadway' was still very slow, I enjoyed it because of the dancing number(s). Also, the writing was somewhat comical. This isn't one of the best films I have ever seen, not even close, but it was/is something good to see on a quiet afternoon when there is nothing else on.

The highlight in this one is Edna May Oliver who made a wonderful detective in earlier films (she paired with James Gleason in several 30's efforts). I mean, to be mean to little Miss Everything--what can you say? Shirley looks a little chubby in this outting but no less talented as she reacts, moves that mouth, smiles and keeps up with famous hoofers.