Like Dorothy, in the later MGM film version of "The Wizard of Oz", Shirley fortuitously escapes her confined, all too familiar, world, as a lonely spoiled child, with minimal contact with other children, to wander into the lives of several incognito, but interesting, families, again with minimal contact with other children. Along the way, her character's name and identity are changed from Barbara Barry: daughter of wealthy soap manufacturer Richard Barry, to Betsy Wier: runaway orphan, for the benefit of organ grinder Tony and his family, to Bonnie Dolan, member of the Dolan song and dance family. But, like Dorothy, she seems glad to be reunited with her father, who recognized her singing voice on the radio. One of the most important people she meets and stays with during her odyssey is Jack Haley(Jimmy Dolan), who later played The Tin Man, in "the Wizard of Oz". Here, he gets to sing and dance, as well, not being encumbered by his stiff and uncomfortable Tin Man costume. Haley is paired with Alice Faye, emerging as Fox's most important female musical star, and who might be though of as the equivalent of The Good Witch, in the latter film. Both she and Haley exhibit unrecognized tap dancing talent, along with Shirley's, in the long finale "Military March" production, dressed as soldiers. ...In place of Frank Morgan's Wizard, we have cranky old Claude Gillingwater, playing Simon Peck, owner of the main local rival soap company to Shirley's father's Barry soap company. She has to charm him into hiring the Dolans to sing the Peck commercials and sing on his sponsored radio show. Gillingwater was yet another of a lineup of cranky old men or women Shirley had to charm in most of her films into being more forgiving of their standard sour attitudes. Like most of the others, he was quite a good actor, and often comical in his behavior....In place of the evil witches, we have the nameless pickpocket and stalker of Shirley, who initially steals the purse of Shirley's governess, then periodically is seen stalking Shirley, with the presumed purpose of kidnapping her, then extracting a handsome ransom from her father. Eventually, he has a brawl with Haley, when caught abducting Shirley......I don't mean to overplay the basic plot similarities between this film and "The Wizard of Oz", as many of these plot elements were included in other S.T. films. Of course, Shirley was the initial choice to play Dorothy in that MGM production, but Fox wouldn't give her up. As it turned out, the much older teen, Judy Garland, was the optimal girl for that role, all things considered.Shirley's little girl singing voice and enunciation wasn't the greatest. Thus, one of the pluses of this film is that several adult singers were included, who sometimes alternated with Shirley in singing a song, sometimes with appropriately altered lyrics. The uncredited Tony Martin lent his great singing voice to the initial singing of "When I'm With You", while Shirley cuddled in the lap of her father(Michael Whalen). Soon, she sang her version to her father. Much later, Alice soloed it. She would soon marry Martin. This song is heard a final time when Shirley sings it on the radio, her father recognizing her voice, leading to their reunion. Aside from the finale "Military Man" tap dance routine, the other two main songs, done by all 3 leads, are "But Definitively", and "You've Got to Eat Your Spinach". Shirley's dislike of spinach, shared by many kids(including me), is a running gag, that crops up several times. Mack Gordon and Harry Revel did the score. They also contributed some key songs to the later S.T. films "Stowaway" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms". Gordon then teamed with Harry Warren to score most of the songs for Shirley's last Fox film: "Young People".I thought Alice's make up and hair styling were unbecoming, still trying to make her look like a Jean Harlow copy. She exhibited more of her emerging new look in the subsequent S.T. film "Stowaway"...I'm sure I heard her quip "orphan asylum, your ass!"Jack Haley would return for the later S.T. film "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm". He would then participate in one song , dominated by his love interest, played by Phyllis Brooks. It is perhaps more memorable than those in the present film. His comedic talent is also more emphasized in that film.Gloria Stuart plays the bland, but wholesome, presumed future stepmother of Shirley: a role she reprised in "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm". She is the one, in the final dramatic scene,who suggests that the warring soap manufacturers(Barry and Peck) bury their hatchets and form a united company. That presumably would solve the problem of her romance with Barry, while being an important person in Peck's company, as well as the conflict between Peck and Barry over Shirley working for Peck.Whether or not governess Collins died in the hospital following her collision with a vehicle is left undetermined, irrelevant to the story in the screenwriter's mind. In the 1933 S.T.film "Bright Eyes", Shirley's mother dies after being hit by a vehicle, thus rendering her an orphan. Through most of this film, Shirley claims to be an orphan, after Collins inexplicably vanished.

The second of four films Shirley Temple made in 1936 is a solid star vehicle tailored for her unique talents but, apart from her winning charm, proves to be hard tack as entertainment for this admitted non-fan of musicals! The thing is that the plot is so incredibly contrived that it's impossible to take any of it seriously: Shirley is the pampered daughter of a millionaire soap manufacturer who is eventually sent to an exclusive college so that she can be with children her own age instead of her prissy butler-nanny-guardian combo. However, she is stranded at the train station and never gets to the college but instead follows an Italian immigrant (Henry Armetta, who else?) who is an accordion-playing busker and has a pet chimp for companion. Before long, however, she is 'adopted' by the penniless husband-and-wife performing team of Jack Haley and (a constantly grouchy) Alice Faye who, thanks to Temple's addition to their act, become radio stars publicizing through song the products of a rival (and predictably cantankerous) soap manufacturer! All this while, Temple's dad is blissfully unaware of her absence from school and subsequent radio success because he's perpetually swooning over his rival's ad campaign manager (the lovely Gloria Stuart). Eech! Another decidedly irritating recurrence in the film is the mystifying appearance of a stranger (John Wray) who seems to follow Temple everywhere and is always on the point of molesting or kidnapping her but for Jack Haley's timely and heroic interventions! Having said that, the film satisfactorily climaxes with the "Military Man" production number which is a tour-de-force of virtuoso tap dancing performed by Temple, Faye and Haley in remarkable unison.

THE POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (20th Century-Fox, 1936), directed by Irving Cummings, stars Shirley Temple who may be little, not quite poor but rich in talent, as displayed in the screenplay suggested by the stories by Eleanor Gates and Ralph. The plot was used earlier as a Mary Pickford film back in 1917, and with numerous alterations and updated material, the revised version, turns out to be, in fact, a modern-day fairy tale on how a little girl, acting out her storybook fantasy, to happily go out and change the lives of the people she meets along the way, only to become a popular radio star, at least during its second half anyway.The story revolves around a child named Barbara Barry (Shirley Temple), a rich little girl who has everything but the utmost attention of her widowed father (Michael Whalen), a wealthy soap manufacturer, and the joys of being like other children by having playmates her own age as companions. She is cared by a Collins (Sara Haden), her nurse, and Woodward (Jane Darwell), the housekeeper who takes the time to read "Betsy Ware" stories to her. Because she is a lonely child, Barry decides to have Collins accompany Barbara to the Forest Grove School in the Adirondacks (upstate New York) where her late mother once attended. While at Grand Central Station waiting for the train, tragedy strikes as Collins walks out in traffic to locate her missing purse (which has been stolen) only to be struck by a passing car. Left alone with her luggage, Barbara takes off on her own, assuming the fictitious name of her favorite storybook character, orphan Betsy Ware, and starts her own adventure. She first encounters Tony (Henry Armetta), an Italian organ grinder with his monkey, who, feeling sorry for this "orphan," agrees to take her into his home along with his wife (Mathilde Comonte) and his other "bambinos." Sometime later, "Betsy" displays her tap dancing talent to Tony's family that catches the attention to an upstairs neighbor and unemployed hoofer and singers, Jimmy and Jerry Dolan (Jack Haley and Alice Faye). Seeing this child to have a considerable amount of talent, she's "adopted" to become part of their musical act called "Dolan, Dolan & Dolan," with Barbara, a/k/a Betsy, now acting as their "daughter," Bonnie. The audition lands them a job performing for soap manufacturer Simon Peck (Claude Gillingwater), who turns out to be Barry's competitor, who in turn, has become very much interested in Margaret Allen (Gloria Stuart), Peck's advertising girl.The music and lyrics by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel include: "Oh, My Goodness" (sung by Shirley Temple); "Buy a Bar of Barry's" (sung by radio singers); "When I'm With You" (sung by Tony Martin); "When I'm With You" (sung by Temple); "But Definitely" (sung by Alice Faye and Temple); "Where There's Life, There's Soap" (sung by Temple); "When I'm With You" (sung by Faye); "You've Got to Eat Your Spinach, Baby" (sung by Faye, Temple and Jack Haley); "When I'm With You" (sung by Temple) and "Military Man" (sung and dance finale with Temple, Haley and Faye).Musically entertaining, often amusing, occasionally cutesy, quite contrived, yet never dull, POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL has many fine things going for it. While such a story might lack logic for first time viewers, having child separating herself from father and nurse only to roam about the city by herself to meet new people, never considering how they must feel once her disappearance is discovered. Along the way, child meets up with several she identifies from her storybook (particularly Jimmy whom she calls "Puddenhead"), a great many being good people, but in true storybook form, there's usually a villain. John Wray, cast as Fagin, is such a character. He's in and out throughout the story, visually seen as spying on little Barbara from a distance or nearby. It's quite evident that his intentions are not honorable. While much of the story cannot actually happen in real life, the stalker following a child comes to be more true to life now than ever before, thus giving the writers some opportunity in adding a little touch of suspense. On the brighter side, the story also features an old grouch, wonderfully played by Gillingwater, whose Ebenezer Scrooge-type performance softens into giving little "Bonnie" a piggy back ride in his office.With Temple as the talented child who can sing and dance to perfection, she's equally surrounded by secondary performers Haley and Faye as the song and dance team, who not only share the spotlight with their leading star, but get to solo or perform together as well. Gloria Stuart and Michael Whalen, enacting as the second secondary actors, provide some love interest, but on the whole, have very little to do during its 80 minutes of screen time. The obvious success to POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL, having turned out to be another assembly of popular Temple vehicles, was revamped two years later under the guise as REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1938), also set in a radio station.Not counting commercial television broadcasts prior to the 1990s, POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL's cable history did enjoy frequent television showings, ranging from its colorized version from the Disney Channel (colorized), to black and white on American Movie Classics (1997-2001) Fox Movie Channel, and Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere July 23, 2010) as well as availability on video cassette and DVD in both B&W and colorized formats. During its AMC broadcasts, there were occasions when a theatrical trailer preceded the feature presentation. Quite interesting in fact the trailer includes a couple of outtakes, Temple in the bath-tub, and a completely different musical conclusion. Temple fans might find it hard to imagine watching POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL without that military dance finale (although tap dancing would be hard to appreciate listening to from the radio). In spite of some pros and cons, is POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL recommended viewing? But definitely. (***)

This definitely is one of Shirley's three or four best, mostly because she is not required to perform a tearful treacly scene as in some other films, those which tug at your heart but later seem somewhat embarrassing. This is one in which she comes across as a young actress, and not simply as a personality. The musical numbers are unusually effective; probably because they are shared with Alice Faye and Jack Haley and not strictly solo. (You have to smile over the final number, when the military band number, well done though it is, is done with full costumes and choreography, even though the performance is taking place over a radio hookup.) Shirley conveys an innocence and trustfulness and joy in life which is a universe removed from portrayals of children in contemporary film and TV. One more remark: I was truly surprised to see the appearance of a pedophile in a film of that era, and to see Jack Haley confronting and fighting him as he is about to lead Shirley away from the apartment house.