"Curly Top" (1935) Review: Overtly cutesy, but not in a bad way

Shirley Temple was America's sweetheart and saving grace during Depression era America. The little girl was all of 4 when she appeared in her first film The Red-Haired Alibi in 1932 and by 1934 she appeared in Bright Eyes, which was the first film expressly written for her. Curly Top  came on the heels of Bright Eyes, and is in many ways a similar picture. In Bright Eyes, Temple plays a lovable little girl who is the subject of a custody battle between a pilot and her mother's rich employer when her mother passes away. Curly Top follows Temple as an adorable and somewhat mischievious young orphan, who is whisked away to be with a rich orphanage trustee who has told her she has been adopted by a man named Jones, but it is really him. In both films, Temple is overtly cutesy, but not in a bad way. She was a fine and possibly the best child actress there ever was. In looking up information about the film, it was unearthed that Temple's mother coached her through her scenes, but her performance does not show any signs of coaching. She is a natural. Her co-stars in the film were unknown to me, John Boles as the Trustee, and Rochelle Hudson as Temple's sister, Mary, whom Boles fall in love with. The film also has several songs, 2 for Temple, 2 for Boles, and 1 for Hudson. This is the film where Temple's famous "Animal Crackers in my Soup number debuted.

Animal Crackers in my Soup!

The film also includes an expert supporting cast of character actors and actresses including underused Jane Darwell as a kindly matron of the oprhanage, hilarious Arthur Treacher as Reynolds, the butler, and Rafaela Ottiano as a firm matron of the orphanage. Ottiano has minimal screen time, but is immensely memorable. The film contains one of my favorite exchanges in which Ottiano's Mrs. Higgins is scolding Temple for letting her pony she inherited (and she also has a duck) from her parents into the orphanage and out of the rain. Missus Higgins tells Elizabeth that she is going to send her duck and pony away and temple says "My duck can do a wonderful trick! My duck can lay an egg." Mrs Higgins sneered back "Just what is so wonderful about that?" and Temple responds "Well, can you lay an egg?" It's an adorable and funny moment in the show, well executed by Ottiano.

The main conflict in Curly Top is a romantic one. Mary and Mr. Morgan (Boles) have fallen for one another but a young pilot named Jimmy (Maurice Murphy) has also fallen in love with Mary and proposes. Mary accepts, only after she overhears Morgan saying he doesn't love her. In the end of course, all the wrinkles are ironed out and they all live happily ever after.

Boles and Hudson

It's a silly plot line, but just what Depression era audiences craved. Temple was the beacon of hope for early and mid '30's audiences and her roles reflected the times. She was often cast as a young precocious little girl who won everyone over, and she had certainly done that with the American public.

Sheet music for "Animal Crackers" with promotion for the film

"Cain and Mabel" (1936) Review: Overlooked 1930's Romcom gem

Davies in a 1936 publicity still

Gable in a screenshot from the movie

Marion Davies may be a name unfamiliar to some classic movie fans, and if she is, you must soon become acquainted with her and her work. Davies was infamous for being the mistress of William Randolph Hearst (who produced and/or paid for a lot of her pictures), but her real crowning glory should be her comedic acting chops. Davies had her start in the silents, including the great silent gem Show People in which she plays a bouncy country girl who breaks into movies. Her first talking picture was Marianne in 1929, and it was also released in a silent version. Cain and Mabel came at the end of Davies' career and it is her second to last picture. Davies' talkie career was sprinkled with great leading men, including Leslie Howard (1931's Five and Ten), Robert Montgomery (1932's Blondie of the Follies and her last picture 1937's Ever Since Eve), Bing Crosby (1933's Going Hollywood), and Gary Cooper (1934's Operator 13).  Her co star in Cain and Mabel is Clark Gable, who at this point was a fairly big star because of his role in 1934's It Happened One Night, which Cain and Mabel seems to be in response to. Gable and Davies had appeared together earlier in 1932's Polly of the Circus.

Davies and Gable show off some great romantic tension in "Cain and Mabel".

Cain and Mabel follows two young career people on the rise: Waitress turned hoofer Mabel O'Dare and prizefighter Larry Cain. The pair meet in a typically 'meet cute" romantic comedy way: Mabel has the hotel room above Cain's and is keeping him up with her dance practice, while he is trying to rest up for a fight. Due to this, they at first have a mutual disdain for one another. Mabel's hokey show Words and Music is becoming a flop and Larry's boxing career is on the skids and so Mabel's friend and publicity man Aloysius  Rielly (Roscoe Karns, another holdover from It Happened One Night) cooks up a phony romance for the pair.  The film is a great romantic comedy and has many hilarious moments.

William Collier and Allen Jenkins (both behind) cheer on Clark Gable in a scene from "Cain and Mabel"

In addition to Gable and Davies' solid romantic chemistry, it is greatly strengthened by it's terrific supporting cast, which in addition to Karns, Allen Jenkins, Walter Cattlet, Ruth Donnelly, David Carlyle, and William Collier, Sr. Pert Kelton also has a hilarious bit part as a mouthy chorus girl. The film also includes some outrageously over the top Busby Berkley style musical numbers, choreographed by Bobby Connolly. These are all very grand and silly, with big costumes and outlandishly complicated sets that don't make sense for a stage show, but such is Hollywood. Something should also be said about the screenplay written by Laird Doyle from a story by H.C. Witwer. The dialogue is oftentimes hilariously funny, and some lines take a moment to sink in, which means that  the great supporting cast is well seasoned in comedic timing. The direction by Lloyd Bacon is fast and breezy, much like a great romantic comedy should be. Cain and Mabel is a forgotten 1930's romantic comedy gem and should not be missed!