Our Little Girl

Our Little Girl
Directed by John S. Robertson
Produced by Edward Butcher
Written by Stephen Morehouse Avery adaptation
Arthur J. Beckhard screenplay
Florence Leighton Pflazgraf
Allen Rivkin
Starring Shirley Temple
Rosemary Ames
Joel McCrea
Music by R.H. Bassett
Peter Brunelli
Cinematography John F. Seitz
Distributed by Fox Film Corporation
Release dates
  • June 7, 1935
Running time
 65 min
Country USA
Language English

Our Little Girl is a 1935 Drama directed by John S. Robertson, starring Shirley Temple and Joel McCrea. Molly Middleton (Temple), daughter of Dr. Donald Middleton (Joel McCrea) and his neglected wife Elsa (Rosemary Ames), who becomes attracted to Don's best friend Rolfe Brent (Lyle Talbot).

Coming immediately after Bright Eyes and The Little Colonel and before Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel, all major hits for Temple that shot her to international stardom, Our Little Girl is largely overshadowed. Unlike her other films in this period, there was no dancing and only one song. Also unlike the rest of her films, she played a character that was neither partially or completely orphaned. In fact, this movie would be the next to last film by Temple during her time at Fox in which she was not playing a partial or full orphan (the last being The Blue Bird). Her next 13 movies would feature her in these orphaned roles. The film was the final directorial effort of veteran John S. Robertson.

Plot

Don Middleton (Joel McCrea) is so caught up with his work he neglects his wife Elsa (Rosemary Ames). Lonely Elsa begins to spend more time with Don's best friend and they become attracted to one another. Don and Elsa decide to get a divorce, unaware of the effect their problems are having on their daughter Molly (Shirley Temple). When Elsa announces plans to remarry, Molly runs away from home.

Cast

Production

The original name of this movie was supposed to be Heaven's Gate, but was changed prior to its release out of fear people would confuse the title with the name of a cemetery. Temple, in her memoirs, wrote that she had a huge crush on McCrea but quickly avoided further flirtation after two notable delays caused by her. While playing a grassy field, two of her false teeth fell out and were not located, resulting in production being called off for the day. In another incident, there was a long delay from the setting up of the cameras. Unable to hold it in any further, she wet herself. Thoroughly embarrassed, it took much coaching from her mother in the dressing room to convince her to go back out, resulting in further delays.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Shirley Temple Black, Child Star: An Autobiography (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1988), 103-105.

External links