Curly Top
Encyclopedia
Curly Top is an American musical film
directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay by Patterson McNutt and Arthur J. Beckhard focuses on the adoption of a young orphan (Shirley Temple
) by a wealthy bachelor (John Boles
) and his romantic attraction to her older sister (Rochelle Hudson
).
Together with The Littlest Rebel
, another Temple vehicle, the film was listed as one of the top box office draws of 1935 by Variety
. The film’s musical numbers include "Animal Crackers in My Soup
" and "When I Grow Up".
When the trustees descend on the orphanage for a tour of inspection, Elizabeth is caught playfully mimicking the head trustee and is threatened with being sent to a public institution. Young, rich, handsome trustee Edward Morgan intervenes. He takes a liking to Elizabeth and, in a private interview with the child, learns that most of her life has been spent obsequiously expressing her gratitude for every mouthful that has fallen her way. He adopts her but, not wanting to curb Elizabeth’s spirit by making her feel slavishly obligated to him for every kindness, he tells her a fictitious “Hiram Jones” is her benefactor and he is simply acting on Jones’s behalf as his lawyer. He nicknames her "Curly Top." Meanwhile, he has met and fallen in love with Elizabeth’s sister Mary but will not admit it.
Elizabeth and Mary leave the orphanage and take up residence in Morgan's luxurious Southampton
beach house. His kindly aunt, Genevieve Graham, and his very proper butler Reynolds are charmed by the two. Elizabeth has everything a child could want including a pony cart and silk pajamas.
Mary secretly loves Morgan but, believing he has no romantic interest in her, she accepts an offer of marriage from young navy pilot Jimmie Rogers. Morgan is taken aback but offers his congratulations. Hours later, Mary ends the engagement when she realizes she doesn't truly love Jimmie. Morgan then declares his love, reveals he is the fictitious “Hiram Jones,” and plans marriage and a long honeymoon in Europe with Mary.
's 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs
and was one of four Temple remakes of Mary Pickford
films.
Temple’s mother coached her daughter on the set and at home. Director Cummings noted that Temple’s mother was thorough, teaching her daughter her dialogue and how to say her lines, what facial expressions to use, and how to walk, sit, stand, and run. According to Cummings, Mrs. Temple was “much more Shirley’s director than I am,” and that there was very little left for him to do when Temple arrived on the set.
As a souvenir, Temple received the film's doll house with hooked rugs on its parquet floors, chintz curtains at its windows, crisp sheets on its beds, fake food in its refrigerator, bric-a-brac on its tiny tabletops, books on its shelves, and its toilet with a working lid. Every drawer and every door in the doll house opened. It was kept in Temple's cottage bedroom on her parents' estate and displayed for child visitors.
composed the five songs for Curly Top. Johnny Mercer
wanted to write the lyrics but the job went to Ted Koehler
, a former partner of Harold Arlen
. Edward Heyman
and Irving Caesar
also wrote lyrics for the film.
With the exception of “When I Grow Up,” the film’s songs are introduced in the film through the device of having characters Mary Blair and Edward Morgan sideline as composers. In an early scene in the orphanage dining room, for example, Mary tells Morgan she composed "Animal Crackers in My Soup," and in another scene, Morgan composes and sings "It's All So New to Me" at his piano. At the Gala, Mary sings “The Simple Things in Life”, a tune presumably composed by Morgan as he mentioned at one early point in the film that he would likely do so. At the end of the film, he sings his newly composed “Curly Top” to Elizabeth as she sits, then tap dances, atop his grand piano.
” and “When I Grow Up” became hits in their own right, selling thousands of sheet music copies and placing Shirley on the charts in the company of musical superstars Bing Crosby
, Nelson Eddy
, and Alice Faye
.
observed, "So shameless is [the film] in its optimism, so grimly determined to be cheerful, that it ought to cause an epidemic of axe murders and grandmother beatings […] Shirley herself, far from showing signs of deterioration or overwork in Curly Top, actually hints in her work at an increased maturity of technique. Her remarkable sense of timing has never been revealed more plainly than in the song and dance scenes in her new film, and she plays her straightforward dramatic scenes with the assurance and precision of a veteran actress. With all this, she has lost none of her native freshness and charm." He thought the film “completely bearable“ with “all that studious devotion to the banal which assures it of an enthusiastic reception with the family trade."
The film was greeted with a “tidal wave” of popularity upon release, and its banal plot was nothing more than a tribute to the conspicuous consumption practiced by the few remaining rich of the Great Depression
. The film opens with an almost minute-long closeup of Temple, and, in doing so, "all pretense that Shirley Temple movies were about anything, or indeed anything more than a vehicle for her adorableness was abandoned.
Curly Top was banned in Denmark for "unspecified corruption", but in China, Madame Chiang Kai-shek requested repeat private screenings. The film was one of the last Fox films released before the studio became 20th Century Fox
.
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay by Patterson McNutt and Arthur J. Beckhard focuses on the adoption of a young orphan (Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
) by a wealthy bachelor (John Boles
John Boles (actor)
-Early life:Boles was born in Greenville, Texas, into a middle-class family. He graduated with honors from the University of Texas in 1917 and married Marielite Dobbs in that same year. His parents wanted him to be a doctor and Boles studied and finally got his B.A. degree, but the stage called...
) and his romantic attraction to her older sister (Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...
).
Together with The Littlest Rebel
The Littlest Rebel
The Littlest Rebel is a 1935 American dramatic film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by Edwin J. Burke was adapted from a play of the same name by Edward Peple and focuses on the tribulations of a plantation-owning family during the American Civil War...
, another Temple vehicle, the film was listed as one of the top box office draws of 1935 by Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
. The film’s musical numbers include "Animal Crackers in My Soup
Animal Crackers in My Soup
"Animal Crackers in My Soup" was a song introduced by Shirley Temple in the 1935 film "Curly Top". The lyrics were written by Irving Caesar and Ted Koehler and the music by Ray Henderson, sheet music published by Sam Fox Publishing Company....
" and "When I Grow Up".
Plot
Young Elizabeth Blair lives at the Lakeside Orphanage, a dreary, regimented place supervised by two decent but dour women. Her older sister Mary works in the kitchen, laundry, and dormitory. Elizabeth is a sweet child but her high spirits often lead her into trouble with the superintendent.When the trustees descend on the orphanage for a tour of inspection, Elizabeth is caught playfully mimicking the head trustee and is threatened with being sent to a public institution. Young, rich, handsome trustee Edward Morgan intervenes. He takes a liking to Elizabeth and, in a private interview with the child, learns that most of her life has been spent obsequiously expressing her gratitude for every mouthful that has fallen her way. He adopts her but, not wanting to curb Elizabeth’s spirit by making her feel slavishly obligated to him for every kindness, he tells her a fictitious “Hiram Jones” is her benefactor and he is simply acting on Jones’s behalf as his lawyer. He nicknames her "Curly Top." Meanwhile, he has met and fallen in love with Elizabeth’s sister Mary but will not admit it.
Elizabeth and Mary leave the orphanage and take up residence in Morgan's luxurious Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
beach house. His kindly aunt, Genevieve Graham, and his very proper butler Reynolds are charmed by the two. Elizabeth has everything a child could want including a pony cart and silk pajamas.
Mary secretly loves Morgan but, believing he has no romantic interest in her, she accepts an offer of marriage from young navy pilot Jimmie Rogers. Morgan is taken aback but offers his congratulations. Hours later, Mary ends the engagement when she realizes she doesn't truly love Jimmie. Morgan then declares his love, reveals he is the fictitious “Hiram Jones,” and plans marriage and a long honeymoon in Europe with Mary.
Cast
- Shirley TempleShirley TempleShirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
as Elizabeth Blair - John BolesJohn Boles (actor)-Early life:Boles was born in Greenville, Texas, into a middle-class family. He graduated with honors from the University of Texas in 1917 and married Marielite Dobbs in that same year. His parents wanted him to be a doctor and Boles studied and finally got his B.A. degree, but the stage called...
as Edward Morgan - Rochelle HudsonRochelle HudsonRochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...
as Mary Blair, Elizabeth’s sister - Esther DaleEsther DaleEsther Dale was an American actress, best known perhaps for her role as Aunt Genevieve in the 1935 Shirley Temple vehicle, Curly Top....
as Genevieve Graham, Morgan’s aunt - Arthur TreacherArthur TreacherArthur Veary Treacher was an English actor born in Brighton, East Sussex, England.Treacher was a veteran of World War I. After the war, he established a stage career and in 1928, he went to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations...
as Reynolds, Morgan’s English butler - Jane Darwell as Mrs. Henrietta Denham, a heavy-set, elderly matron at the Lakeside Orphanage
- Rafaela OttianoRafaela OttianoRafaela Ottiano was an Italian-born American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in Venice, Italy, she emigrated with her parents to the United States, and was processed at Ellis Island in 1910.-Career:...
as Mrs. Higgins, the severe, thin-lipped superintendent of the Lakeside Orphanage - Etienne GirardotEtienne GirardotEtienne Girardot was a diminutive stage and film actor of Anglo-French parentage born in London, England....
as James Wyckoff, a stern, elderly, penny-pinching trustee of the Lakeside Orphanage and the manufacturer of Wyckoff’s Cough Mixture - Maurice MurphyMaurice MurphyMaurice Harrison Murphy MBE was a British musician who was Principal Trumpet of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 2007....
as Jimmie Rogers
Production
Curly Top was filmed in May and June 1935 and released on July 26. It was based on Jean WebsterJean Webster
Jean Webster was an American writer and author of many books including Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy...
's 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs
Daddy-Long-Legs (novel)
Daddy Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by the American writer Jean Webster. It follows the protagonist, a young girl named Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, through her college years. She writes the letters to her benefactor, a rich man whom she has never seen....
and was one of four Temple remakes of Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
films.
Temple’s mother coached her daughter on the set and at home. Director Cummings noted that Temple’s mother was thorough, teaching her daughter her dialogue and how to say her lines, what facial expressions to use, and how to walk, sit, stand, and run. According to Cummings, Mrs. Temple was “much more Shirley’s director than I am,” and that there was very little left for him to do when Temple arrived on the set.
As a souvenir, Temple received the film's doll house with hooked rugs on its parquet floors, chintz curtains at its windows, crisp sheets on its beds, fake food in its refrigerator, bric-a-brac on its tiny tabletops, books on its shelves, and its toilet with a working lid. Every drawer and every door in the doll house opened. It was kept in Temple's cottage bedroom on her parents' estate and displayed for child visitors.
Production
Ray HendersonRay Henderson
Ray Henderson , was an American songwriter.Born Raymond Brost in Buffalo, New York, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley...
composed the five songs for Curly Top. Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
wanted to write the lyrics but the job went to Ted Koehler
Ted Koehler
Ted L. Koehler was an American lyricist.-Life and career:Koehler was born in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver but was attracted to the music business, where he started out as a theater pianist for silent films. He moved on to write for vaudeville shows and Broadway, and he also...
, a former partner of Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
. Edward Heyman
Edward Heyman
Edward Heyman was an American musician and lyricist, best known for his compositions "Body and Soul", "When I Fall in Love", and "For Sentimental Reasons". He also contributed many songs for films.-Biography:...
and Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar
Irving Caesar was an American lyricist and theater composer who wrote lyrics for "Swanee," "Sometimes I'm Happy," "Crazy Rhythm," and "Tea for Two," one of the most frequently recorded tunes ever written. He was born and died in New York.Caesar, the son of Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew, was...
also wrote lyrics for the film.
With the exception of “When I Grow Up,” the film’s songs are introduced in the film through the device of having characters Mary Blair and Edward Morgan sideline as composers. In an early scene in the orphanage dining room, for example, Mary tells Morgan she composed "Animal Crackers in My Soup," and in another scene, Morgan composes and sings "It's All So New to Me" at his piano. At the Gala, Mary sings “The Simple Things in Life”, a tune presumably composed by Morgan as he mentioned at one early point in the film that he would likely do so. At the end of the film, he sings his newly composed “Curly Top” to Elizabeth as she sits, then tap dances, atop his grand piano.
Reception
“Animal Crackers in My SoupAnimal Crackers in My Soup
"Animal Crackers in My Soup" was a song introduced by Shirley Temple in the 1935 film "Curly Top". The lyrics were written by Irving Caesar and Ted Koehler and the music by Ray Henderson, sheet music published by Sam Fox Publishing Company....
” and “When I Grow Up” became hits in their own right, selling thousands of sheet music copies and placing Shirley on the charts in the company of musical superstars Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Nelson Eddy
Nelson Eddy
Nelson Ackerman Eddy was an American singer and actor who appeared in 19 musical films during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as in opera and on the concert stage, radio, television, and in nightclubs. A classically trained baritone, he is best remembered for the eight films in which he costarred...
, and Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
.
Critical responses
Andre Sennwald of The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
observed, "So shameless is [the film] in its optimism, so grimly determined to be cheerful, that it ought to cause an epidemic of axe murders and grandmother beatings […] Shirley herself, far from showing signs of deterioration or overwork in Curly Top, actually hints in her work at an increased maturity of technique. Her remarkable sense of timing has never been revealed more plainly than in the song and dance scenes in her new film, and she plays her straightforward dramatic scenes with the assurance and precision of a veteran actress. With all this, she has lost none of her native freshness and charm." He thought the film “completely bearable“ with “all that studious devotion to the banal which assures it of an enthusiastic reception with the family trade."
The film was greeted with a “tidal wave” of popularity upon release, and its banal plot was nothing more than a tribute to the conspicuous consumption practiced by the few remaining rich of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. The film opens with an almost minute-long closeup of Temple, and, in doing so, "all pretense that Shirley Temple movies were about anything, or indeed anything more than a vehicle for her adorableness was abandoned.
Curly Top was banned in Denmark for "unspecified corruption", but in China, Madame Chiang Kai-shek requested repeat private screenings. The film was one of the last Fox films released before the studio became 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
.
See also
- Shirley Temple filmography
- Other versions of the Jean Webster novel:
- Daddy-Long-Legs (1919 film)Daddy-Long-Legs (1919 film)Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1919 silent comedy-drama film directed by Marshall Neilan, and based on Jean Webster's novel of the same name. The film stars Mary Pickford.-Plot:A police officer finds a baby in a trash can, and Mrs...
with Mary PickfordMary PickfordMary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences... - Daddy Long Legs (1931 film)Daddy Long Legs (1931 film)Daddy Long Legs is a film about an orphan who is taken under the wing of a wealthy benefactor. The original story, written in 1912 by Jean Webster, took in the social aspects of the wealthy compared with the upbringing optained in an orphanage...
with Janet GaynorJanet GaynorJanet Gaynor was an American actress and painter.One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven , Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Street Angel... - Daddy Long Legs (1938 film)Daddy Long Legs (1938 film)Daddy Long Legs or Vadertje Langbeen is a 1938 Dutch romantic comedy film directed by Frederic Zelnik, based on Jean Webster's novel of the same name - one of several adaptations of that book .-Cast:...
Dutch film - Daddy Long Legs (1955 film) with Leslie CaronLeslie CaronLeslie Claire Margaret Caron is a French film actress and dancer, who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. In 2006, her performance in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit won her an Emmy for guest actress in a drama series...
- My Daddy Long LegsMy Daddy Long Legsis a 1990 Japanese anime television series based on the novel Daddy-Long-Legs written by Jean Webster. The show was part of the container World Masterpiece Theater produced by Nippon Animation studios and was awarded the Excellent Movie Award for Television by the Japanese Agency of Cultural...
(1990) Japanese animeAnimeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
TV series - Daddy-Long-Legs (2005 film) Korean film
- Daddy-Long-Legs (1919 film)