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Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938 film)
Encyclopedia
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 American musical film
directed by Allan Dwan
and starring Shirley Temple
, Randolph Scott
, and Bill Robinson
. The screenplay by Don Ettlinger and Karl Tunberg
is loosely based on Kate Douglas Wiggin
's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
. The film tells the story of a talented orphan's trials and tribulations after winning a radio audition to represent a breakfast cereal. Highlights include Temple singing a medley of her hit tunes and dancing with Bill Robinson on a flight of stairs. The film was well received by Variety
, and, in 2009, was available on videocassette and DVD.
Tony Kent, the radio advertising executive who approved Rebecca for the role of Little Miss America, lives next door to Miranda. He recognizes Rebecca, and asks Miranda's permission to feature Rebecca on his radio show. When Aunt Miranda refuses to allow Rebecca to associate with show people, Kent broadcasts secretly from his house with Rebecca joining him on the sly.
Kipper hears Rebecca's broadcast and returns to the farm looking for easy money. As Rebecca's legal guardian, he forces Aunt Miranda to surrender the child. He takes her away from her friends and loved ones to New York City. There, he signs a contract with Kent's competitor Purvis to star Rebecca on another radio show.
When Rebecca suddenly develops laryngitis
and cannot sing, Purvis angrily voids the contract. Kipper sells his legal guardianship to Aunt Miranda for $5,000. Rebecca reveals to her friends she feigned hoarseness to free herself from Kipper. The film ends with Rebecca and Aunt Miranda's farm hand Aloysius costumed as toy soldiers performing a dance on a flight on stairs.
Subplots include a romance between Kent and Rebecca's cousin Gwen, another between radio singers Orville and Lola, and the rekindling of an old romance between Aunt Miranda and neighbor Homer Busby.
overture
is an orchestral arrangement of what appears to be the film's unofficial theme tune by virtue of its several reprises, "An Old Straw Hat" by Harry Revel
and Mack Gordon
. The tune returns as an abbreviated vocal solo for Rebecca when she auditions at the radio station in the first scene, and returns later as a solo for Rebecca while she picks berries on the farm with Aloysius. In another scene, she sings it over the telephone.
When Rebecca broadcasts from Kent's country home midpoint in the film, she accompanies herself on the piano through a medley that includes "On the Good Ship Lollipop
", "Animal Crackers in My Soup
", "When I'm with You", "Oh My Goodness", and "Goodnight, My Love" – all Temple hit tunes from previous films. The film ends with Temple and Robinson clad as toy soldiers dancing on a flight of stairs to "The Toy Trumpet" by Raymond Scott
, Sidney D. Mitchell
and Lew Pollack
.
Other tunes in the film include the first scene's "Happy Ending" (Pollack and Mitchell) sung by Phyllis Brooks; "You've Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby" (Revel and Gordon) sung comically and never in its entirety by girls auditioning for the radio show in the first scene; "Come and Get Your Happiness" (Pokrass
and Yellen
) sung by Temple; and "Alone with You" (Pollack and Mitchell) sung by Brooks and Haley. The breakfast cereal's jingle "Crackly Grain Flakes" (Pollack and Mitchell) is sung by a male quartet.
wrote, "The national No. 1 box office star has seldom shone so brilliantly in her singing, dancing and repartee. That means she is going right ahead to bigger and better grosses."
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 Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:...
and starring 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...
, Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott
Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
, and Bill Robinson
Bill Robinson
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
. The screenplay by Don Ettlinger and Karl Tunberg
Karl Tunberg
Karl Tunberg was an American screenwriter and occasional film producer.Born in Spokane, Washington, Tunberg's earliest writings included short stories, and a novel entitled While the Crowd Cheers, which was published in 1935 by the Macaulay Company...
is loosely based on Kate Douglas Wiggin
Kate Douglas Wiggin
Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American educator and author of children's stories, most notably the classic children's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878...
's novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her two stern aunts in the village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy for life inspires her aunts, but she faces many trials in her young life, gaining...
. The film tells the story of a talented orphan's trials and tribulations after winning a radio audition to represent a breakfast cereal. Highlights include Temple singing a medley of her hit tunes and dancing with Bill Robinson on a flight of stairs. The film was well received 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...
, and, in 2009, was available on videocassette and DVD.
Plot
Rebecca Winstead, a musically talented orphan, is under the guardianship of her stepfather Harry Kipper. She auditions for the radio role of Little Miss America and wins it, but leaves the studio believing she lost it. Kipper regards her as a loser and a burden, and dumps her on the farm of her Aunt Miranda.Tony Kent, the radio advertising executive who approved Rebecca for the role of Little Miss America, lives next door to Miranda. He recognizes Rebecca, and asks Miranda's permission to feature Rebecca on his radio show. When Aunt Miranda refuses to allow Rebecca to associate with show people, Kent broadcasts secretly from his house with Rebecca joining him on the sly.
Kipper hears Rebecca's broadcast and returns to the farm looking for easy money. As Rebecca's legal guardian, he forces Aunt Miranda to surrender the child. He takes her away from her friends and loved ones to New York City. There, he signs a contract with Kent's competitor Purvis to star Rebecca on another radio show.
When Rebecca suddenly develops laryngitis
Laryngitis
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the larynx. It causes hoarse voice or the complete loss of the voice because of irritation to the vocal folds . Dysphonia is the medical term for a vocal disorder, of which laryngitis is one cause....
and cannot sing, Purvis angrily voids the contract. Kipper sells his legal guardianship to Aunt Miranda for $5,000. Rebecca reveals to her friends she feigned hoarseness to free herself from Kipper. The film ends with Rebecca and Aunt Miranda's farm hand Aloysius costumed as toy soldiers performing a dance on a flight on stairs.
Subplots include a romance between Kent and Rebecca's cousin Gwen, another between radio singers Orville and Lola, and the rekindling of an old romance between Aunt Miranda and neighbor Homer Busby.
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 Rebecca Winstead, a young orphan - Randolph ScottRandolph ScottRandolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
as Tony Kent, a radio advertising executive - William DemarestWilliam DemarestCarl William Demarest was an American character actor. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.-Early life and career:...
as Harry Kipper, Rebecca's stepfather - Helen WestleyHelen WestleyHelen Westley was an American character actress.-Career:Born as Henrietta Remsen Meserole Manney, Helen Westley was a member of the original board of the Theatre Guild, and appeared in many of their productions, among them Peer Gynt, and some of their productions of plays by George Bernard...
as Miranda, a farm woman and Rebecca's aunt - Gloria StuartGloria StuartGloria Frances Stuart was an American actress, activist, painter, bonsai artist and fine printer. Over a Hollywood career which spanned, with a long break in the middle, from 1932 until 2004, she appeared on stage, television, and film, for which she was best-known...
as Gwen, Rebecca's cousin and Kent's romantic interest - Bill RobinsonBill RobinsonBill “Bojangles” Robinson was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive...
as Aloysius, Miranda's farm hand - Slim SummervilleSlim SummervilleSlim Summerville was an American film actor, best known as a comedy performer.-Life and career:Born George Joseph Summerville in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Summerville began his career as a "Keystone Kop" in 1912...
as Homer Busby, Miranda's old sweetheart - Jack HaleyJack HaleyJohn Joseph "Jack" Haley was an American stage, radio, and film actor best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and Kansas farmworker Hickory in The Wizard of Oz.-Career:...
as Orville Smithers, a radio performer - Phyllis BrooksPhyllis BrooksPhyllis Brooks was an American actress and model. Brooks was born Phyllis Seiler in Boise, Idaho on July 18, 1915. She began her career in films at age 20, and had been known as the "Ipana Toothpaste Girl" due to her work as a model...
as Lola Lee, a radio performer - Alan DinehartAlan DinehartAlan Mason Dinehart was an American Broadway actor, director, writer, stage manager and later, a Character actor and supporting player featured in at least 88 films between 1931 and 1944...
as Purvis, Kent's competitor - Franklin PangbornFranklin PangbornFranklin Pangborn was an American comedic character actor. Pangborn was famous for small, but memorable roles, with a comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break...
as an organist at a radio station
Music
The opening creditsOpening credits
In a motion picture, television program, or video game, the opening credits are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static pictures, or sometimes on top of action in the show. There...
overture
Overture
Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
is an orchestral arrangement of what appears to be the film's unofficial theme tune by virtue of its several reprises, "An Old Straw Hat" by Harry Revel
Harry Revel
Harry Revel was an English composer of musical theatre.Revel was born in London. Before emigrating to the United States in 1929, he wrote musicals for productions in Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna and London....
and Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...
. The tune returns as an abbreviated vocal solo for Rebecca when she auditions at the radio station in the first scene, and returns later as a solo for Rebecca while she picks berries on the farm with Aloysius. In another scene, she sings it over the telephone.
When Rebecca broadcasts from Kent's country home midpoint in the film, she accompanies herself on the piano through a medley that includes "On the Good Ship Lollipop
On the Good Ship Lollipop
"On the Good Ship Lollipop" was the trademark song of child actress Shirley Temple. Temple first sang it in the 1934 movie Bright Eyes. The "ship" in the song is an aircraft; the scene in Bright Eyes where the song appears takes place on an American Airlines Douglas DC-2 which is taxiing. In the...
", "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....
", "When I'm with You", "Oh My Goodness", and "Goodnight, My Love" – all Temple hit tunes from previous films. The film ends with Temple and Robinson clad as toy soldiers dancing on a flight of stairs to "The Toy Trumpet" by Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....
, Sidney D. Mitchell
Sidney D. Mitchell
Sidney D. Mitchell was a Hollywood film industry lyricist and composer. He is best known for his collaborations with Lew Pollack on movie scores at Twentieth Century Fox in the 1930s and 1940s...
and Lew Pollack
Lew Pollack
Lew Pollack was a song composer active during the 1920s and the 1930s.Pollack was born in New York. Among his best known songs are "Charmaine" and "Diane" with Ernö Rapée, "Miss Annabelle Lee", "Two Cigarettes in the Dark", "At the Codfish Ball" , and Go In and Out The Window, now a...
.
Other tunes in the film include the first scene's "Happy Ending" (Pollack and Mitchell) sung by Phyllis Brooks; "You've Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby" (Revel and Gordon) sung comically and never in its entirety by girls auditioning for the radio show in the first scene; "Come and Get Your Happiness" (Pokrass
Samuel Pokrass
Samuel Yakovlevich Pokrass was a Jewish American composer. During the Soviet civil war in 1920, with poet P...
and Yellen
Jack Yellen
Jack Selig Yellen was an American lyricist and screenwriter.-Life and career:Born in Poland, Yellen emigrated with his family to the United States when he was five years old. The oldest of seven children, he was raised in Buffalo, New York and began writing songs in high school...
) sung by Temple; and "Alone with You" (Pollack and Mitchell) sung by Brooks and Haley. The breakfast cereal's jingle "Crackly Grain Flakes" (Pollack and Mitchell) is sung by a male quartet.
Critical reception
VarietyVariety (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...
wrote, "The national No. 1 box office star has seldom shone so brilliantly in her singing, dancing and repartee. That means she is going right ahead to bigger and better grosses."