Five-year-old Shirley Blake (Shirley Temple) and her widowed mother Mary (Lois Wilson), a maid, live in the home of her employers, the wealthy and mean-spirited Smythe family: Anita (Dorothy Christy), J. Wellington (Theodore von Eltz), their spoiled seven-year-old daughter Joy (Jane Withers), and cantankerous wheelchair-using Uncle Ned (Charles Sellon). After Christmas morning, Shirley visited her late father's pilot friends at the airport. The aviators bring her aboard an airplane and taxi her around the runways while she serenades them with a rendition of "On the Good Ship Lollipop."
That day, Mary got killed in a traffic accident. Loop (James Dunn), one of the pilots and Shirley's godfather, takes Shirley in an airplane, explaining that they are in Heaven, where her mother now rests. When the Smythes learn of Mary's death, they plan to send Shirley to an orphanage. However, Uncle Ned, who has grown fond of "Bright Eyes," insists that Shirley stay with them. To raise money for attorney fees, Loop reluctantly accepts a lucrative contract to deliver an item by plane cross-country to New York during a dangerous storm. Unbeknown to him, little Shirley sneaked away from the Smythes' home, found his airplane at the airport, and stowed away inside. When their plane loses control in the storm in the wilderness, they parachute to the ground together and are eventually rescued. The impasse over custody gets resolved when Loop, his former fiancée Adele (Judith Allen), Uncle Ned, and Shirley decide to live together. The Smythes leave the courthouse miserably, except Joy, at first; when she rudely comments that at least they don't have to be nice to Uncle Ned anymore, her mother slaps her hard across the face.
Cast
Shirley Temple as Shirley Blake, a five-year-old girl who is Mary Blake's daughter
James Dunn as James "Loop" Merritt, a bachelor pilot and Shirley's godfather
Lois Wilson as Mary Blake, Shirley's widowed mother who works as a maid for the Smythe family
Judith Allen as Adele Martin, a socialite and Loop's estranged fiancée
Charles Sellon as Uncle Ned Smith, the Smythes' cranky patriarch who has a tenderness for Shirley
Theodor von Eltz as J. Wellington Smythe, a haughty nouveau-riche
Dorothy Christy as Anita Smythe, J. Wellington Smythe's equally arrogant wife
Jane Withers as Joy Smythe, J. Wellington & Anita's spoiled and obnoxious seven-year-old daughter
James Dunn and Temple in a publicity photo for Bright Eyes
American Airlines and the Douglas Aircraft Company, recognizing the potential of the film in advertising air travel, cooperated in the production and distribution. They provided a DC-2, designated "A-74", aircraft for the exterior shots while a true to scale mock up was provided for the interior scenes. A 12-passenger Curtiss T-32 Condor II transport biplane, designated "Condor 151", in early American Airlines (and Air Mail) livery also features in prominent scenes. In the famous Good Ship Lollipop scene, members of the University of Southern California football team served as extras. In the second flying scene where Temple's character sneaks aboard the plane, and they were forced to bail out of it, both Temple and Dunn were strapped into a harness hoisted up into the studio rafters. They were supposed to drift down with the aid of a wind machine. In the first take, someone inadvertently opened an airproof door just as they landed, creating a vacuum that sucked out the parachute and dragged them both across the studio floor. Marilyn Granas served as a stand-in for Temple, as she had for her previous movies. She would later be replaced by Mary Lou Isleib, who would remain as Temple's stand-in for the rest of her tenure at 20th Century Fox.[2]
The film received positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes holds an approval rating of 83%, based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10.[3]
Heather Boerner of Common Sense Media gave the film a rate of three stars out of four, calling it a "sweet story with a candy coating." She also noted that some scenes are "sad, bitter in the center of this confection that may be too tough on younger viewers."[4]
Awards and honors
Temple received a miniature Oscar on February 27, 1935, for her contributions to film entertainment in 1934, chiefly for Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes. She was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award.[5][6]
Thomson, Rosemarie Garland, ed. (1996). Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body. New York: New York University Press. pp. 185–203. ISBN978-0-8147-8222-4. In the essay, "Cuteness and Commodity Aesthetics: Tom Thumb and Shirley Temple", author Lori Merish examines the cult of cuteness in America.
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