Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a 1938 American musical film directed by Allan Dwan. The screenplay by Don Ettlinger and Karl Tunberg is loosely based on Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and tells the story of a talented orphan's trials and tribulations after winning a radio audition to represent a breakfast cereal. The show features Temple singing a medley of her hit tunes and a finale in which Temple as a toy soldier dances with Bill Robinson on a flight of stairs. The film was well received by Variety, and, in 2009, was available on videocassette and DVD.
Plot
Kipper regards Rebecca as a burden and dumps her on the farm of her Aunt Miranda. Kent lives next door, recognizes Rebecca, and requests 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 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 two radio singers, and the rekindling of an old romance between Aunt Miranda and neighbor Homer Busby.
Cast
- Shirley Temple as Rebecca Winstead, a young orphan
- Randolph Scott as Tony Kent, an advertising executive
- William Demarest as Harry Kipper, Rebecca's stepfather
- Helen Westley as Miranda, Rebecca's aunt
- Gloria Stuart as Gwen, Rebecca's cousin and Kent's romantic interest
- Jack Haley as a radio performer
- Phyllis Brooks as a radio performer
- Alan Dinehart as Purvis, Kent's competitor
- Slim Summerville as Homer Busby, Miranda's old sweetheart
- Franklin Pangborn as an organist at a radio station
- Bill Robinson as Aloysius, Miranda's farm hand
Music
The opening credits 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.
Release
Critical reception
Variety 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."[1]
Home media
In 2009, the film was available on videocassette and DVD in the black and white original and computer-colorized versions. Some editions had special features and theatrical trailers.
See also
References
- ^ Edwards, Anne (1988). Shirley Temple: American Princess. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.. pp. 113-4.
External links
