Too much of everything

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

"Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder" is an 8-minute black-and-white sound film from 1929, so this one will soon have its 90th anniversary. The title already gives it away. We see child star Rose Marie at the age of 5 or 6 perform a song from start to finish. Marie (now a three-time Emmy nominee with a star on the Walk of Fame) is still alive today way into her 90s and still not yet completely retired, even if her screen performances are a rarity these days. The director is Bryan Foy, who became an Oscar nominee over two decades after this short film here was made. Okay, anyway I guess Marie is not bad here, but the term "child wonder" is definitely a huge exaggeration and this also makes me worry about how much she wanted to do it and how much she was pushed here by producers or maybe even her parents. Only she will know, I guess. In any case, I really see nothing special at all in what is probably Rose Marie's screen performance. I just hope they did not use stories I have heard were used to cause harm to other child stars back in the 1920s and 1930s. I don't recommend the watch.

. . . then it must be true. I recently saw a snippet of an one of Ms. Mazetta's interviews on TCM or someplace similar, in which she said she'd totally "forgotten" recording this Vitaphone short (#809) for Warner Brothers (in 1929), and was "blown away" by how "good" a singer she was as a child when billed here as BABY ROSE MARIE THE CHILD WONDER. I'm sure there's a Shirley Temple fan out in the wilderness someone who would carp that Ms. Temple could dance and act as well as sing (some renegade might even claim Shirley was CUTER and sang BETTER), but let's look at the objective, quantifiable facts: Rose Marie has 74 acting credits, and Shirley has just 61 (about 20% FEWER). Furthermore, IMDb reveals Rose Marie is important enough to appear as herself on 89 segments of shows and documentaries of sufficient significance to be archived in their annals, while Shirley is ONLY ONE\THIRD as relevant to entertainment history as of today, with just 30 such credits as herself. The clincher is this widely-held notion that Shirley couldn't hack it in Hollywood when she left her teen years (requiring a taxpayer-subsidized government job apparently awarded to her through the pity of one of her die-hard fans who was a D.C. muckety-muck), while Rose Marie has been blessed with enough talent to have had an 80-year-long career supporting herself via show business WITHOUT REACHING INTO UNCLE SAM'S POCKET. How'd you like them apples, Shirley?

This is another of the Vitaphone musical shorts from the late 20s that's on The Jazz Singer DVD. This one stars a precocious child singer named Baby Rose Marie who, yes, later removed the "Baby" from her name when she grew up and played Sally Rogers on "The Dick Van Dyke Show". Here, she has bobbed dark hair which was fashionable at the time and a voice that just won't quit that made her such a sensation at the time. In fact, it's amazing she didn't suffer the pressure another contemporary of hers, Judy Garland, eventually did. Also unlike Ms. Garland, Ms. Marie is still alive to tell the tale. So on that note, Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder is definitely worth watching.

To most fans of television, Rose Marie will be forever known as the witty, funny 'Sally Rogers' on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" of the 1960's. But one would be able to appreciate her singing talent on a higher level by viewing the musical short, "Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder" (1929). I was privileged to view this short subject at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills in the autumn of 2000. The Academy screened quite a few musicals from Paramount Pictures that evening, but "Baby Rose" was definitely the crowd favorite. That really pleased Miss Marie, who was also in attendance. When you view this gem of a musical short, you will be amazed at the incredible voice and performance of the very talented Baby Rose. Even more amazing, that in 1929, sound was not yet perfected, yet we hear every wonderful musical note from her. Had Baby Rose and Shirley Temple been the same age during the Golden Age of Hollywood, Miss Marie would have rivaled Miss Temple for the hearts of America. Baby Rose displayed pure, raw talent - something that is harder to see in today's actor. I thank the stars in heaven that this musical short was so keenly preserved.