Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Copyright 18 March 1938 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 25 March 1938. U.S. release: 18 March 1938. Australian release: 1 September 1938. 7,289 feet. 81 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Shirley wows the producer and sponsor at a radio station in an audition for "Little Miss America". Unfortunately, due to a series of bungles, the producer loses contact with her. In the midst of a frantic search, he retires to his farm for a rest. Next door, would you believe, is Shirley herself! And this all happens just in the first two reels!NOTES: Third re-make of the Kate Douglas Wiggin novel, a 1903 million-copy bestseller. In the novel, the play and the previous films, Rebecca is a young lady, not a little girl, who comes from a rustic Sunnybrook farm to stay with a couple of rich relatives in the big city, where she gets into a number of genteel romantic scrapes. She does not sing, nor of course does she audition for the radio (which did not even commence in the United States until 1919).In the movie, Miss Temple is supposedly playing an eight-year-old. She was actually ten at the time — and her comparative maturity is showing. Although Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm earned big money, it was not enough to position the movie amongst the top twenty of the nation's money-makers. In fact her career as the world's top movie star was now over. True, she did hold her place as the number one money-making star of 1938, but in 1939 she slipped to fifth position; from there on, she disappears from the list forever. Not until 1944 did she make a movie that placed among America's champion box-office attractions, namely "Since You Went Away". Still it was a phenomenal career while it lasted and she did have no less than four adolescent triumphs, including Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), Fort Apache (1948), and Mr Belvedere Goes To College (1949), which brought her almost back to the pinnacle of her previous successes.COMMENT: Plenty of merriment and song in this one which is — despite its poor reputation — amongst Miss Temple's most entertaining. In fact, it's not at all the sentimental tosh the Wiggin novel promises to be — the result of ditching the original story-line almost completely. What we actually get is a mild satire on radio, with plenty of amusing lines delivered by gifted character actors with a talent for tomfoolery, such as Jack Haley, Slim Summerville, William Demarest and the wonderfully acidic Helen Westley. Little Miss Shirley herself can banter quips with the best of them. She's in fine voice too, singing some originals and reprising some of her catchiest from Poor Little Rich Girl including an imitation "Military Man" climactic number with Bill Robinson. (Her original partner, Jack Haley doesn't dance so much as a single step in this one, though he does get to join the lovely Phyllis Brooks in a song). Nice to see Randy Scott in such good form too (love him falling into the well). Miss Stuart makes an attractive heroine.Some of our favorite character players shine brightly in this one too, including Franklin Pangborn, Paul Hurst and Dixie Dunbar. Dwan's direction is pacily slick. Other credits are equally smooth. Sound recording as usual with Fox, is a delight.ANOTHER VIEW: Suggested by the book, read the credits. In my view, contemporary critics were unkind to attack the film because it was unfaithful to the book. True, the script does have an odd habit of introducing plot elements which it fails to milk for suspense by resolving them too quickly, but I think the film delightful entertainment. Shirley gets a chance to sing a large bracket of catchy songs, including a reprise of all her favorites such as "The Good Ship Lollipop" and "Animal Crackers In My Soup". There is a fine support cast, — including Helen Westley at her most delightfully daffy, — stylish direction and first-class production values. What more do you want? - JHR writing as George Addison.

This was the third film adaptation of the popular 1902 book of the same title, with Mary Pickford starring in the early silent version. True, the plot retains few accurate details from the book, in which Rebecca came from a destitute farm family, rather than being transferred to one.I don't remember the particulars of many of Shirley's films. However, this has to be one of the most entertaining, with a great cast of supporting actors, as was usually the case in her best films, and with the occasional slapstick incident. As usual, she's cast as an orphan, who has to grudgingly put up with some troublesome people, but balanced by some people who treat her with a measure of respect and love. As usual, Shirley seems like a hybrid between a cute little lost girl and a pint-sized adult, who mostly(exclusively here) interacts with adults, rather than children, often helping them solve some personal crisis. She insists on being treated as an adult, as highlighted in a scene with Scott, who agrees to treat her as such, in contrast to her quarreling relatives to treat her as a child, to be molded as they wish. In consequence, Rebecca proposes marriage to Scott(Tony) in the future, but then suggests her new friend Gwen as a more realistic choice in the near future.The most troublesome people Shirley has to deal with include bossy, contrary, old Aunt Miranda, who owns the farm where Shirley is 'dumped' by her stepparents(played by Bill Demarest and Ruth Gillette), who find her a financial burden after she mistakenly is labeled a poor singer in a radio contest. But, after Shirley suddenly becomes an overnight radio sensation, they suddenly demand that she be returned to them. Ruth plays her role as an obnoxious brassy gold digger very well. Being as how Aunt Miranda melts a bit toward the end, toning down her disapproval of Rebecca taking part in radio contests and refusing to speak to long time acquaintance Homer(Slim Summerville), Melba is the only thoroughly evil character in the film. Demarest was quite a good light comedian, actually outshining Summerville, who was also a noted comedian. We also have Jack Haley, with both comedic and musical talent. He sings a back and forth memorable duet to the catchy "Alone with You" with his romantic interest: sexy blond Phyllis Brooks, as Lola, who preferred leading man Scott, as clearly evidenced during this song(the film highlight?). Phyllis also sang a solo early in the film, though not as catchy a tune. Although not billed as a singer, she had a fine singing voice and sexy mode of delivery. Her character(as suggested by her name) comes across as not as wholesome as Gwen: presumably why Scott tries to drop her as soon as he meets Gwen. ....Of course, a few years later, Haley would gain a measure of fame, playing The Tin Man, in "The Wizard of Oz". Given his good looks and talents, it's a wonder he didn't have a more prominent Hollywood career....Bo Jangles Bill Robinson is also on hand as Miranda's gardener, primarily. He and Shirley end the film starring in a costumed dance production, rather resembling the one that ended the prior "Poor Little Rich Girl"This was Scott's first Shirley Temple film. He would return with her, again as the leading man, in the lackluster '39 "Suzanna of the Mounties": one of the series of mostly box-office flops during the last few years of Shirley's association with Fox studios. Actually, Shirley had played a small role, way back in the 1933 Scott-starring western "To the Last Man". During the '30s, before he was mostly typecast as a stone-faced cowboy, Scott divided his time between westerns or other frontier-type films, and parlor films, where he was sometimes allowed to exhibit some comedic talent, as in the present film. For example, he was also a significant non-musical costar in two Astaire & Ginger musicals.Helen Westley returned for her 4th and final appearance in a Shirley Temple film, in her typecast domineering contrary family matron role. Actually, in the Astaire & Ginger film "Roberta", she was quite pleasant to Scott, in contrast to this film. She had quite a prominent stage and film career.Shirley gets to sing several new songs, as well as a medley of some of her best remembered songs from previous films. Her most memorable new song is "An Old Straw Hat", which she sings initially outside at the farm, then again in the house, where she is heard by visiting Scott and Haley, who then recognize her as the girl they are seeking, who was mistakenly dismissed on their radio show as a poor singer(quite a contrived coincidence!). On the radio program she sings "Come and Get Your Happiness", initially alone, then with a sizable backup chorus. This is followed by her medley, including "On the Good Ship Lollipop" and "Animal Crackers in My Soup".One of the many reasons I especially like this film is that, in contrast to her other films, where she has curly hair, here, once she gets to the farm, her hair-style is changed by Aunt Matilda to pigtails. She definitely looks more 'sexy' with pigtails! Notice that, in the last portion of the film, after she is forced to temporarily move back with Uncle Henry and Melba, her pigtails are replaced by curls.

Here Shirley Temple is Rebecca Winstead who is looking for fame and fortune. Well, maybe. But mainly she wants to sing. Her stepfather, played by William Demarest, who she calls Uncle, and who takes care of her now that her mother is dead, is the one who wants the fortune. He tries to get her on the radio and she would have been picked, but there was a miscommunication between Randolph Scott and one of his staff. When Randy tells him to find her, while he's going for a country vacation, the guy can't, because Uncle, fed up with taking care of her, drops her off at his sister-in-law, played by Helen Westley, in the country! Everyone in these Shirley Temple films is cranky, until they meet Miss Shirley. Helen Westley is no exception. She's held a grudge for 25 years against Slim Summerville for not showing up on their wedding day, because he got too drunk the night before the wedding. Slim lives next door and tries to nudge his way back into her life. Meanwhile, guess what, Randy is the next-door neighbor, who eventually finds the little girl. Will Helen let her niece sing on the radio? Will they have to go behind her back to do it? Will she ever forgive Slim? Will Randy get married to his fiancée or get smitten with another young lady he meets in the country, costar Gloria Stuart? Does Uncle show up again to take advantage of his now-profitable stepdaughter, since he does have legal custody in the eyes of the law? With the locale switching from New York to the country several times, it didn't turn out to be like what I expected at first, but it was very good, and, as an added bonus, it has Shirley and costar Bill "Bojangles" Robinson dancing. Franklin Pangborn has a very brief but memorable bit as a radio substitute who never gets to go on, until.... If you love Shirley Temple (you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't,) you'll enjoy spending time with Rebecca and company.

This is one of the good movies that Shirley Temple made because I just love how you get so much laughter out of it. I just laughed like crazy when that one neighbor helped get little Shirley out of the upstairs bedroom and down the ladder to the other house then he got trapped up there because the ladder fell off the side of the house. I just cracked up and laughed because of how many funny scenes there are in this movie. I really laughed when the Aunt came upstairs and found that man in the bed instead of little Shirley. I also got a huge amount of laughs out of one of the final scenes in the movie when Shirley is taken away from her Aunt and how she fakes loosing her voice just to get back around the people she loves.