User Reviews

Fragile romance and rallies for women's suffrage are mixed in one of Shirley Temple's last films, released in 1949, which I finally got to see on a TCM evening celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment. I always look forward to seeing cute Shirley in one of her late teen or early 20s films. Despite frequent disparaging remarks about her relatively poor acting during her teen and early 20s films, I find her perfectly adequate and just as charming as when she was a little girl. She certainly blossomed into a beauty, still showing her smiling dimples.........This was the second and last time she and then husband John Agar formed a romantic pair in a film. Western fans should know the other film: "Fort Apache", released the prior year. It must have been hard for Shirley to act like a romantic relationship with Agar, as she filed for divorce later in '49, complaining of persistent abuse. On the other hand, his character was a pleasant change from some of Shirley's late teen films, in which she fell for a man her father's age!(a continuation of her persona in her little girl films!).........The screen play is pretty standard, with the usual conflicts between the principle actors, which are finally resolved in a seemingly happy ending. ........Shirley, as Dinah, is expelled from Seminary for her various daring deeds. At first, her pastor father(played by a mustached Robert Young) brushes this misadventure off. But, eventually, he fears his imminent election as bishop may be denied by Shirley's continuing knack for getting into embarrassing situations. Also, her long term romantic relationship with Agar's character(Tom) has it's ups and downs, as Tom dallies with straight-laced Bernice, as a rival. Dinah causes Tom great embarrassment when he makes a public speech she wrote. I'll let you learn the details!.........Near the end, Dinah's family is involved in a street brawl relating to the women's suffrage movement, and they are thrown in jail. Dinah was on the way to the train station, as her family decided they were better off with her elsewhere until dad was ordained as a bishop! Nonetheless, as I said, things worked out well for her father, and for Dinah and Tom. ..........Didn't find this film on YouTube. However, amazingly, a good copy is available on DVD, and the vendor's reviews are generally very positive.

When hearing the name Shirley Temple,the first thing that always comes to mind is the countless cartoon spoofs of Temple on the Good Ship Lollypop. Taking a look at BBC iPlayer listings,I was intrigued to find a "grown up" Temple title in the listings that has not reached DVD in the UK,which led to me travelling to Baltimore.

The plot-

Baltimore 1905:

Expelled from Art School,Dinah Sheldon is sent back to Baltimore to be looked after by her mum and Episcopalian pastor dad. Taking an interest in the suffragette movement,Dinah begins wanting to continue her art,which will lead to Dinah painting a work that catches the old-fashion city by surprise,and starts Dinah off on an adventure in Baltimore.

View on the film:

Although her "grown up" credits do get looked down on,Shirley Temple actually gives a very good performance as Dinah Sheldon,thanks to Temple using her "innocent" image to give Dinah a thoughtful feisty side that breaks down barriers the town/audience try to put on Temple/Dinah. Trying to make sense of Dinah's "changes", Robert Young gives a charming performance as Dinah's dad that rings with care.

Stepping on all of the heels of the town folk,the screenplay by Lionel Houser/ Lesser Samuels & Christopher Isherwood paints them as (largely) well-meaning people who hold their "traditions" a bit too close,which leads to great battle cry scenes of the suffragettes shaking the foundations of the city. Although the film sadly made a loss of $875,000,director Richard Wallace & cinematographer Robert De Grasse sweep up the dusty roads with an elegant floral appearance,which gives a fitting lady-like backdrop to Dinah backdrop-breaking adventure in Baltimore.

When I first began watching this film I was nonplussed. But the further I got into it, the better it got. Unfortunately, Shirley Temple -- the little girl who saved the studio when she was a child -- wass becoming an adult, and fairly or not the public wasn't buying it...literally...this film alone lost nearly a million dollars at the box office. In other words, Shirley's prominence was fading and fast. It's too bad, because I thought she should have had a place in movies for years to come. I enjoyed her, for example, in "The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer" with Cary Grant, filmed just 2 years earlier. But, apparently the public was tired of Shirley Temple.

The plot, particularly as it advances, is actually quite good -- a young lady has an eye on equality and clumsily pursues it, sometimes to the detriment of others...included her father, who may or may not become the Episcopal Bishop of Maryland. Earlier in the film her escapades are a little more frivolous, but as time goes by the topics get more serious. Temple does fine here.

Her co-star, as dad and minister, is Robert Young, and I would have to say this is one of his better roles. And you begin to see in young a transition to the type of character he undertook in his greatest success which began just 5 years later -- "Father Knows Best".

John Agar is fine as the boyfriend, but I really enjoyed Josephine Hutchinson as the mother. I have never been disappointed by her film performances, though she is a woefully underrated actress.

Some will say this film is dated. I would assume so -- it takes place at the turn of the 20th century! Recommended, just give it a little time as the plot matures.

Still, as Stephen Sondheim wrote in "Follies", someone said she's sincere, so she's here!

She's been through Heidi, the Blue Bird, and Reagen, gee how crazy that was. When you've been through Heidi, the Blue Bird, and Reagan, can't you get some applause?

As Shirley Temple reached the end of her movie acting career, one thing became very apparent. She wasn't transitioning very well into becoming a mature leading lady, still relying on old tricks from 15 years before. What worked at 8 didn't work in her mid 20's, and even she had to admit that it was time to throw in the towel.

In "Adventures in Baltimore", a period comedy set in the early 20th Century, she is still playing a teenager, facing typical problems but utilizing what is up there in her brain to become a "modern", fighting for women's rights and getting into all sorts of trouble as a result. The unfortunate thing is that her character takes everybody around her down with her, and that includes her preacher father (a very good Robert Young), a candidate for Bishop of Maryland, and her object of affections (real life husband John Agar) whom she embarrasses at a public meeting where he reads a speech she wrote for him where he keeps referring to himself as a woman! (Hey, Johnny, proof read!)

Then, there's Shirley's mother (Josephine Hutchinson) who is the perfect housewife and mom until Temple gets the bee under her bonnet over women's lib which results in a riot and a black eye for the well-dressed matron. Veteran character actress Norma Varden has an amusing small role as Helen Hadley Hamilton with the very Irish Albert Sharpe adding flavor as an eccentric older man Temple encounters while painting. Shirley does score in a dance contest sequence with papa Young, but her baby-faced, pouty acting makes it appear that she is still a teenager playing dress-up rather than an actress playing a part.

This film did not do well with audiences in its day, and I think part of the reason is that it was a little too progressive for mainstream movie watchers in 1949. Another picture, 20th Century Fox's THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM, in which Betty Grable had played a suffragette, also didn't fare too well. These films lost money, because the lead female character did not conform to conservative ideals about the place of a woman inside the home and in society at large.

A bit of background...the story was devised by Christopher Isherwood, a British writer, though screenwriting duties were handled by someone else. The film itself was produced by Dore Schary, who was embroiled in a huge struggle with RKO's new owner Howard Hughes about the sort of subject matter that should be presented in the studio's stories. Schary would abruptly resign and move to MGM, making this one of the very last RKO titles he helmed in mid-'48.

As for the cast, Robert Young had a multi-picture deal with RKO. Typically, he was featured in a variety of genres but seemed to do best in wholesome family comedies, which explains his taking a paternal role. It's a good warm-up for Father Knows Best. Young had previously collaborated with Shirley Temple in Fox's STOWAWAY thirteen years earlier, so they had a familiarity with each other and that adds to the believability of their father-daughter relationship on screen.

Miss Temple was now 21, though playing a bit younger than her actual age, as a trouble-prone adolescent prone. Her character feels confined by the norms of a rigid community.

In the role of the boyfriend, we have Temple's then-husband John Agar, with whom she had already costarred in John Ford's FORT APACHE. Temple and Agar were both under contract to David Selznick, and their rocky marriage would come to an end a year later. This was their last movie together. Temple would only appear in two more feature films, before transitioning to television followed by a career in politics.

It is sort of interesting that Shirley Temple-Black, as she became known after her second marriage, would become an important political figure. Especially since the political arena in America and abroad was dominated by men. Even more interesting is the fact she ascended the ranks this way not as a liberal Democrat, but as a conservative Republican. I don't know if it was her own emancipation that I find fascinating, but maybe it's more how she was able to self-actualize in segments of society that were sometimes closed off to women.

Playing Temple's mother in the movie is Josephine Hutchinson, an actress who had been a star at Warner Brothers in the 1930s but was now reduced to supporting roles of the maternal type. Hutchinson does well alongside Young, most convincing as a pastor's wife who has serious concerns about the 'wayward' attitudes of their daughter.

Temple's character is shown as rebelling against norms in several ways. There is an altercation with the police in which her arrest will cause embarrassment for her father who is looking to be promoted to a bishop's post. She writes speeches about what women can do and should do. She paints a portrait of her boyfriend, who poses partially in the nude and her artwork becomes a point of gossip in their small town. As if all of this were not enough, she gets involved in a protest where women are being harassed during a public event.

Somehow, despite all the drama and her efforts to prove herself, she manages to snag the boy (Agar) after considerable ups and downs. I am not sure how realistic this particular happy ending is...and it seems obvious that even if female moviegoers secretly wished to have the kind of life this girl has on screen, they would probably have been too petrified to pursue the same goals. At least until Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique gave them the courage to rethink their positions.