This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

My lovely grandmother took me to see this film when I was ten years old. I can still remember the huge theater, packed to the doors. So it was a real pleasure to find the film available on a DVD - even if that DVD was somewhat less than perfect and seems to have been duped from a worn if serviceable projection print which has an ugly jump in the middle of Shirley's delightful song, "Animal Crackers".The movie also has rather modest production values, but Rochelle Hudson also has a song and she looks absolutely terrific! On the other hand, Mr. Boles carries the air of having strolled into the wrong film by mistake! Fortunately, the rest of the players are most agreeable and it's real nice to see Esther Dale in such a large part.However, I don't like Cummings' direction. I didn't like it then and I don't like it now! This guy had a TV complex long before TV became a household necessity. He just loves (and way overdoes) close-ups! But despite the director's attempt at sabotage, I still give the movie an 8/10 rating.

Shirley Temple is at the top of her adorable moppet game in Curly Top as she becomes the catalyst that gets her and her older sister Rochelle Hudson out of an orphanage and married to a rich man. Cinderella never had it better.Shirley and Rochelle's parents were killed in an accident and Rochelle promised them as they were dying that she and Shirley would not be separated. She even stayed on at the orphanage to cook and clean after she became an adult.Prince Charming who looks a lot like John Boles is captivated by Shirley when she sings one of the songs most identified with her Animal Crackers In My Soup. He's inherited a ton of money and is the newest member of the orphanage's board of directors. Boles brings them to his dream house with aunt Esther Dale, butler Arthur Treacher, and cook Billy Gilbert. Sounds like a dream house to me.All that's missing in this Cinderella story is a coach that turns back into a pumpkin.Even at my age I have to admit to being charmed by Shirley and her singing and dancing and all around sunny disposition. Curly Top ranks as one of her best films and holds up well for today's audience.

When Shirley Temple takes over in curing everybody's woes, they stay fixed. Late depression era audiences couldn't get enough of this adorable moppet, and for good reason. She put a face on President Roosevelt's New Deal. If a heavyset old lady (Marie Dressler), an aging vamp (Mae West) and an adorable little girl (Shirley) could dominate the box office of Hollywood during different years of the 30's, all could be right in the world.Temple is a lovable orphaned tot whose older sister (Rochelle Hudson) has professed never to be separated from her. When one of the orphanages' trustees (John Boles) takes an interest in Temple, he becomes her secret benefactor, a la "Daddy Long Legs". It's obvious that one of the situations she cures is bringing together Hudson and Boles.In the supporting cast are such dependable character actors as Esther Dale (as Boles' aunt), Arthur Treacher (as, what else?, their butler), Rafaela Ottiano (as the initially chilly but ultimately kind orphanage manager), Jane Darwell (as her chipper assistant), and Etienne Girardot (as the overly staid head trustee). Temple, Boles and Hudson all sing, but it is Temple's "Animal Crackers in My Soup" that will become the hit. She sings another song where she ages up to an old lady that is nicely done. A nice comical exchange between Temple and Ottiano involving a duck is one of the classic wisecracks of all time. That's what makes Temple so much fun in the way she deals with authoritarian adults. Like "Kids are People Too" years later, you never know just what she's going to say or do.It seems that much of the character of Little Orphan Annie in the musical "Annie", was taken from this, especially Temple's repetition of "Oh, My Goodness". Ottiano is perhaps the only actress in Hollywood history who had a character in a Broadway musical, "Grand Hotel", changed to her name after she originated the part in the movie with a different name for the character.

CURLY TOP is indebted to SHIRLEY TEMPLE for whatever charm it has as a vehicle for the talented tot--and she gets to strut her stuff often enough to keep an audience happy. It's the kind of Temple film where you start getting restless when the spotlight goes to the romantic leads (John Boles and Rochelle Hudson), bland and poorly scripted as the leads usually are in a Temple film. But with the spotlight on Temple--as when Shirley does her tap dancing atop a white piano or sings "Animal Crackers in my Soup" with cheerful confidence and a bit of mugging at an orphanage, you can see why she was America's box-office sweetheart during a four-year period.Clearly ranks among the best early Temple vehicles with all of her charisma and dimpled charm on full display. Nice to see her sharing some good scenes with Arthur Treacher.