Bright Eyes (1934 film)
Bright Eyes is a 1934 American comedy drama film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by William Conselman is based on a story by David Butler and Edwin J. Burke.
| Bright Eyes | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | David Butler |
| Produced by | Sol M. Wurtzel |
| Written by | David Butler Edwin J. Burke |
| Screenplay by | William Conselman Henry Johnson |
| Starring | Shirley Temple James Dunn |
| Music by | Richard A. Whiting Samuel Kaylin |
| Cinematography | Arthur Miller |
| Distributed by | Fox Film |
Release date |
|
Running time | 83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $190,000[1] |
Plot
Six-year-old Shirley Blake (Shirley Temple) and her widowed mother, Mary (Lois Wilson), a maid, live in the home of her employers, the rich and mean-spirited Smythe family, Anita (Dorothy Christy), J. Wellington (Theodore von Eltz), and their spoiled daughter, Joy (Jane Withers). After Christmas morning, Shirley hitches a ride to the airport to visit her late father's pilot friends. The aviators bring her aboard an airplane and taxi her around the runways while she serenades them with a rendition of On the Good Ship Lollipop
Mary is killed in a traffic accident. Loop, one of the pilots and Shirley's godfather, takes Shirley up in an airplane. He says that she is in Heaven and that her mother is now there. When the Smythes learn of Mary's death, they plan to send Shirley to an orphanage. To raise money for attorney fees, Loop reluctantly accepts a lucrative contract to deliver an item by plane, cross-country to New York during a dangerous storm. Unbeknown to him, little Shirley sneaked away from the Smythes' home, found his airplane at the airport, and stowed away inside. When their plane loses control in the storm in the wilderness, they parachute to the ground together and are eventually rescued. The impasse over custody is resolved when Loop, his former fiancée, Adele (Judith Allen), Uncle Ned, and Shirley all decide to live together.
Cast
- Shirley Temple as Shirley Blake, a 6-year-old girl who is a daughter of Mary Blake
- James Dunn as James "Loop" Merritt, a 33-year-old man who is a bachelor pilot and Shirley's godfather
- Lois Wilson as Mary Blake, a 40-year-old woman who is a widow, Shirley's mother, and a maid in the Smythe family's home
- Judith Allen as Adele Martin, a socialite, Loop's estranged fiancée
- Charles Sellon as Uncle Ned Smith, the Smythes' cranky patriarch
- Theodor von Eltz as J. Wellington Smythe, a 41-year-old man who is a haughty nouveau-riche
- Dorothy Christy as Anita Smythe, a 28-year-old woman who is Smythe's wife
- Jane Withers as Joy Smythe, a 8-year-old girl who is J. Wellington and Anita's spoiled and obnoxious seven-year-old daughter
- Brandon Hurst as Higgins, the Smythes' butler
- Jane Darwell as Elizabeth Higgins, the Smythes' cook
- Walter Johnson as Thomas, the Smythes' chauffeur
- George Irving as Judge Thompson
- Terry (dog) as Rags, Loop's dog
Production
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American Airlines and the Douglas Aircraft Company, recognizing the potential of the film in advertising air travel, cooperated in the production and distribution. They provided a DC-2, designated "A-74", aircraft for the exterior shots while a true to scale mock up was provided for the interior scenes. A 12-passenger Curtiss T-32 Condor II transport biplane, designated "Condor 151", in early American Airlines (and Air Mail) livery also features in prominent scenes. In the famous Good Ship Lollipop scene, members of the University of Southern California football team served as extras. In the second flying scene where Temple's character sneaks aboard the plane and they were forced to bail out of it, both Temple and Dunn were strapped into a harness hoisted up into the studio rafters. They were supposed to drift down with the aid of a wind machine. In the first take, someone inadvertently opened an airproof door just as they landed, creating a vacuum that sucked out the parachute and dragged them both across the studio floor. Marilyn Granas served as a stand-in for Temple as she had for her previous movies. She would later be replaced by Mary Lou Isleib who would remain as Temple's stand-in for the rest of her tenure at 20th Century Fox.[2]
Release
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Awards and honors
Temple received a miniature Oscar on February 27, 1935 for her contributions to film entertainment in 1934, chiefly for Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes. She was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award.[3][4]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- "On the Good Ship Lollipop" – #69[5]
Soundtrack
- "On the Good Ship Lollipop" (1934) (uncredited)
- Music by Richard A. Whiting
- Lyrics by Sidney Clare
- "Silent Night" (1818) (uncredited)
- Music by Franz Gruber
- Lyrics by Joseph Mohr
- "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" (1867) (uncredited)
- Music by Gaston Lyle
- Lyrics by George Leybourne
- Sung a cappella by Charles Sellon
- "Jingle Bells" (1857) (uncredited)
- Music by James Pierpont
See also
References
- Notes
- Footnotes
- Windeler 1992, p. 26
- Black, Shirley Temple (October 1, 1988). Child Star: An Autobiography. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 66-71. ISBN 978-0-0700-5532-2.
- Edwards 1988, p. 80
- Windeler 1992, p. 27
- "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
- Works cited
- Edwards, Anne (February 1, 2017). Shirley Temple: American Princess. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4930-2692-0.
- Maltin, Leonard; Sadler, Luke; Clark, Mike, eds. (2007). Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide. New York: Signet. ISBN 978-0-451-22186-5.
- Windeler, Robert (1992). The Films of Shirley Temple. New York: Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8065-0725-5.
- Bibliography
- Basinger, Jeanine (1993). A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960. Knopf. pp. 262–ff. ISBN 978-0-3945-6351-0. The author expounds upon father figures in Temple films.
- Thomson, Rosemarie Garland, ed. (1996). Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body. New York: New York University Press. pp. 185–203. ISBN 978-0-8147-8222-4. In the essay, "Cuteness and Commodity Aesthetics: Tom Thumb and Shirley Temple", author Lori Merish examines the cult of cuteness in America.
- Wojcik-Andrews, Ian (September 9, 2002), Children's films: History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory, Routledge, pp. 134–141, ISBN 978-1-1355-7661-5 The author presents an examination of social class in Bright Eyes.