Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story

This movie was awful! Ashley Rose Orr, while a talented tap dancer, and singer (actually a little better than Temple was in terms of the latter), is a terrible actress. She plays the character as the Shirley that we saw on screen in her movies whether she's playing her onscreen or offscreen persona. So what we get is an overly cutesy, and wholly unrealistic (not to mention uninteresting) portrait. If one wants to see that side of her, one can just rent one of her movies. The only bright light here is Connie Britton's portrayal of Gertrude Temple. I don't think it was terribly realistic, but at least it was well acted. Save yourself the trouble and rent The Poor Little Rich Girl.

Based on a published autobiography, and with the author as consultant, this production portrays the protagonist as well nigh flawless. And for all the grumbling of the adults around her about warding off the danger of spoiling her, she seems to be pretty well cocooned, with her most fearsome enemy the impending career uncertainty at the end of her childhood. The viewer can see adulthood haunting her constantly in the person of her mother, who (at least as presented here and excellently acted by Connie Britton) looks very much like the grown-up Shirley Temple. It is not a terrifying adulthood to look forward too, except that it holds no magical excitement. More ominous as a hint of the inevitable future is Shirley's attachment to the ill-fated Amelia Earhart, but the script cannot pretend it was a central concern of Shirley's; that would make Shirley look like a maniac. So the movie leads up to the question of how Shirley will confront the end of child stardom. Unfortunately, that is where it ends. There are a few words of reassurance from her mother, but how Shirley Temple is forced to attempt to re-invent herself, where she fails and how, and where she succeeds and how, are a missing denouement.

Child Star is appropriately produced by someone who knows something about the subject...Paula Hart, mother of Melissa Joan Hart ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch"). Paula Hart has with varying success parlayed her famous daughter's success into careers for herself as producer and her other children. And though the Family Hart has shown to have talent in each of their endeavors, this particular film was just too much for them to handle. Melissa Joan is also listed as a producer (the name that set the deal in motion), and Melissa's sister Emily (the voice of the animated version of Sabrina) stars as teenager Shirley Temple. Emily is cute, as is Ashley Rose Orr who portrays the younger Shirley, and both are good actresses, but neither capture the essence of the child star that created a phenomena during the depression. Ashley Rose Orr has talent as the younger Shirley but not the button-nose or the frail body of the moppet that danced on table tops and under the legs of such human scarecrows as Buddy Ebsen. Shirley Temple was a "glass doll" who acted tough. That's what made us laugh. The fact that her character THOUGHT she could lick the world with her fists, and in reality could by melting the hearts of her opponents with her optimism. Without her personality, she was dead meat. Ashley Rose Orr looks like she could handle herself quite well in a fight, and probably would have to given her personality. I think she will make a fine actress, she just wasn't up to this particular role beyond the song-and-dance routines. And I am afraid her nose was just too big to make a convincing Shirley Temple. Emily Hart is slightly more convincing probably because the image of an older Shirley Temple is not as embedded into our senses. Finally, this was an authorized film based on Shirley Temple Black's fine autobiography. Great biographical films present a story researched from different points of view. Child Star leaves us with a film based on Mrs. Black's perspective and doesn't delve into the effects she left on her millions of fans, and the world. What separates Shirley Temple from the countless "true Hollywood stories" is the sense of hope she brought to a depression stricken America. It is this phenomena that the producers failed to capture, thus making Shirley Temple just a Melissa Hart of the 30's and 40's. Sorry Paula Hart, Shirley Temple was...and is...much more than a Child Star.

Really quite a peculiar bio pic. In fairness, I didn't catch the first 15 minutes of this when it was shown on TV, but I can't imagine it being substantially different from the rest of the movie. Some observations:

• it's difficult to believe that a screenplay like this got through development. - The movie seems to have a somewhat sanitized view of shirly's relationship with her parents, the scenes where she interacts with them are strangely muted - Nothing (that I could see) is mentioned about race and shirly's relationship with Bill Bojangles (uncle billy) - surely this would have been interesting to learn about - we see how the studio boos sees shirly, and makes some offhand comments privately, but in terms of the screenplay, it leads nowhere - the young lady who plays Temple is fine, but doesn't resemble her in any way physically or in the way she speaks or mannerisms. - the movie seems to end mid-scene

"Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story" (2001), which premiered on ABC Television's THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF Disney on Mother's Day, May 13th, is one of several made-for-TV bio-pics that have been hitting the airwaves in recent months, with earlier presentations on the lives of the Three Stooges, Judy Garland, etc., just to name a few, but I somehow find "Child Star" to be a pleasant surprise among the others. Based on Shirley Temple Black's autobiography of the same name, it deals with a little girl's incredible rise to fame in motion pictures during dark days of the Great Depression in the 1930s, making box office gold for Fox Films, later 20th Century-Fox. Sadly, like many top box office stars, Temple's winning streak would come to an end with a few flops, especially with "The Blue Bird,", before being dismissed by the studio where she made her home for seven years in 1940. In retrospect, Temple continued to act in some movies during her teenage years, but found true happiness leaving the spotlight and going to regular school amongst other children her age, something she was deprived in doing as a totaler. However, the movie concludes with Shirley, now 14, being called by producer David O. Selznick to interest her in a role in his upcoming project, "Since You Went Away? (1944) starring Claudette Colbert.

Seeing every Shirley Temple movie that was either presented on local television and later available on video cassette, I feel I know whatever there is to know about this talented little girl who became the biggest and most recognizable box office child star of her day, and whose movies have seemed to have stood the test of time today. What makes this particular TV bio worth viewing is that the writers kept the story as accurate as possible, without adding some fiction to give the story some lift. At least I didn't seem to find any inaccuracies in the story that didn't belong there, but felt her meeting with aviatrix Amelia Earhart being one of the few slow-points of the plot. Little added details having Temple on loan from Fox to Paramount to appear in "Little Miss Marker" and the not-so-famous "Now and Forever" (both 1934) are captured, which could have had the writers say these two movies were produced at Fox, hoping its viewers wouldn't have known the difference. Even the one who played "Little Miss Marker" co-star, Dorothy Dell (1915-1934), is almost a hum-dinger to that late actress.

As for the performance of newcomer Ashley Rose Orr as child star Shirley Temple, while there is only ONE Shirley Temple, Orr does her best in portraying her, right down to the curls, giggle and that nose twitch. Obviously she must have studied Temple's mannerisms down to the simplest detail by watching all her movies, and like the person she portrayed, she must have been coached well by her mother. Orr singing Temple songs such as "The Good Ship Lollipop" and "Animal Crackers in My Soup" was not Temple's voice dubbed into hers, but Orr's herself. The recreation of the dancing sequence with both Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and later Buddy Ebsen will possibly bring back that nostalgic feel to those who grew up watching Temple movies on TV for many years.

"Child Star" is possibly a long overdue movie tribute to Shirley Temple, but again, maybe it came at the right time. Had it been made in the 1950s or so, possibly her life story would have been very disjointed with a child actress appearing in movies with fictitious name titles and/ or having her appear in films with actors she never met.

Also featured in the cast are Hinton Battle as Bojangles (who also choreographed the dance steps Bojangles had made famous), Connie Britton as Gertrude Temple, and Colin Friels, with executive producers being Paula Hart and daughter Melissa Joan Hart. Melissa's sister, Emily Anne Hart, is the one who plays the role as the teen-aged Shirley during the final ten minutes or so.

In spite that "Child Star" leaves some questions unanswered, it may not be the best TV-bio ever made, however, it's definitely recommended for those familiar with her film work and ardent fans of Shirley Temple herself. (***)