Bright Eyes (1934 film)

Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	David Butler
Written by	David Butler ; Edwin J. Burke
Screenplay by	William Conselman; Henry Johnson
Produced by	Sol M. Wurtzel
Starring	Shirley Temple ; James Dunn; Jane Darwell
Cinematography	Arthur Miller
Music by	Richard A. Whiting ; Samuel Kaylin
Distributed by	Fox Film
Release date	December 28, 1934;
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$190,000

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.

Plot

Five-year-old Shirley Blake (Shirley Temple) and her widowed mother Mary (Lois Wilson), a maid, live in the home of her employers, the wealthy and mean-spirited Smythe family: Anita (Dorothy Christy), J. Wellington (Theodore von Eltz), their spoiled seven-year-old daughter Joy (Jane Withers), and cantankerous wheelchair-using Uncle Ned (Charles Sellon). After Christmas morning, Shirley visited her late father's pilot friends at the airport. 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."

That day, Mary got killed in a traffic accident. Loop (James Dunn), one of the pilots and Shirley's godfather, takes Shirley in an airplane, explaining that they are in Heaven, where her mother now rests. When the Smythes learn of Mary's death, they plan to send Shirley to an orphanage. However, Uncle Ned, who has grown fond of "Bright Eyes," insists that Shirley stay with them. 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 gets resolved when Loop, his former fiancée Adele (Judith Allen), Uncle Ned, and Shirley decide to live together. The Smythes leave the courthouse miserably, except Joy, at first; when she rudely comments that at least they don't have to be nice to Uncle Ned anymore, her mother slaps her hard across the face.

Cast

Shirley Temple as Shirley Blake, a five-year-old girl who is Mary Blake's daughter
James Dunn as James "Loop" Merritt, a bachelor pilot and Shirley's godfather
Lois Wilson as Mary Blake, Shirley's widowed mother who works as a maid for the Smythe family
Judith Allen as Adele Martin, a socialite and Loop's estranged fiancée
Charles Sellon as Uncle Ned Smith, the Smythes' cranky patriarch who has a tenderness for Shirley
Theodor von Eltz as J. Wellington Smythe, a haughty nouveau-riche
Dorothy Christy as Anita Smythe, J. Wellington Smythe's equally arrogant wife
Jane Withers as Joy Smythe, J. Wellington & 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 as Rags, Loop's dog

Production

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]

Reception

The film received positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes holds an approval rating of 83%, based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10.^[3]

Heather Boerner of Common Sense Media gave the film a rate of three stars out of four, calling it a "sweet story with a candy coating." She also noted that some scenes are "sad, bitter in the center of this confection that may be too tough on younger viewers."^[4]

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.^[5]^[6]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- "On the Good Ship Lollipop" – #69^[7]

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

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.
^ "Bright Eyes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
^ Boerner, Heather. "Bright Eyes Movie Review". Common Sense Media. Retrieved September 7, 2024.
^ Edwards 2017, 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.