By the time Shirley Temple makes Kathleen in 1941 she had been cut loose from
20th Century Fox by Darryl Zanuck as the budding teen Shirley was no longer
box office. Imagine being a has been at 12.
Still MGM grabbed her for Kathleen where she's a girl entering puberty and quite frankly in this film a bit spoiled. She's a rich kid, daughter of Herbert Marshall who is all about business. She misses her late mom and Shirley also cannot stand the housekeeper/governess Nella Walker. And the one she really can't stand is Gail Patrick, the woman who Marshall wants to marry.
These films are usually so loaded in the sense we watch and can't believe that Marshall is such a blockhead that he can't see that Patrick is a bad woman and the lady psychologist that is there to treat Temple, Laraine Day is the woman for both of them.
Kathleen is not in a league with some of Shirley's best work at 20th Century Fox, but it is reasonably entertaining.
Still MGM grabbed her for Kathleen where she's a girl entering puberty and quite frankly in this film a bit spoiled. She's a rich kid, daughter of Herbert Marshall who is all about business. She misses her late mom and Shirley also cannot stand the housekeeper/governess Nella Walker. And the one she really can't stand is Gail Patrick, the woman who Marshall wants to marry.
These films are usually so loaded in the sense we watch and can't believe that Marshall is such a blockhead that he can't see that Patrick is a bad woman and the lady psychologist that is there to treat Temple, Laraine Day is the woman for both of them.
Kathleen is not in a league with some of Shirley's best work at 20th Century Fox, but it is reasonably entertaining.