Honestly, darlings, I am telling you, I swear I have not eaten any Mexican, Indian, or watched a disturbing movie since "Martha Marcy May Marlene." Some of the meds I am on give me strange dreams, but a recent night had to be the strangest yet.
There I was, sleeping peacefully, when who should pop into my consciousness but....Shirley Temple and Jane Withers????????
What the=---?
I had not given a thought to either since I don't know when. I can tell you that the dream was a series of scenes from their 1934 film, "Bright Eyes," with me somehow looking on from above. True to my cinematic accuracy, the dream was in black and white, and replicated perfectly what you would see on the screen.
Chief among these scenes was Jane's spectacular entrance, storming down the stairs, like the petulant, entitled brat she was playing. "Bright Eyes," which, with "Little Miss Marker" that same year, helped make Shirley a star, could be considered Shirley Temple 101, as all the key formulae of most of her subsequent films is established here.
This film gave Shirley her "signature" song, "On The Good Ship Lollipop." Who can forget the sight of her, in her aviator outfit, walking along the road in the rain???? In the story, her father, a skilled aviator, has been killed in a plane crash, and her mother,pretty enough to be a B-girl in a 1930s nightclub; but, this is, after all, a Shirley Temple film, for God's sake, so her mother is forced to work as a maid to these snooty rich folks, whose grandfather (the son's father) has their number. Jane is the snooty couple's daughter, and Grandpa hates her, and loves Shirley. Jane can't stand Shirley stealing her limelight, hence the competition. (On film, that is; the studio and the mothers tried to foist a REAL competition onto the girls, but I don't think they would have it.) As in most Temple films, it becomes time to tear up. One of her father's aviator pals, played by James Dunn (eleven years before his Oscar winning role as Johnny Nolan in "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"), while not romantically interested in Mommy, takes a protective interest in she and Shirley. On the day of Shirley's birthday, her mother has gone to get a cake for her, is crossing a street in a hurry--and struck down by a car. Shirley is orphaned.
The accident is depicted, which is sad and disturbing to watch, especially if you see this as a child, but one of the saddest scenes on film comes when Dunn takes Shirley up in the air, which she loves, and tells her that "your Mommy was so lonesome for your Daddy, that today she went to see him." After a beat, Shirley gets the point, and bursts into tears--and so do we. I am just about to tear up writing this, I can tell you.
Then follows some kind of custody battle, where the grandfather calls her the film's title--Bright Eyes. Jane's parents don't want her; they want Shirley in an orphanage. Again--this being a Temple vehicle--things end happily: Shirley gets settled somewhere (I think Dunn adopts her) and Jame and parents get their comeuppance.
Jane Withers in this film is like Bonita Granville played for laughs. She has a great comic, muggy face; even for a child, which is one reason why Bonita could not do comedy; even at its calmest her face was so menacing. Same as Jane not being able to play near sociopaths, the way Bonita did. And Jane contrasts nicely with Temple's saccharine, though genuine cuteness!!! I mean, those 52 curls???? I might have wanted to have been a star, and an icon, but I would never have sat still long enough for THAT!!!!! And where Shirley eventually retired from films, and the biz, Jane stayed in there, as a character actress (she was in 1956's "Giant") and, to a generation of baby boomers, she is immortalized as Josephine The Plumber, merchandiser of Comet cleanser on a series of famous TV commercials.
You just had to love Shirley and Jane, girls!!!!! But what did the dream mean??? Did I want to BE them???? I never wanted to be Shirley Temple (Judy Garland; yes!!!!) but she WAS an icon, and while I had enough brattiness in me to play Jane, I think I would have been more successful going the way of Bonita. Though I think I COULD have played the entitled juvenile harridan Jane plays in this film.
So your guess is as good as mine, when it comes to this dream. And, of course, it means I will have to watch "Bright Eyes" again, where I know those awful moments are coming. Maybe then, I can discuss it with my therapist!!!!!!!!!
I am telling you, children's films during this era were SO sadomasochistic!!!!! Nerts to that!!!!!!!!!!!!
And love to all, my darlings!!!!!!!!
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