When orphan Rebecca (Temple) auditions for a radio show and doesn't get the job, her stepfather (William Demarest) takes her to live with her Aunt Miranda (Helen Westly), owner of Sunnybrook Farm. But the show's talent agent (Randolph Scott) was all set To hire Rebecca and begins to search frantically for the missing youngster - unaware the pint-sized radio star lives right next door!
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Shirley Temple shines as a young radio entertainer in this 1938 Darryl Zanuck film inspired by Kate Wiggin's classic novel. In a role perfectly suited to her song and dance talents, Temple plays the "very self-reliant" Rebecca Winstead, a precocious pixie who wins the audition to become Crackling Grain Flakes "Little Miss America" for a new radio broadcast. Fame is fleeting, however, when she moves to Sunnybrook Farm to live with Aunt Miranda (Helen Westley), an overbearing curmudgeon who absolutely forbids any entanglements in show business. Since the show must go on, it will require some slapstick tomfoolery and secretive shenanigans that turn an otherwise straightforward story into an uproarious cat-and-mouse comedy. Sunnybrook Farm is reminiscent of Temple's earlier Poor Little Rich Girl (1936), as it reunites her with co-stars Jack Haley and Gloria Stuart. The soundtrack includes Temple's legendary songs, "An Old Straw Hat," "On the Good Ship Lollipop," and "Animal Crackers in My Soup," ending with a grandiose military dance number, "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," performed by Temple and renowned tap-dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. The DVD offers two viewing options: a remastered colorized version, or the original (restored) black and white. (All ages) --Lynn Gibson
