STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 February 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“LITTLE MISS BROADWAY.” Shirley Temple always turns in a line performance—but this time she gives you the time of your life. She’s a Shirley of surprises surrounded by singing, dancing, romancing, fun making show people. “Little Miss Broadway,” which opens tonight at the State Theatre is the musical thing to thrill patrons. Shirley Temple is always good to see and hear, but in this film she is said to excel herself. The grand group of troupers winch aids and abets Miss Temple is headed by George Murphy, the irrepressible Jimmy Durante, blonde Phyllis Brooks, and Edna Mae Oliver, the prim and prudish ’’grande dame of filmdom.” To make this the musical hit of the year, six new Bullock and Spina melodies are featured, and include “Be Optimistic,” “We Should Be Together,” “If All the World Were Paper,” “Swing Me an Old-Fashioned Song,” “How Can I Thank You,” and “Little Miss Broadway,” the title song. The story is about a little miss who lives in a vaudeville hotel with her foster family, Edward Ellis and Phyllis Brooks. When Jimmy Durante’s jazz band gets too loud in its rehearsals, the wealthy neighbour, Edna Mae Oliver complains and threatens to close the hotel. George Murphy, her nephew intercedes —and while he wins nothing but enmity from his prim aunt, he wins the favour of fair Phyllis. Led by Shirley Temple everything ends as it should—especially after Shirley convinces an austere judge that he should permit the actors, to stage their show in the courtroom. George Barbier, Edward Ellis, Jane Darwell, El Brendel, Donald Meek, Patricia Wilder and Claude Gillingwater Senr. have an active part in the film.