STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1939, Page 2

STATE THEATRE

“LITTLE MISS BROADWAY.” Shirley Temple always turns in a fine 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 was greeted with a packed and delighted house on Saturday night and will be shown again tonight at the State Theatre, is the musical thing to thi-ill patrons. Shirley Temple.is always good to see and hear, but in this filtn she is said to excel herself. The grand group of troupers which 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 Ate 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 JimmyDurante’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.