Moviecut—Kathleen

I loved the movie and cast so much I am watching the film again. The movies from the 1940s are always my favorite and I collect them. These looked like wonderful times. People respected everything and everyone. People were grateful and kind. So much can be learned from films of this Era.

A wonderful story of Shirley Temples character trying to make things work in her life and for her father in all the right ways. It's a really sweet movie for the family and adults who enjoy these classics. Shirley Temple plays a character with a certain style that I have not seen with anyone else. I loved her childhood performances and many others. Anyone who enjoys these 1940's classics, I recommend watching this one for Shirley's great performance. It's a movie that almost reminds me a lot of Parent Trap. I'm actually very young and enjoy these movies quite a bit and would not mind seeing this one again, it was fantastic. I liked it better than the original Parent Trap but not as much as the one in the 90's. One of the best movies I have seen so far from the 1940's.

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.