20th Century Fox really poured it on for this early Shirley Temple starring vehicle: her dad has died in a plane crash, her mother is a poor maid who works for a nasty married couple and their horrid little daughter, there's a crotchety old man whose heart Shirley melts, a bunch of pilots who love her including her father's best friend (James Dunn), a nice maid and butler who love her. Shirley hitch-hikes, wears an aviator uniform, has to be told her mum is run over, is bullied, gets smudges on her face, sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" - they leave no stone unturned, really.
But it does work. Shirley is very cute, the song is famous, Jane Withers is great value as her nemesis (watching her mother slap her at the end is very satisfying), the support cast of character actors do their thing, there's an unexpectedly exciting sequence where she and Dunn have to parachute out of a plane.
Pedophilia revelations do hamper the fun: all the hugging Dunn does to Shirley, the aviators watching lovingly as she shakes her little rump. Different times. But it's done with conviction.
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