Little Miss Broadway
Little Miss Broadway
NR | 29 July 1938 (USA)
Little Miss Broadway Trailers

An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel's owner doesn't like the entertainers and wants the girl returned to the orphanage.

Reviews
Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?
Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
mark.waltz Cynical New Yorkers must have rolled their eyes to see the glamorous art deco court room featured in the climax of this Shirley Temple vehicle which turns Chambers Street into 42nd Street when tap-dancing George Murphy goes up against his pickle-pussed aunt (Edna May Oliver) to keep a hotel for actors which they own open. Temple starts off this charming comedy with a few musical numbers by singing "Be Optimistic". Of course, she's got a lot to be optimistic about. She's been adopted by the old man who runs the hotel (Edward Ellis) and his pretty daughter (Phyllis Brooks), not realizing that the crabby old pumpkin next door (Oliver) is furious over bandleader Jimmy Durante's constant interruptions of her desire for quiet and decides to demand the back rent building renter Ellis owes.It's obvious from the start that Oliver's crabby old bat is really a big pile of mush hidden under that fabulous horse face. She threatens to steal the picture just by her name in the title, and her comic genius is evident when she visits the hotel and is visited by a marching penguin and various acrobatic acts. Donald Meek comes close second as her milquetoast brother who secretly performs on the side and stands up to a butler who reports everything to his bossy sister. When he breaks out in a fight dance, it is one of those delicious moments of visual comedy that proved that the character performers were often better than the stars.For one of the few times in his career, "Swedish" comic El Brendel is unobtrusive, commenting on the action with the aforementioned penguin who basically makes his presence in the film more tolerable than his early talkie appearances in the Fox musicals. The musical finale towards the end is of course outrageously ostentatious, turning a courtroom into the equivalent of a Mickey/Judy barn! The reactions from Claude Gillingwater as the judge is worth the price of admission alone, and of course, he applauds with his gavel. One of the oddest bloopers in film history appears in this sequence which shows George Murphy plain as day sitting in the court room in a suit watching Shirley perform, then magically re-appearing moments later swinging open the courtroom doors in tuxedo and tap-dancing his way back in. This "Little Miss Broadway", of course, never appeared on Broadway, but for post depression and pre-war audiences needing escapism, this didn't matter. Pure entertainment is entertainment, no matter how off the wall it ends up being.
jootes-garland Being this the very first Shirley Temple movie I've ever seen, I must say it's my favorite. Shirley gives a great performance singing and dancing in all her numbers! And that one we can really call "musical". On the other ones we can see only one or two scenes with singing and dancing, but at this one you can see singing and dancing almost all the time.Shirley's an optimistic orphan who is adopted by a Vaudeville hotel "owner" and his daughter. She meets a guy (George Murphy, who is FABULOUS dancing with Shirley on the number "We Should be Together") trying to convince his aunt (Edna May Oliver, the real owner) to not close the hotel.Shirley looks so sweet in that movie, in all her numbers -- especially in "If the world was a paper", "We should be together" and "Little Miss Broadway".Anyway, this is a very enjoyable movie. Anyone who watches it can enjoy not just Shirley's performances but almost everything in the movie: the story, the characters, the songs, the dancing and so on. A heartwarming movie starring one of the sweetest Child-Stars of all the time with fabulous co-stars. A family movie that can be watched by children, adults and even teenagers and old people.
Lynashley An orphaned Shirley is adopted by an elderly man and his daughter who run a hotel for "Entertainers", however when the rent is past due, the grumpy wealthy landlady who lives next door, tries to have the hotel closed. When that attempt fails, she has Shirley sent back to the orphanage, because of the " unwholesome " atmosphere at the hotel. But fear not, it IS a Shirley movie---it always works out!I think this is an adorable movie. It's hard to grasp the reality of how YOUNG Shirley was when she did these films. To be so talented at such a young age! The story is cute, with a probably predictable ending, but the characters stand out and keep your interest. And watching Shirley dance to " We Belong Together " with George Murphy always makes me smile. Edna Oliver is PERFECT as a cantankerous IL' landlady. The film clearly isn't an Oscar winner, but if you enjoy good, wholesome entertainment without all the sex, violence and fowl language, you will LOVE this movie.
Ron Oliver Orphaned Betsy Brown is sent to live in a New York City theatrical boarding hotel and quickly becomes involved in the struggle to keep the sour old landlady from closing down the establishment. By starring as LITTLE MISS BROADWAY in a show staged in a judge's courtroom, the moppet hopes to sway the verdict in her friends' favor.Shirley Temple shines in this pleasant musical comedy. Her youthful spunk and astonishing talent are very much on display. As her leading man, dancer George Murphy is elegant & charming, just what the audience expects from Shirley's knight errant. Murphy's flirtation with Phyllis Brooks is dull stuff; we can't wait for him to dance again with Miss Temple.Along with Murphy, Shirley faces unusually stiff competition from the comics & character actors involved in this film. The inimitable Edna May Oliver is the villainess here, and she doesn't care a fig for the feelings of the little girl; diminutive Donald Meek is her brother who longs for an adventurous theatrical life.The great Jimmy Durante brings his own brand of insanity to the proceedings as a band leader; it's almost criminal that he's given so little screen time with Shirley. Dialect comedian El Brendel has some funny moments and gets to interact with a peculiar penguin. That's Jerry Colonna as one of the band members.Jane Darwell is sweet, as always, in her matronly role as the orphanage director - she would appear in several Temple films in similar roles. Old Claude Gillingwater has fun with his role as the sympathetic judge. George & Olive Brasno, two of Hollywood's famous Little People, appear as themselves.Movie mavens will spot an unbilled Dick Elliott as a cheerful cellist.Shirley warbles `Be Optimistic,' `How Can I Thank You?' & `If All The World Were Paper;' Murphy joins her in singing & dancing through `We Should Be Together' & `Little Miss Broadway.'