Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Miss Annie Rooney Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 27, 2017

The vagaries of fate and success in any of the performing arts are legendary, and some of you (like I do) may have friends who have experienced that rare phenomenon of grasping the brass ring in theater, film or music, only to have it ripped from their still clutching fingers. A friend of mine was once a childhood star in a Top 10 television series, raking in untold piles of cash and becoming a nationally recognized celebrity, but when that show was cancelled, acting work became next to impossible to find and this individual now works as a waiter, probably delivering food to today’s “stars” who think their fame is a given and will be with them always. It’s kind of interesting to watch Miss Annie Rooney with anecdotes like this in mind, aware that the film probably marked the beginning of the end of Shirley Temple’s film career. Sure, the once adorable child phenomenon had another few years of (sporadic) film making in her future when Miss Annie Rooney appeared in 1942, but this effort to at least partially reshape her image away from the ringleted singing and dancing tyke seemed problematic to many critics at the time of the film’s release and augured some rough career pathways ahead for Temple. The good news is of course that Temple was able to forge a rather fascinating post-film life that included all sorts of honorable activities, including as an international ambassador, with occasional forays into television that probably at least kept her Screen Actors Guild card active.

I’ve joked in some other reviews that independent producer Edward Small deserves some kind of award for being one of the few industry stalwarts during the Golden Age of Hollywood who had the courage to work with Frances Farmer more than once (he produced 1937’s The Toast of New York and 1940’s South of Pago Pago, both of which offer Farmer substantial roles). While there’s something perhaps intrinsically funny about a film which begins with the banner “A Small Production”, Small had a long and actually fascinating producing career, with many of his 1930s and 1940s efforts being released through United Artists, as Miss Annie Rooney was. While Small could throw caution to the wind and offer pretty expensive looking films (Toast of New York was reportedly the most expensive film RKO made in 1937), Miss Annie Rooney unfortunately comes off as a kind of bargain basement offering, with rather dowdy looking sets (even in supposedly wealthy environments) and not much in the way of actual production design.

George Bruce’s screenplay attempts none too successfully to remake Temple as a lingo spewing teenager named Annie Rooney, a girl entranced by George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and (just for good measure) some big band jitterbug tunes that are playing on her phonograph as the film opens. Annie’s best friend is the somewhat dowdier looking Myrtle (Peggy Ryan), and the two commiserate about their lack of appropriate male romantic interests during a phone conversation. An upcoming party presents even more issues with regard to dates, though Annie tells Myrtle she’ll default to her platonic friend Joey (Roland Dupree, who reportedly provided the live action reference material for the animators working on Disney's Peter Pan), since there are no better eligible boys who might fill the bill.

When Joey’s jalopy (referred to as a “meat grinder” in just one of this film’s kind of unintentionally hilarious throwbacks to how kids supposedly spoke in the World War II era) has a few issues on the way to a dance, Annie ends up meeting rich kid Marty White (Dickie Moore, another child star who had a problem matriculating into more adult roles). Unsurprisingly, romantic sparks ensue, though Annie, the daughter of a widower inventor named Tim Rooney (William Gargan), is not in the same social circles as the hoity toity Whites are. That leads to a series of “class” disputes, especially when Tim invites Annie to come to his mansion to help celebrate his birthday, something that sends his high-falutin’ parents (Gloria Holden and Jonathan Hale) into a tizzy.

Meanwhile, Tim is trying to develop a new kind of rubber (in a plot point that kind of weirdly presages Disney’s The Absent-Minded Professor), while his father (Annie’s “Grandpop”, played by Guy Kibbee) attempts to keep hearth and home in order. Though not quite at Pygmalion levels, the decidedly (lower?) middle class Annie Rooney has a ball of her own to get to, one in the high class territory of the White environment, and that provides what little drama there is in the film (watch for a young June Lockhart as a snobby high society girl Annie encounters at Marty’s party).

In doing some background research for this review, I was kind of surprised at how vicious contemporary critics were of this film. It’s a slight trifle, to be sure, and Temple simply can’t overcome the patently inauthentic dialogue she’s saddled with, but the story isn’t that objectionable, and the film certainly moves along at a brisk enough pace, working everything out in both the romantic and inventor arenas in well less than an hour and a half. One of the unexpected pleasures of the film is Temple’s dancing, here far removed from the sweet shuffles she did will Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and completely in line with the early forties’ linked phenomena of “bobby soxers” and wild terpsichorean moves.

Miss Annie Rooney Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Miss Annie Rooney is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. ClassicFlix made a rather auspicious debut with Another Man's Poison, a transfer culled from a restoration done jointly by Cohen and the British Film Institute. This first "independent" offering from the fledgling Blu-ray label isn't quite at that level of quality, but is certainly commendable on many fronts. The best thing about this transfer is it hasn't been shorn of grain, though a few individual scenes have a slightly filtered appearance. Contrast is also generally strong, though it, along with brightness, are just slightly variable at times. There's some very slight flicker in attendance at times as well, though you have to be paying attention to backgrounds to really see it. There isn't any major damage to speak of, other than a few stray flecks that still creep into the proceedings. Some of the optical dissolves look a bit ragged, but my hunch is that's a source related anomaly. Detail levels are generally very good throughout the presentation, with elements like flyaway hair on Temple's head easily discernable.

Miss Annie Rooney Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Miss Annie Rooney sports a decent if occasionally problematic DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix. While dialogue is always listenable, there's prevalent hiss throughout this presentation, and there are also a couple of very brief audio splices (like, less than a second) in the early going that affect some of the underscore. Fidelity is about what you'd expect from a film of this vintage, with a slightly boxy sound that is most apparent during musical interludes but less distracting during dialogue moments.

Miss Annie Rooney Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind on this disc. The main menu offers play, chapter and subtitle options (see screenshot 20). There is an insert inside the Blu-ray case which seeks to provide translations for the so-called "Jitterbug-ese", the patently fake sounding patois Temple and her teen friends spew in the film which probably struck teenagers of the day as sounding as ridiculous as it will for contemporary audiences.

Miss Annie Rooney Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's probably stretching things a bit to refer to Miss Annie Rooney as a "classic", despite it being released by a label with that word in its title. However, Temple fans will probably enjoy the film, even if it's not Temple's most iconic moment. The biggest obstacle here is not in fact a more mature Temple, but the screenwriter's inability to effectively provide dialogue that sounds natural. The story is about as trite as can be, but Temple films were hardly the model for incredible innovation (aside from "failures" like The Blue Bird ). Technical merits are acceptable (audio) to very good (video) for those considering a purchase.