Miss Annie Rooney

Miss Annie Rooney
Directed by	Edwin L. Marin
Produced by	Edward Small
Written by	George Bruce
Starring	Shirley Temple Dickie Moore William Gargan Guy Kibbee
Music by	Darrell Calker
Cinematography	Lester White
Editing by	Fred R. Feitshans Jr.
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	May 29, 1942 (1942-05-29)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Miss Annie Rooney is a 1942 American drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin. The screenplay by George Bruce was based on the silent film, Little Annie Rooney starring Mary Pickford. Miss Annie Rooney is about a teenager (Temple) from a humble background who falls in love with a rich classmate (Moore). She is snubbed by his social set, but, when her father (Gargan) invents a synthetic substitute for rubber, her prestige rises. The film was panned.

Plot

Annie Rooney, the 16-year-old teen daughter of a struggling inventor, falls in love with fellow high school student Marty White. While at first Marty's snobbish friends give Annie the cold shoulder, her jitterbug dancing skills impress, and soon she is a welcome addition to their circle. Marty's wealthy mother and father, who own a rubber-making business, are not as easily persuaded of Annie's worth. But when her father manages to invent a new form of synthetic rubber, her triumph is complete.

Cast

• Shirley Temple as Annie Rooney, a teenager
• William Garagan as Tim Rooney, her inventor father
• Guy Kibbe as Grandpop, her grandfather
• Dickie Moore as Marty White, a rich teenager
• Gloria Holden as Mrs. White, Marty's mother
• Jonathan Hale as Mr. White, Marty's father
• Peggy Ryan as Myrtle

Production

Temple was 14 when the film was made and received a much ballyhooed first on-screen kiss (from Moore, on the left cheek). The film was her second attempt at a comeback but its teen culture theme was dated and the film flopped. Temple retired again for another two years (Windeler 219). Later, she told Moore the film was a "terrible picture" (Edwards 136).

Release

Critical reception

The New York Times thought, ""Miss Annie Rooney" is a very little picture. In fact, it is a very grim little picture [...] Gingerly, very gingerly, producer Edward Small is breaking the news to the public—baby Shirley doesn't live here any more. Gone are the days of the toddling tot, the days of milk-teeth and tonsils. Instead, we now see a Miss Temple in the awkward age between the paper-doll and sweater-girl period, an adolescent phenomenon who talks like a dictionary of jive and combines this some how with quotations from Shakespeare and Shaw."^[1] Variety remarked, "Shirley is still a conscientious worker in any film that comes her way, even though her appeal remains limited to less sophisticated tastes", and The New Yorker thought the film, "not much, about not much" (Edwards 135).

Home media

In 2009, the film was available on videocassette.

See also

• Shirley Temple filmography

References

Works cited

• Edwards, Anne (1988), Shirley Temple: American Princess, William Morrow and Company, Inc., pp. 135–7 
• Windeler, Robert (1992) [1978], The Films of Shirley Temple, Carol Publishing Group, pp. 218–9 

Web citations

1. ^ "Miss Annie Rooney" Opens at the Rivoli, The New York Times, http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C00E6DC163EE13BBC4053DFB0668389659EDE, retrieved 2009-10-15 ^{[dead link]}

External links

• Miss Annie Rooney at the Internet Movie Database
• Miss Annie Rooney at the TCM Movie Database
• Miss Annie Rooney at AllRovi