Pirata à Vista

May Robson takes her nieces to the small Rhode Island town. The elder, Jane Bryan, carries on a sedate and disapproved romance with Fred Lawrence. The younger, Sybil Jason, combines with yarn-spinning Guy Kibbee to hunt for treasure under a pirate's compact. Meanwhile, a couple of crooks are in town to crack the local bank. They capture wind of the treasure hunt, and when Kibbee and Miss Jason find it, try to take it away at gunpoint. In the struggle, the man dies and the woman lies her face off.

Warner Brothers were trying to replicate the success of Shirley Temple, but their B division wasn't up to it, and neither was Miss Jason. She sings a song, but the lip-syncing is obvious, and her performance under Nick Grinde verges on the annoying. Miss Robson's usually delightful grouch seems simply ill-tempered.

Miss Jason kept on working through 1940, and is fine in later roles in support of Shirley Temple. I attribute the poor quality of this movie to the usually efficiently operating Warners B Unit.

Sybil Jason was Warner Brothers' answer to Shirley Temple -- a child star who can sing and act well. But she is so cloying here it negates any personality she has. The problem is more with the screenplay, which has her act like a ninny most of the time, not realizing what can help or hurt a person. She does sing the title song nicely. The plot involves buried treasure and a set of crooks which is somewhat entertaining.

I did enjoy seeing Gus Shy, an actor I have seen in other movies. He looks, sounds and has mannerisms so much like Danny Thomas, I thought they might have been related. He's worth checking out, even though his part is small.

Betsy Ann takes her younger sister Abigail (Sybil Jason) home from school. Aunt Marcia (May Robson) accuses her of sneaking off for the purpose of seeing her boyfriend Tom Squires. Abigail does really want to see her loveable uncle Asa Plunkett (Guy Kibbee) who is in jail for drunkenness. While the Sheriff is away, Asa pretends to be helping out at the jailhouse. It's high adventure after Abigail finds a treasure map.

Sybil Jason is no Shirley Temple no matter how hard she tries. The movie would still be better if it relied more on the child star. This would probably work better as a Goonies adventure with a bunch of kids. Uncle Asa is sort of a kid. The rest of the cast isn't all that much fun and the movie struggles to stay in the fun pocket.