Kathleen

Kathleen Davis (Shirley Temple) is a smart 12-year-old living in a large mansion with her servants. With her beloved mother dead, she is in a constant battle with her nanny. Her father John Davis (Herbert Marshall) is always away at work. Her father brings home girlfriend Lorraine Bennett who suggests bringing in Dr. Foster to examine her. Foster suggests hiring psychiatrist Dr. Angela Kent (Laraine Day) to look after her for the summer before she goes off to boarding school. Kathleen takes a liking to Dr. Kent especially for her father to replace Lorraine.

Shirley Temple is having trouble growing into her terrible teens. It's a tough thing to have an icon change in front of your eyes. That's the difficulty faced by an audience of her era. She's also stuck using the same acting tricks that had worked so well as a child actor. While it looks cute as a child, it looks like sentimental cloying as she gets older. I do have an issue with the dream dance sequence with full grown men. It has different meaning as she grows into a young woman. The other big issue is the lack of chemistry between the father and Dr. Kent. It's not enough for Lorraine to be a sneaky gold-digger. This has all the ingredients but the mixture is barely passable.

'Kathleen' is a rather pedestrian take on Shirley's previous childhood vehicles. Once again, she has no mother, only a distant father (Herbert Marshall) engaged to a woman Shirley despises. When her behavior causes no end of trouble for her nanny, her father hires a young woman psychiatrist (Laraine Day) to counsel the girl. Naturally, he and Day fall in love and Shirley's problems end on a happy note. But none too soon.

While Shirley herself is charming and poised as the unhappy girl, the script is a dreary thing with no one able to overcome the inadequacies of the slim story. Laraine Day is her usual charming self, Marshall is stuffy and aloof as Shirley's father and Gail Patrick has a totally unsympathetic role as "the other woman" eager to get her clutches on a rich husband.

A musical sequence showing Shirley lending her voice to a dismal song is clearly dubbed and seems to belong to another picture, it's so out of whack with the rest of the film.

Clearly disappointing and only interesting to see Temple as a maturing 12-year old and given some nice glossy MGM close-ups. Some good moments, but not enough and apparently MGM decided not to release this one to video, at least not as of this writing.

Shirley Temple plays Kathleen, a 12-year-old with a rich imagination who lives with her emotionally absent father, a household of servants, and a governess who is a cross between the worst prison guard and Miss Gulch from "The Wizard of Oz". When Kathleen lashes out in rebellion, a doctor is called in to diagnose the girl. This film starts as a drama, but it does not remain all darkness and demons.

All child actors must eventually face uncertainty when they outgrow the young roles that made them successful. Shirley Temple was beyond successful as a child actress, capturing the hearts of moviegoers for years. When she became too old for the "Good Ship Lollipop", would she be able to transition successfully into teen roles and adult roles?

In 'Kathleen", Shirley is 13 years old. The drama of this film is similar to dramatic scenes she had previously played as a child, but viewers expect more from older performers. In "Kathleen" she portrays angst and outrage, but her performance is too childlike, which impacts the early scenes especially. In a few years, she would be better equipped to emote with greater depth. In 1947's "That Hagen Girl", for example, she adeptly portrays a troubled teen beset with a haunting past who is the target of an entire town. 1949's "A Kiss for Corliss" (A comedy with David Niven) is effectively the end of her film career, so she used her newfound skills only sparingly.

Watch for Laraine Day and Gail Patrick, who face off over Kathleen's well-being and the girl's father, played by Herbert Marshall. All of them acquit themselves well. Day, remarkably, is only 8 years old than Shirley, but convincingly plays a professional woman who possesses authority and confidence.

One final note: this film was released soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I can only wonder what effect that had on attendance and the public's willingness to be entertained. The nation was in shock and dealing with important matters that completely altered its way of life. A determined response to aggression, and fears about worldwide aggression, were paramount. Still, the nation would learn to use cinema to channel its patriotic fervor and, conversely, to escape harsh realities.

One of the other reviews called this picture a weak vehicle for Shirley Temple. It's definitely not her best, but it's not terrible either. This said, I think she was wrong for the part-- which was given to her after her mother objected to Shirley being cast in a Wallace Beery film called BARNACLE BILL. Virginia Weidler, who had originally been cast as KATHLEEN, was pulled off this movie and paired her with Beery instead. Shirley then took over to do what her mother felt was material better suited for her. But it's really not a good vehicle for her, for a variety of reasons.

I think the main problem is that Shirley looks too old. Virginia would have been more believable (with the braids, which were becoming a cliché by this point in her career). However, it certainly would have worked best with a young Margaret O'Brien. It really had to be someone very tiny and fragile looking, who desperately needed a new mommy to look after her. Laraine Day is fine in her role, Nella Walker as a battle-axe is very good, and I find Felix Bressart to be as charming as ever. However, as much as I enjoy Herbert Marshall, he is wrong for his part as daddy. It should have been someone like Walter Pidgeon.

Overall I don't think the story is the issue-- it's the casting and how these roles were directed. By the way, when Shirley was signed by MGM, the first project the studio announced for her was an Andy Hardy picture. But probably Mama Temple vetoed that in a hurry-- no B films for her daughter, and no second fiddle to Mickey Rooney. Can you imagine her conversations with Mayer about that!

Kathleen (Shirley Temple) is a lonely young lady. Her mother is deceased and her father is never home. Because of this, she has a governess--a woman who is just plain nasty. As for Kathleen, she's a bit of a brat--mostly because she's so emotionally neglected and lonely. However, her clueless father (Herbert Marshall) takes her to see a psychotherapist instead of giving her what she needs--his time and attention. Fortunately, the therapist quickly realizes the situation and tells the father that the governess is evil. Instead, the therapist recommends a child psychologist (Laraine Day) becomes the child's governess--at least temporarily. Almost immediately, Kathleen decides that this woman would make a perfect mother for her. Unfortunately, the manipulative girl has a problem with her plan--Dad already has a woman picked out to be his new wife. And, this wife-to-be is a superficial and annoying woman indeed (Gail Patrick). What's Kathleen to do?!

"Kathleen" is an odd film. It isn't bad, but along with other films like "The Blue Bird", it managed to alienate the public from Temple because the films were such a departure from the sweet Temple films of the 1930s. Part of this, of course, is because Shirley was older and the old style films wouldn't have worked as well with a child about to become a teen. Part of it, however, is that the studios didn't really seem to know what to do with her.

I liked the Kathleen character. Her manipulative personality was pretty funny and I liked some of her bratty moments. However, what I didn't like about her were the fantasy scenes. These involved musical interludes that just weren't necessary and really slowed down the film. In fact, had they cut them all out, the movie would have worked much better--especially since music seemed inappropriate to this style of film. Plus, while Shirley was great singing as a child, here she seems a bit out of her element in these production numbers.

So is it worth seeing? Sure. The negatives about this one are far outweighed by the good. Shirley's performance is very nice and the story quite clever. And, although the ending was a bit sticky, I did like it. A very different sort of film for the actress, that's for sure--but a nice one. But also it's so different that I could easily see folks disliking it.