Customer Reviews

Baby Takes a Bow

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of Shirley Temple's funniest movies and all time classics! She plays the daughter of an ex-con played by the loveable James Dunn and gets tangled up in a robbery that can almost put her father back into jail. With an award-winning cast, Shirley taps and acts as adorable and innocent as she can. In this movie, Temple deserves to take a bow!

I love this film!! Since there are many reviews giving you a synopsis of the picture's plot, I'll skip that part and tell you what I enjoyed with this film. Shirley is delightful and at her highest entertainment in this film, and its amazing since this is one of her first lead roles. She's tiny and irrestible- its like you just want to climb into the movie and pinch her rosy cheeks!

She was lucky to get to work with a talented cast including James Dunn (one of her best partners) and Claire Trevor. The best part of the movie is when the officers at the end of the movie ask James Dunn's character if he's alright (he was just shot in the shoulder mind you) and he says- OH ITS JUST A SCRATCH! I always die on the floor laughing! God love the classic movies of the 30s. And of course James Dunn doesnt need any medical attention and it all ends pleasantly! And there is another part where Shirley Temple is help letting lose the bad guy (well she of course doesnt know hes bad until later) and she uses a knife to cut him lose- Just look at Shirley's face when she picks up the knife. She looks like a pyscho killer! It is excellent! Its little Shirley gone bad!

Dont get me wrong- I'm a die hart Shirley fan- I own practically all of her movies (all of the them under her fox contract from 1934-1940) and have read Child Star her autobiography which is like 700 pages. I just find these little things greatly humorous! I recommend Baby Take a Bow to any Temple fan- its one of her bests!

Little Shirley's father is a good father who once was a thief("Eddie"). Her family's best friends are a younger man who also once was a thief, but is going straight("Larry"), and his new wife. When "Trigger Stone", a robber and sometimes a killer, steals a pearl necklace from Eddie and Larry's employer, a detective who's trying to promote himself a job by blaming everything on Eddie and Larry blames it on them(well, of course!). Trigger Stone gives the pearls to Shirley, and tells her it's a "birthday present"(yes, in the movie it is her fifth birthday)to protect himself. Little Shirley hides the beads in her father's pocket, not knowing what she was doing. "Welch"(the detective), comes to Shirley's family's apartment and openly searches everywhere. He even tries to bribe Shirley into telling him where the beads are. then Trigger Stone comes to collect the beads and that's where I'll stop, but I will tell you that Shirley is in a lot of trouble, and I don't mean with her parents.

Why can't they make more movies like Shirley does??? The classic family films that always have a happy ending???

This is one of Shirley's best in my opinon the on-screen dynamic you see between Shirley and her dad(Dunn) is present. Dunn is a great actor--for in this movie you do see him as Shirley's dad who worships his family and littel Shirley.

Shirley as always the entertainer does a ton of dancing in this scene including the famous "copy-cat" dance.

I gave four stars because I found the whole jewel-thief thing and hide and seek jewel thing boring-- me and my cousins fast forward through that one but, still it's a great movie.

Lots, of great on-screen chemistry and Shirley's dance. This is a precious film-- watch it with your kids...or buy the tape. You won't be disappointed if you lovve good clean fun!!!

This is a cute movie and Shirley Temple is just adorable in it, but there is a scene at the end of the movie in which little Shirley is--literally--in the clutches of the bad guy. She is bodily carried to the rooftop of her apartment building, screaming, "Mommy! Daddy! Help me!!" for about six or seven minutes while the police are in pursuit with guns drawn and bullets being fired. I didn't find this appropriate for my young daughter, who currently is enamored with little Shirley Temple. At 2 1/2 years old, my child is too young to understand that "Baby Take a Bow" is just a movie and that the little girl was not in mortal danger during the making of the film. I will let her watch other movies by Shirley Temple rather than this one.

I don't know how many films Temple had made by the time "Baby Take a Bow" was filmed, but it certainly shows that she had tremendous talent at a very young age. She was truly a child star and entirely deserving of that title. What a wonderful little actress!

This has to be one of her best in the opinion of me! It is one of her most modern movies.She lives in a n apartmentr with her mom and dad and she even gets to play herself. Her daddy is a criminal going straight and when a clients neclace is stolen it messes everything up. Well they throw shirley's b-day party and she is amazing in the little ballerina dress and singing. Then the thief gives shirley the neclace to worsen things up,she thinks its a birthday gift (it is but) and makes a hide and go seek game out of it and puts it in her daddys pocket!yIKES then a very annoying guy comes to look he begins to look in their fathers coatjacket and just before he goes into the pcoket and say it would never be in there he then meets shirley and the father discovers it yikes!they then hide it in a duster/vacum/thing and the cleaner lady comes to get it ! they are safe it goes on until the criminal comes into the house and while the father tied him up shirley unties him because he gave her the gift! HE THEN TAKES HER and is in his hands for a whole 5 minutes ...its a little spooky for a 4/5 year old but all will turn out well as always

Shirley Temple was so tiny and so adorable when she starred in this story! Little Shirley stars as the little girl of a gone-straight thief. She tap-dances and sings her way to mischief, laughter, and trouble.

At the age of only seven,young Shirley Temple made her first leading starring role for Fox Studios with 1934's "Baby Take A Bow" and thus a legendary child star was born to become the newest studio box-office attraction.Young Shirley lives with her mom (Claire Trevor) and ex-con dad (James Dunn).But when a pair of her dad's friends pearl necklace is stolen,it's up to him to catch the real crook and also convince himself that he isn't the thief he use to be years ago.Featuring wonderful strong performances and a great direction by Harry Lachman (Laurel & Hardy's "Our Relations" and "Dante's Inferno"),the film never loses its comedy stylings nor dramatic tone and highly fast-paced all the way.Highly recommended !

ABOUT THE DVD:

This fun film makes its wonderful DVD debut as part of the Voulme Two Shirley Temple DVD Collection of her beloved films.This DVD features both a restored black & white version as well as a brand-new digitally colorized version that completely blows away the horrid 1994 colorized VHS release.Legend Films has always done outstanding work on the colorization processing for the films they release as well as including the original B&W version too,but extras are nothing more than a lackluster effort (hence the four-star rating).As with the previous Temple releases from Fox and Legend,it contains both unrestored trailers for "Heidi" and "Little Miss Broadway".Despite the absence of many extras,owning both great transfers of the film on one disc makes this a must-have to any fan of classic film or to family film buffs,you won't be dissappointed with this release ! Well-recommended !

I have been a fan of Shirley Temple for about 34 years. I love all of her films. Baby Take a Bow is one of her very first vehicles by herself ( coming off Stand Up and Cheer and Little Miss Marker). The film has typical Shirley fare with singing and dancing. James Dunn plays her father and Claire Trevor plays her mother. Basically, dad is an excon trying to live life on the straight and narrow and gets caught up in events that could get him back in jail. The scene in which Shirley is "Captured" by the bad guy is scary, but no scarier that what kids see in Disney films.

I am glad that Fox has released this films with both the original black and white and the colorized version. When Fox had released them on VHS originally, you could only have the colorized version, so I am glad that respect was given to the original medium. I was a little disappointed with the extras. I wish that they could have added a trailer for the film or a mini bio or clip of Shirley when she was younger. Overall, I am very pleased with this copy. If you are new to Shirley Temple, in my opinion the must see films are Bright Eyes and Poor Little Rich Girl.

Shirley Temple is the daughter of a former criminal (James Dunn) and a beautiful blonde (Claire Trevor). The three seem to be the perfect family, but father's past keeps catching up to him. There's a cop out to get him and a gangster on the loose hoping to enlist the help of anyone he can get, the shadier the better. Despite his resistance, the gangster finds a way to access the family through sweet little Shirley who thinks it is all a game.

Things certainly have changed since this film was made. No parent in their right mind would leave a four year old to play outside unattended with a known criminal on the loose.

This film certainly isn't what I expected it to be. It is more of an adult film than something geared toward children because of the mature subject.

Temple is very cute with her sweet smile and golden curls. Unfortunately, she seems a bit sad and her syrupy personality seems a bit forced. There are several scenes where we can see her smile quickly fade when her lines are delivered or when she is concentrating on her dancing. Perhaps she was being worked too hard or truly wasn't having fun. Nevertheless, she's very lovable.

It is unfortunate that the DVD is promoted as being in color and the black and white original is heralded as an extra feature. The color doesn't look awful, but it wasn't meant to be so. People should be able to appreciate the film as it was made, not a jazzed up version for the close-minded who refuse to see anything in black and white.