Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Twentieth Century-Fox).
Few cinemoppets would be capable of bringing to life the character, imagination and enterprise of Kate Douglas Wiggin's calico-&-pigtails heroine. Smirking, preciously gifted, 9-year-old Shirley Temple is not one of the few. In print, spunky, romancy Rebecca sold soap orders, wrote soaring rhymes, brought a whiff of fresh air into a stuffy New England scene. To the cinema version, warped to suit her rapidly narrowing talents, Shirley brings her dimples, a few precocious songs, two tap dances, and cements three adult romances—two over par, even for Shirley....