| Curly Top | |
| Director: | Irving Cummings |
| Producer: | Winfield Sheehan |
| Screenplay: | Patterson McNutt Arthur J. Beckhard |
| Starring: | Shirley Temple John Boles Rochelle Hudson |
| Music: | Ray Henderson R.H. Bassett Hugo Friedhofer Arthur Lange |
| Cinematography: | John F. Seitz |
| Editing: | Jack Murray |
| Studio: | Fox Film |
| Distributor: | Fox Film |
| Runtime: | 75 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Curly Top is a 1935 American musical romantic comedy film starring Shirley Temple, John Boles and Rochelle Hudson.
Elizabeth and her older sister Mary are in a heavily regimented orphanage where her attempts at play are discouraged by the overly stern superintendent Mrs. Higgins. Orphanage matron Henrietta Denham, is much more understanding towards the children. During a meeting of the orphanage trustees, Elizabeth is caught doing a devastating impersonation of the oldest and crabbiest trustee, Mr. Wycoff. She is saved from punishment by Edward Morgan, a newly minted millionaire who takes an instant liking to her.
Discovering that Elizabeth's older sister had promised their dead parents that they would never be separated, Morgan takes them both into his home, but invents an imaginary guardian for whom he is only the middleman. This strategy develops some serious hitches when he realizes he is in love with the older sister.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, wins over Morgan's eccentric Aunt Genevieve and the stuffy butler, who eventually warms to taking care of her pet pony and duck. Edward eventually confesses his deception, to everybody's relief, and he and Mary will be married.
Helen Brown Norden wrote in Vanity Fair that Temple "has great charm and a phenomenal ease which permit her to dominate even such an absurd situation and stupid dialogue as are forced on her in her latest picture, Curly Top.[1] Maclean's critic Ann Ross was of the opinion that "Admirers of the screen's first child wonder will dote on Curly Top. People who find that all child performances on the screen, even Temple performances, stir up the wicked old Herod in them, had better stay away."[2]