Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

Could this be the last Shirley Temple film about which I meander incessantly? Dear God if that were only so.

My wife insists I will LOVE “The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer”. I’m not sure if that’s certainty or some kind of threat. I guess we’ll see.

Susannah of the Mounties was teaching some hard lessons to probably a pretty closed-minded audience in 1939 so it can feel a little heavy handed at times but it’s pretty redeeming at the end. Some of the language seemed to want to dispel stereotypes and admonish prejudices (even sexism) and yet there remained some ignorance of just how to be truly culturally sensitive. Nevertheless, you get the feeling the film maker was trying to say something good and I appreciate that.

The final message of the film was that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about entire people groups based on the actions of one bad egg. This message was brought to light by the friendship between Shirley and the Chief’s son. It’s an amazing lesson to find in a movie from 1939.

To this film’s great credit the most prominent Native American character was actually played by a Native American actor, a boy named Martin Good Rider. Apparently the entire Native American cast consisted of actual members of the Blackfoot tribe. Amazing.

Honestly, the more research I do about this the more amazed I am. This film truly is a diamond in the rough. We don’t even have to sift through any dreadfully adorable songs from Shirley. If you just love those songs, I won’t judge. I love a good musical myself. I just hate things being tacked on. Shirley Temple vehicles might have a plot but they’ll also have a baker’s dozen of songs that have little to no pretext explaining why the song is there.

“Hey Robinson, why don’t you show Shirley how we pick beans around these parts?”

(Cue 15 minute tap dance routine)

But there was none of that in this movie. It was as if Shirley were a fully autonomous person acting out a character according to her own whims and interpretation instead of singing and dancing at the crack of the whip. Frankly, it was a breath of fresh air.

And it was mildly entertaining.