Bright Eyes (1934) on Netflix
Shirley Blake, five, lives with her widowed mother, a maid, in the wealthy Smythes' home. Her godfather, Loop Merritt, fights for custody when the family plans to send her to an orphanage.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.2/102,752 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mary Blake, a widow, works as a maid in the home of the wealthy Smythes while raising her five-year-old daughter Shirley. The household includes Anita and J. Wellington Smythe, their spoiled seven-year-old daughter Joy, and the cantankerous Uncle Ned, who uses a wheelchair. On Christmas morning Shirley visits the airport friends of her late father, all of them pilots, who take her aboard a plane and roll it along the runways while she sings. That same day a traffic accident kills Mary. Loop Merritt, a pilot and Shirley's godfather, takes her up in his aircraft and tells her that her mother is in Heaven. The Smythes plan to send the girl to an orphanage, but Uncle Ned insists that she stay, and Loop sets out to raise money for attorney fees.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bright Eyes (1934)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- For the scene where little Shirley stows away and they bail out, Shirley Temple and James Dunn were harnessed and hoisted into the studio rafters. On the first take, someone opened an airproof door, and the vacuum sucked out the parachute and dragged both of them across the studio floor.
- Shirley Temple received a miniature Oscar on February 27, 1935, for her contributions to film entertainment in 1934, chiefly for Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes, making her the first child actor to receive an Academy Award.
- American Airlines and the Douglas Aircraft Company cooperated on Bright Eyes to advertise air travel, supplying a DC-2 designated "A-74" for the exterior shots and a true to scale mock up for the interior scenes.
- Members of the University of Southern California football team served as extras in the film's famous Good Ship Lollipop scene.
