Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) on Netflix
Orphan Rebecca Winstead is left with Aunt Miranda at Sunnybrook Farm, where radio singing is forbidden. Neighbor Tony Kent, an advertising executive, wants her voice for a cereal campaign.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.0/102,168 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Rebecca Winstead is among the girls competing in a radio contest to become Little Miss America and represent a cereal company in its advertising. Advertising executive Tony Kent hears her sing and decides she is the one he wants, but his assistant, Orville Smithers, mistakes his meaning and sends Rebecca away. Her stepfather, Henry Kipper, evicted again for unpaid rent, leaves her with her aunt Miranda at Sunnybrook Farm. Rebecca takes to the farm at once. Unknown to either of them, her new neighbor is Tony Kent, who does not know he has found the girl he is looking for, and Rebecca does not know who he is. Rebecca's cousin Gwen lives at Sunnybrook Farm, and Tony has been seeing the singer Lola Lee.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While rehearsing the film's "Toy Trumpet" finale with Bill Robinson at the Desert Inn in Palm Springs, Shirley Temple had her first real encounter with the racism he endured: Robinson was forced to sleep in the chauffeurs' quarters instead of the cottages reserved for white guests.
- Shirley Temple's brother Jack was hired as the film's third assistant director but was fired after a dispute over a roasted turkey prop that had been sprayed with insecticide; Temple popped the turkey in her mouth out of spite and he shook her to dislodge it.
- Studio drummer Johnny Williams taught Shirley Temple to play drums, and director Allan Dwan ordered another drum set for her after noticing her aptitude, but her mother objected that sitting with legs apart was unladylike, so the drum sequence was dropped.
- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm was the first movie in which Shirley Temple's mother gave up her trademark 56 curls; the new long loose-wave style was modeled on Mary Pickford, whom Temple's mother admired.
