This is the charming little story of a small Irish girl with a big accent who travels to New York with her dog to join her mother. On the ship, she meets Rita Hayworth. After they dock, she is told that her mother is sick, and detained. She escapes from the immigration officials on a milk truck leaving Ellis Island, and makes her way to the mansion where her mother is a servant. However, once she arrives, she learns the terrible news that her mother is dead. She has no other place to go and no relatives back in Ireland, so the kindhearted servants decide to hide her at the risk of losing their jobs and being criminally prosecuted for harboring an alien fugitive. The other residents of the house are a young, bookish, scatterbrained man (Pinky Tomlin) and his two, crabby, domineering aunts. The little girl accidentally encounters the man, and they become friends. Eventually she reunites with Rita Hayworth, who Pinky Tomlin falls in love with. His new influences lead to rebellion against his aunts, and with his financial support, Rita Hayworth's brother is able to open a nightclub. All this is interspersed with occasional musical numbers, mainly sung by little miss Paddy.
This movie was made WAY before my time, but I'm guessing it was an attempt to cash in on the Shirley Temple phenomenon. It looked like the voices were entirely dubbed over, which I found interesting. I watched it through mainly just to gaze upon the beauty of Rita Hayworth, but also because I was a bit transfixed by Jane Withers. She was adorable. She was precocious. She also had that "so-cute-you-wanna-strangle-'em" quality that cynics will probably find unbearably annoying to watch. However, she was a good actress. I found the scene where she learns her mother is dead to be genuinely sad. Her final song and dance number in the movie is probably the cutest (or most annoying?) part.
This movie was made WAY before my time, but I'm guessing it was an attempt to cash in on the Shirley Temple phenomenon. It looked like the voices were entirely dubbed over, which I found interesting. I watched it through mainly just to gaze upon the beauty of Rita Hayworth, but also because I was a bit transfixed by Jane Withers. She was adorable. She was precocious. She also had that "so-cute-you-wanna-strangle-'em" quality that cynics will probably find unbearably annoying to watch. However, she was a good actress. I found the scene where she learns her mother is dead to be genuinely sad. Her final song and dance number in the movie is probably the cutest (or most annoying?) part.