Miss Annie Rooney

Miss Annie Rooney is a 1942 American drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin. The screenplay by George Bruce has some similarities to the silent film, Little Annie Rooney starring Mary Pickford, but otherwise the films are unrelated. Miss Annie Rooney is about a teenager (Shirley Temple) from a humble background who falls in love with a rich high school boy (Dickie Moore). She is snubbed by his social set, but, when her father (William Gargan) invents a better rubber synthetic substitute, her prestige rises. Notable as the film in which Shirley Temple received her first screen kiss and Moore said it was his first kiss ever. The film was panned.

Annie Rooney (Shirley Temple), the 14-year-old daughter of a struggling salesman, falls in love with rich, 16-year-old Marty White (Dickie Moore). While at first Marty's snobbish friends give Annie the cold shoulder, her jitterbug dancing skills impress, and soon she is a welcome addition to their circle. Marty's wealthy mother and father, who own a rubber-making business, are not as easily persuaded of Annie's worth. But when her father manages to invent a new form of synthetic rubber, her triumph is complete.

Temple signed to make one film for United Artists and it was to be either Little Annie Rooney or Lucky Sixpence. It was eventually decided to film the former. The title was changed to Miss Annie Rooney to reflect Temple's maturity; she was paid $50,000 for her performance.

Temple was 14 when the film was made and received a much ballyhooed on-screen kiss (from Moore, on the left cheek).

The film was her second attempt at a comeback but its teen culture theme was dated and the film flopped. Temple retired again for another two years (Windeler 219). Later, she told Moore the film was a "terrible picture" (Edwards 136).

Reviews were poor.

The New York Times thought, ""Miss Annie Rooney" is a very little picture. In fact, it is a very grim little picture [...] Gingerly, very gingerly, producer Edward Small is breaking the news to the public—baby Shirley doesn't live here any more. Gone are the days of the toddling tot, the days of milk-teeth and tonsils. Instead, we now see a Miss Temple in the awkward age between the paper-doll and sweater-girl period, an adolescent phenomenon who talks like a dictionary of jive and combines this some how with quotations from Shakespeare and Shaw."Variety remarked, "Shirley is still a conscientious worker in any film that comes her way, even though her appeal remains limited to less sophisticated tastes", and The New Yorker thought the film, "not much, about not much" (Edwards 135).