"I wouldn't give up my daddy for anything."

Little Miss Thoroughbred is a campy little film from 1938. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it was made due to Shirley Temple's success at Fox in an attempt by Warner Brother's to create their own little starlet (especially a good idea since in 1938, Shirley was 10 very obviously on the verge of her hard transition). The film puts 6 year-old Janet Chapman in the role of a 4 year-old orphan girl named Janet Smith (sigh, even the little babes in old Hollywood were subjected to the obsession with characters always being younger rather than older). Janet Chapman didn't find the success Shirley did, and I have a few guesses as to why - none of which  I would blame on her acting in this film. Indeed, she shines like an adorable little baby doll in this film! She's cutesy, but her mannerisms actually feel more real and less affected than Shirley's. There's a natural way about her and her interactions with the adults feel authentic.

At night, Janet Smith often dreams of a father who comes to visit her and take her away. Little Janet is so enamored by this ideal of a dream father rescuing her and loving her that she not only prays about it every single night, but also runs away to find this allusive father of hers. (Subtle, albeit mostly harmless, 1930s patriarchal themes here in the implication that it's more romantic for an orphan girl to dream of a father, read: man, to come rescue her than a mother, read: woman; see: Annie).

A lot of the plot here is based on the idea that, well, children aged 4 aren't always the brightest in terms of discernment and can be profoundly naive. Little Janet doesn't seem to understand the difference between dreams and reality. She dreams of a father so often, that she's convinced he must be real and must exist somewhere. So when her paths cross with petty gambler Nails Morgan (John Litel) who, through the suggestion of his best pal Todd (Frank McHugh), pretends to be the little girl's father to avoid a ticket from a cop, Janet is all raptures. It doesn't matter who this man is. For the little darling, her hero has finally come and if he says he's her daddy, then it's not something she's about to let go of.

The film is essentially a fairy tale in a contemporary package. In fact, the trailer depicted it as a romance and the theme of Cinderella and fairy stories in general come up in-film. Janet is a little Cinderella taking the initiative to find her Prince (W!) Charming. Only, in this case, she just wants a father. That's the kind of love she's after - which is a blatant recycling of the similar themes found in several Shirley Temple films (little darling girl plays opposite of an older man who is a pseudo father figure, helps him get the gal, gets a family unit), but it still works here! Janet is also essentially the little beauty that charms the hard-nosed beast.

You get the point. Janet falls in love with the idea of Nails being her father and the romance of it is that, in time, he learns how to reciprocate as well as open his heart to others - specifically Madge Perry played splendidly by Ann Sheridan.

Madge is the out-of-a-job girl across the hall from Nails and Todd. She's crazy about Nails, or at least we're told in passing, but it's obvious she hates his rough exterior and isn't about to put up with it just because she might like him. He gives her the brush off, having no time or patience for women, and she keeps her guard up in turn. But when little Janet worms her way into Nails' life, Madge falls head over heels for the little girl and isn't about to let jerkface Nails break her heart. She'd rather find a way of letting her down easy. Ann pulls it all off so well, not surprising. She brings the necessary maternal role to the film without it ever being insulting. It's clear that's not all there is to her. She might lose her heart to little Janet and want to nurture her, but it's a mama bear kind of nurture where she'd probably rip someone in half if they tried to hurt Janet - which is why her going toe to toe with Nails is extra delightful. She's tough!

Also, Todd shares in the nurturing instinct so it never solely falls on Madge. In fact, the joke is that Madge is only there to keep it from being weird for a strange man to dress/undress a little girl who isn't his daughter or buy her undergarments - legitimate reasoning if you ask me. [There's also a shout out to women working in the police force at the time; even if just for the sake of a joke, it's pretty nice since they weren't often referenced in 1938 film!]

Getting back to plot discussion - Nails has no time for sentiment and even attempts to return Janet to the orphanage, but Janet does end up sticking around when it seems like the little girl is lucky. With her around, Nails' gambling begins to actually pay off and big time! Antics follow such as Nails and Madge being backed into a corner where they have to get married, the three hauling Janet across the country and getting rich, becoming racehorse owners, getting mixed up with racehorse bookies and threatened to have their secret (having technically abducted a child) revealed, being arrested, and being forced to stand trial regarding said abduction charges (the film may be campy, but it at least somewhat addresses the legal/moral dilemma surrounding the three having kept Janet in spite of if they've learned to care for her).

Amidst all this craziness, don't think I've forgotten Todd who is a pretty solid supporting character, in my opinion. He's my favorite character in the film because, what can I say? I really love Frank McHugh. Todd provides the soft-hearted humor necessary to balance Nails' harshness. Todd is obviously soft on Janet from the get-go and is in Madge's corner early on. For a while, he straddles the line between caring for the little girl and also wanting to get rich off of her being a lucky talisman for them.

But then before it's all over, it's clear that he's sentimental Uncle Todd who doesn't want to lose Janet either and who, though the comment is subtle, may even be a little bit jealous of Nails and resentful that he doesn't seem to know the good thing he's had fallen into his lap; but then he's such a good guy that he still roots for his pal and has a hopeful hunch that he'll see the light before it's too late.

I mean, Todd's such a delightfully sweet kind of guy that I can't help but wonder why Madge is goofy enough to fall for Nails instead. Call me unromantic, but when a guy roots for you to be happy and successful AND voluntarily takes it upon himself to be a doting father (or uncle) figure to your adoptive child, I don't see why you wouldn't want to try and move in on that as opposed to the emotionally constipated, misunderstood fellow. At least, I know which one I'd go for in her situation, but I digress. And nah, Nails ends up turning it around in the end and becomes quite the hard to resist man himself. So it's all good!


The film is short and sugary through and through. It's clear that some of the footage just couldn't be saved. One scene in particular becomes a sort of cliffhanger blackout where they had to fade it and leave you to guess what might have been happening to cause Todd and Madge shock. Of course, it's not impossible to guess some likely cliche scenarios either. It's an obvious B-flick that doesn't take home any awards. There's timeline flaws and, of course, logic fail galore. And obviously, you have to take the moral theme with a grain of salt. Janet is lucky to have landed in with folks who wouldn't hurt her so a definite trigger warning for anyone sensitive to plots about thematic-based discussion of child abduction.

But regardless, Little Miss Thoroughbred is one of those charming little B films that I can curl up in bed and find a little slice of sappy delight while watching. And I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.