This is such an unusual film. You've got a girl of unnameable age (Ginger Rogers as Ellie) who is apparently old enough to get married but young enough to pull off looking twelve or thirteen merely by dressing the part and putting her hair in pigtails. Why would she put on this ruse? She gives several excuses but it's probably seeing the effect of men on the lives and characters of her mother and grandmother. Mom is currently a prostitute supporting a husband for which she feels obligation but no longer love. Ellie has an alcoholic father who apparently is long on education but short on the stuff that enables people to face up to life, and knowing how and why his wife makes a living as she does just deepens his cycle of alcoholism. Then there is grandma that takes the cake but would never be caught baking one. She's a retired prostitute and loves talking "shop" with her daughter, Ellie's mom.
So of course Ellie would never want to cross the threshold to adolescence. And then one day she meets diner worker Ed Wallace (Joel McCrea). Unable to tell her true age, Ed partly kids with her and partly flirts. In Ed Ellie sees what she has never found at home - someone with humor, who makes her laugh, who - not knowing her family - accepts her. In Ellie, Ed sees a freshness and sense of naiveté he can't find in his cannery row dates at the café, even though he seems to enjoy their bawdiness.
So here we have a couple in which both parties are of equivalent classes as far as income, but worlds apart in where that income originates. Romances are common from this era in which one party is hiding a past that they think will disrupt the relationship if it is discovered. This one is different because it is the girl's family that is of ill repute - the girl herself has done nothing wrong with one exception - she basically tricks Ed into marrying her by telling him a pack of lies about her fictitious strict family.
It's a very heart-warming film, not overly melodramatic, and has fine performances from all the supporting cast as well as Rogers and McCrea who display great chemistry despite the fact that their characters' romance appears to come out of nowhere. Plus it has a quite unlikely hero in the matchmaker who reconciles the young couple - one highly insightful "John" who maybe really did love Ellie's mom after all, knew what she was up against, and didn't want to see history repeat itself in her daughter. I highly recommend it.
So of course Ellie would never want to cross the threshold to adolescence. And then one day she meets diner worker Ed Wallace (Joel McCrea). Unable to tell her true age, Ed partly kids with her and partly flirts. In Ed Ellie sees what she has never found at home - someone with humor, who makes her laugh, who - not knowing her family - accepts her. In Ellie, Ed sees a freshness and sense of naiveté he can't find in his cannery row dates at the café, even though he seems to enjoy their bawdiness.
So here we have a couple in which both parties are of equivalent classes as far as income, but worlds apart in where that income originates. Romances are common from this era in which one party is hiding a past that they think will disrupt the relationship if it is discovered. This one is different because it is the girl's family that is of ill repute - the girl herself has done nothing wrong with one exception - she basically tricks Ed into marrying her by telling him a pack of lies about her fictitious strict family.
It's a very heart-warming film, not overly melodramatic, and has fine performances from all the supporting cast as well as Rogers and McCrea who display great chemistry despite the fact that their characters' romance appears to come out of nowhere. Plus it has a quite unlikely hero in the matchmaker who reconciles the young couple - one highly insightful "John" who maybe really did love Ellie's mom after all, knew what she was up against, and didn't want to see history repeat itself in her daughter. I highly recommend it.