Absolutely Fantastic

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Still, as Stephen Sondheim wrote in "Follies", someone said she's sincere, so she's here! She's been through Heidi, the Blue Bird, and Reagen, gee how crazy that was. When you've been through Heidi, the Blue Bird, and Reagan, can't you get some applause? As Shirley Temple reached the end of her movie acting career, one thing became very apparent. She wasn't transitioning very well into becoming a mature leading lady, still relying on old tricks from 15 years before. What worked at 8 didn't work in her mid 20's, and even she had to admit that it was time to throw in the towel. In "Adventures in Baltimore", a period comedy set in the early 20th Century, she is still playing a teenager, facing typical problems but utilizing what is up there in her brain to become a "modern", fighting for women's rights and getting into all sorts of trouble as a result. The unfortunate thing is that her character takes everybody around her down with her, and that includes her preacher father (a very good Robert Young), a candidate for Bishop of Maryland, and her object of affections (real life husband John Agar) whom she embarrasses at a public meeting where he reads a speech she wrote for him where he keeps referring to himself as a woman! (Hey, Johnny, proof read!) Then, there's Shirley's mother (Josephine Hutchinson) who is the perfect housewife and mom until Temple gets the bee under her bonnet over women's lib which results in a riot and a black eye for the well-dressed matron. Veteran character actress Norma Varden has an amusing small role as Helen Hadley Hamilton with the very Irish Albert Sharpe adding flavor as an eccentric older man Temple encounters while painting. Shirley does score in a dance contest sequence with papa Young, but her baby-faced, pouty acting makes it appear that she is still a teenager playing dress-up rather than an actress playing a part.

Back in 1905, atypical teenager Shirley Temple (as Dinah "Di" Sheldon) is expelled from school after telling her teacher she wants to study human anatomy by painting nude models. Called "immoral," the budding art student also advocates a woman's right to vote. Plus, she wears two petticoats instead of the standard five. Sent home to North Baltimore, Ms. Temple receives moral support from understanding minister father Robert Young (as Andrew Sheldon). As a youth, he dabbled in ballroom dancing. Temple is attracted to tall, dark and handsome John Agar (as Thomas "Tom" Wade), but he prefers a traditionally feminine woman...Back home, Temple gets into more political trouble when she paints Mr. Agar in his bathing suit. But, we do not see this on camera. Agar appears fully clothed while posing for Temple, but is bare-chested in the finished product. First of all, we are left to wonder when Temple became an expert in his male anatomy. Of course, in real life, they were married. After an interesting start, this becomes a silly film. However, the star (now being billed below Robert Young) shows her natural appeal. This is especially evident in the opening minutes. With cast and crew possibly helping set the mood, Temple appears to be comfortable and competent.***** Adventure in Baltimore (4/19/49) Richard Wallace ~ Shirley Temple, John Agar, Robert Young, Josephine Hutchinson

Mild sitcom, from a story by Christopher Isherwood of all people, about a pastor's rebellious daughter in the stuffy upper-middle-class Baltimore of 1905. Though it's handsomely photographed, there's no Baltimore atmosphere here; it could as easily be Milwaukee or St. Louis, and in fact, the strong-family-ties theme, aggressive nostalgia, boy-next-door puppy love, and sleeve-tugging sentimentality play like a less well-written "Meet Me in St. Louis." Robert Young, top-billed and with a mustache and silly hair, does a tolerable warmup for "Father Knows Best"; he furrows his brow a lot and makes pronouncements. (But the height of the plot arc, in which he delivers a give-'em-hell sermon to his hypocritical congregation, is unaccountably omitted from the script.) The only real surprise of the movie is how amazingly uninteresting a 21-year-old Shirley Temple is. She simpers, she searches for her key light to be never anything but as attractive as possible, she tries to convey adolescent feistiness, but her line readings are monotonously alike, and she has no inner life. Nor is it wise to pair her with then-husband John Agar, in what's essentially the Tom Drake role; he's as dull as Tom Drake. The script puts the two through some very contrived roadblocks on the road to love, including a hard-to-believe episode of her unintentionally instigating a riot, a harder-to-believe one of him reading a speech of hers out loud and forgetting to change the pronouns, and an unpalatable one of her lying to him about painting his portrait. I wouldn't even root for such a selfish young miss. RKO must have figured, well, she's Shirley Temple, the audience will be on her side no matter what. I wasn't, and while the denouement is rushed to the point of incoherence, I wasn't sorry to see this one end.

It is beautifully filmed by Robert de Grasse. And Robert Young's character is appealing and even admirable. This seems like a dry run for his most famous role, the title character in "Father Knows Best." Here he is a father in two ways: He has children, including Shirley Temple. And he is an Episcopal priest (under consideration for Bishop of his Diocese.) Shirley Temple is the main character. She is meant to be saucy and ahead of her time. But she's very hard to like. The escapade in which her boyfriend, John Agar, borrows a speech from her for a debating contest isn't admirable. And right here, it's hard to imagine that a priest would laugh off his daughter's involvement in such dishonesty.Then she paints Agar. She promises she will just use his body as a starting point -- no face. But the painting is exhibited in a show and everyone sees that she has painted him in a bathing suit. That would have been extremely risqué for 1905. What would be the equivalent 101 years later? Something on the Internet or in an X-rated video.All this while her father is being considered for Bishop. I wonder what Christopher Isherwood's original story was like. Maybe she was a forerunner to Sally Bowles. Here, however, she is sullen, pampered, and selfish.