Exoticalot
People are voting emotionally.
Tacticalin
An absolute waste of money
Taraparain
Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Tad Pole
. . . then it must be true. I recently saw a snippet of an one of Ms. Mazetta's interviews on TCM or someplace similar, in which she said she'd totally "forgotten" recording this Vitaphone short (#809) for Warner Brothers (in 1929), and was "blown away" by how "good" a singer she was as a child when billed here as BABY ROSE MARIE THE CHILD WONDER. I'm sure there's a Shirley Temple fan out in the wilderness someone who would carp that Ms. Temple could dance and act as well as sing (some renegade might even claim Shirley was CUTER and sang BETTER), but let's look at the objective, quantifiable facts: Rose Marie has 74 acting credits, and Shirley has just 61 (about 20% FEWER). Furthermore, IMDb reveals Rose Marie is important enough to appear as herself on 89 segments of shows and documentaries of sufficient significance to be archived in their annals, while Shirley is ONLY ONE\THIRD as relevant to entertainment history as of today, with just 30 such credits as herself. The clincher is this widely-held notion that Shirley couldn't hack it in Hollywood when she left her teen years (requiring a taxpayer-subsidized government job apparently awarded to her through the pity of one of her die-hard fans who was a D.C. muckety-muck), while Rose Marie has been blessed with enough talent to have had an 80-year-long career supporting herself via show business WITHOUT REACHING INTO UNCLE SAM'S POCKET. How'd you like them apples, Shirley?
Michael_Elliott
Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder (1929) *** (out of 4) Baby Rose Marie isn't a name that many are going to know today but back in the day she was certainly one of the most loved people in the business. This 9-minute short has her singing three songs and even though the technical quality of the film isn't very high you can at least see why so many people loved her. She sings Who Wouldn't Be Jealous Of You, Don't Be Like That and Heigh Ho Everybody Heigh Ho. All three songs are sung incredibly well and she really has a terrific delivery that makes you want to hear more from her. She does a little dancing too but most of the shots are close or medium shots so you really can't see too much. The technical side of things aren't that impressive as it seems like the footage was shot in just one take and there's really nothing overly special in terms of cinematography or direction. With that said, the main reason to check this out is for Marie and she certainly comes off incredibly charming.
MartinHafer
An early Vitaphone film, this Warner Brothers short apparently was one created using a very complicated system through which an accompanying record was synchronized with a movie camera. There were several serious setbacks for such a system (such as if a film skipped--it became out of sync for the rest of the film plus the records quickly wore out--and 20 showings was the normal life-span of the records) and even though it produced excellent sound, it was eventually replaced. The last of the Vitaphone films were made in 1930, then the studio switched to the standard sound-on-film system.Rose Marie (of "Dick Van Dyke Show" fame) is given the spotlight in this short. Watching her, it's hard to imagine that this poised professional was only 6 years-old at the time! Her parents must have kept her in a cage, beaten her and fed her mind-altering drugs to make her perform like this!! I am kidding of course, but she was a truly amazing child singer--as amazing as Shirley Temple but perhaps too early to catch on with the same intensity with the American public. With only a couple childhood screen credits to her name, she made a bigger splash on stage as well as her memorable TV roles as an adult.Now I would NOT want a steady diet of Baby Rose Marie's singing, she was wonderful in this short. Great singing and charming from start to finish--and better than just about all the adult acts I've seen in the Vitaphone shorts! Watch this one!
msladysoul
I have to admit, Rose Marie had a great voice for a child of her age. She looked like a little woman with her Louise Brooks hairstyle. She really had a great voice, a great stage presence. Boy, she would of been big rival for Shirley Temple in the 1930s. I got to see this and record it in full, I have a habit now of recording TCM shorts when I see One Reel Wonders, because they always show good musical shorts. I enjoyed this. Young kids need to see this today, to learn how to perform, Rose Marie and other children of that time knew how to perform, Rose Marie singed like an adult and performed like one. We don't see them like this anymore.
