clipped from www.time.com That Hagen Girl (Warner) begins as a sociological case history and ends as a soap opera. The case: a wealthy smalltown family smuggles daughter home from somewhere on a night train. The doctor comes and the windows to daughter's room are barred. The town correctly guesses that she is insane. The same train has also brought a middle-aged townswoman and a baby. A few idle words of gossip connect the two events; a little more gossip surmises the parentage of the baby. Suspicion is documented when the middle-aged woman begins to receive a regular "insurance" check, and a young man (Ronald Reagan) who was in love with the sick girl leaves town. When the baby grows up to be Shirley Temple, she finds out why people have always referred to her as "that Hagen girl" and why parents and teachers deal her out of the lead in the high-school play.

There's more and you can read the rest of the review here: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,793937,00.html 

It's interesting to read reviews of older movies from publications of the time.  To get a "current" look of the film even though it is over 60 years later.

I just saw this movie last week, thanks to TCM and the trusty DVR.  While it would never rate as a favorite or as a classic, I didn't feel like I had lost 90 minutes of my life.  In some respects, seeing Temple act opposite Reagen, knowing that her career was starting to spiral downward because people couldn't accept her a growing up, and that Reagen would someday be President is interesting.  But, the story swept me up.  I actually found myself getting involved in the story and while I tried to figure things out, didn't catch the ending coming.  It was a trifle unsatisfying and did strike me was the easy way out.  But, that was Hollywood in 1947.

Reagen always felt this was one of the least liked roles of his career, and it got listed in a 1978 book of the 50 worst films of all time.  Hardly that, but like I said, hardly a classic...

I'm not looking forward to seeing much of anything this year.  There isn't enough money in the world to get me to see any movie with Will Ferrel in it.

Talk about psyched!  There was some material from this on the Batman: Gotham Knight DVD I reviewed recently.  it was quite rough, yet very entertaining...I'm stoked about this release.  Probably as much as I was about Justice League: The New Frontier

EDIT:  Changed to YouTube version....

With the new Batman movie set to debut this weekend, we are in store for another round of Bat-mania, which is only right, I suppose.

DC Direct releases this direct to video Batman film to allow us a glimpse to what happens to him in his early days.  There are a series of 6 vignettes, each by different art teams, with different character designs and different approaches to Batman. 

It's done in a gritty Anime style, and while I like a lot of anime, it's not the best way to sell Batman to kids.  I realize that anime is huge with kids today, and that's great.  However, you probably won't win many converts to your character just by dressing him up in anime clothes if the stories stink.  Solid stories cover up a multitude of sins and this one isn't the best in that department.

For example, the first story ("Have I Got a Story For You") is a riff on a 30 year old Batman story where kids all talk about how they have seen Batman and how each kid sees him differently.  Except for the kid who was waiting on his buds to show at the skate park.  He didn't see Batman until he came crashing through to window, looking nothing like his friends descriptions.  The animated series did a better job of telling this story, so why it was done again is a mystery.

The story "Crossfire" didn't focus on Batman, but he was the 500 lb. gorilla in the corner just the same.  It was a solid story, but again, it's been told before.

Outside of the extreme violence, there wasn't much original here.  Nothing groundbreaking as the original Animated Series, or nothing that makes this must see Batman cartoons.  Which is a shame.

Actually, the one bit that was worth seeing is the preview piece for the Wonder Woman animated movie to be released next spring.  That looked loads better than this tired Batman movie.

Recently, I clicked a link one the profile of one of my Last.fm friends.  It was to her Flixster profile.  I had to create one for myself.  Mainly because I like movies.  I don't adore film, don't consider myself a film buff but I like movies. 

Still, I like to share my opinion on things (Ha! That's a surprise, right?) and movies are fun to talk about.  So, if you are interested in seeing what I think about movies, check out my Fllxster profile.  If you have your own profile, friend me!  (did that sound as pathetic as I think it did?)