Margaret O'Brien

[Rita Hayworth]

Was Margret O'Brien was a competitor and/or threat to Shirley Temple's career? ... I read this thread twice in the past few days and wondering about that. I never, ever heard of her ... until now.

This inquiring mind would like to know? ... Thanks!

[Lzcutter]

She's one of the best actors in Meet Me in St. Louis. Her portrayal of Tootie proves what a scene stealer she could be. She stole scenes from darn near every actor in that film including Judy, Chill Wills, Marjorie Main, Mary Astor and Leon Ames, etc.

Shirley was about ten years older than Margaret and was on her way to teen roles by the time that Margaret broke through.

[moira finnie]

Was Margret O'Brien was a competitor and/or threat to Shirley Temple's career?

Hi King,
I wouldn't say that they were competitors in any real sense because their styles and periods of stardom were so different. Temple really ruled Hollywood in the '30s as the top box-office draw four years in a row. On a somewhat smaller scale, O'Brien did well too, being named as the top box-office draw for two years in the '40s, though the war and the scale of the movie business had changed the landscape in that period.

I do like Shirley Temple and her plucky, "smiling-through" Depression era image very much. It is great fun to see Shirley be a kind of cinematic "dea ex machina," changing others for the better just by being her indomitable self. However, Temple's cherubic image on screen was quite different from the plainer O'Brien's, with the perfectly coiffed Shirley straightening out the cranky adults in most of her movies. It was Shirley who guided the grownups for the most part, bringing out their best selves, as she did in everything from keeping Gary Cooper & Carole Lombard from a life of crime in Now and Forever (1934) to preventing war between Cesar Romero and C. Aubrey Smith in India in Wee Willie Winkie (1937). Sometimes Shirley was a victim for a time (Heidi and The Little Princess, for example), but her inner joy and pluckiness magically transformed both the children* and adults she encountered, even in those films.

Margaret, who looked more like an average girl with her tiny face and dark braided hair, portrayed strength and spirit in her roles too, and had an abundance of charm and some musical ability. However, her characters, who can still seem fairly modern even now, could actually be overwhelmed by the increasingly dangerous world around them, which is not something that occurred to Temple's on-screen characters for long. Shirley's kids (often orphans or being raised in a single parent home), usually found their own way to overcome circumstances. In contrast, O'Brien's movies seem more realistic and her characters have more shading, at least for me. In the powerful film about children during the Blitz that catapulted Margaret to stardom, Journey For Margaret, she is a child who is almost semi-catatonic thanks to the bombs in London at the time. Her portrayals of kids could also show that she could do wrong and change her attitudes, not just those of the adults around her. For example, even though she was undeniably a cute kid who was basically good, she was sometimes a liar (Meet Me in St. Louis), she could be selfish ( Our Vines Have Tender Grapes), and she was sometimes a real brat--an aspect of her character that usually reflected some fear (as in The Secret Garden). As the consequences of these actions were depicted, they could help to transform the perception of the adults around her, but these stories also showed how Margaret's characters were beginning to grow up in a more realistic way on film.

Both child actors also had to deal with the same issue as their careers went on: formulaic plots that in their weaker vehicles played up their capacity for tears and mirth too much at times--especially the tears--which sometimes came across as manipulative and mechanical rather than heartfelt. I sometimes feel uncomfortable watching them jump through hoops for the camera and feel as though the kid is being exploited, though both seem to have turned out okay as people, (which may be attributable to luck, their own inner strength, and a fortunate "choice" in parents).

Re: Temple vs. O'Brien competition

I do remember hearing about one time when some tension between O'Brien and Temple reportedly became evident. This event was recalled by O'Brien herself during the TCM Private Screenings episode from 2006 when Margaret, along with Dwayne Hickman, Jane Withers, and Dick Moore were featured in a long discussion of their varied experiences as child actors with Robert Osborne.

Ms. O'Brien recalled meeting a pubescent Shirley Temple at a party when young Margaret's star was just rising and Shirley's career was changing forever as she grew up. With some apparent glee, Shirley told Margaret that eating the raw shellfish being served would make her sick. Since she was an impressionable girl, Margaret did become ill. Years later, she and Temple met again socially. Shirley, by then happily married, a mother and a woman who would go on to public service in several diplomatic roles, quietly apologized to O'Brien for her remark, explaining that she was jealous of the younger star at the time. Accepting her legendary "rival"'s apology and having been through similar experiences since then, O'Brien and Temple reconciled and understood what each other had been experiencing at the time.

I agree with what Lynn said about Tootie in Meet Me in St. Louis and find it especially enjoyable to see O'Brien share scenes with such great character actors. The entire Halloween sequence in that movie is one of the most vivid depictions of the imaginative power of a child's POV that ever came out of Hollywood.



_____________________
*Except for Jane Withers, who was absolutely hilarious as the mirror image of Shirley in Bright Eyes (1934). How I wish the two of them could have made more movies together. I still crack up whenever I see Jane beating up her dolly saying "Bad baby, bad baby!" in that movie as Shirley looks on, more than a bit non-plussed by Jane's fiendish maternal instincts being displayed!

[Rita Hayworth]

Thanks Lzcutter and Moirafinnie for insight perspective on Margaret O'Brien and especially double to you Moira for that nice long rundown of both O'Brien and Temple career's perspectives ... I appreciate that!