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Curly Top is a 1935 American musical romantic comedy film starring Shirley Temple, John Boles and Rochelle Hudson.
The same day, all the trustees arrive to inspect the orphanage, including young Edward Morgan, who has inherited his position and some considerable wealth from his late father. Morgan witnesses Elizabeth, accompanied by Mary on the piano, singing "Animal Crackers in My Soup" in the dining hall. Mr. Wycoff berates both Miss Higgins and Mary for allowing this "disorderly conduct", but Mary stands up to him. Morgan is impressed by the sisters' spunk and talent.
After witnessing Elizabeth doing an unflattering impression of him, Mr. Wycoff insists Elizabeth be reform school. Morgan immediately threatens to pull his funding, so Wycoff relents. After a conversation with Elizabeth, who quickly charms him, Morgan asks Miss Denham if he can adopt her, under the guise of being hired to take care of her by the fictitious wealthy benefactor "Hiram Jones". This is because he has seen how the children at the orphanage are constantly forced to express gratitude for the most trivial things, and he does not want Elizabeth to feel she owes him anything. However, when the subject is broached with the Blair sisters, Elizabeth is hesitant to leave Mary, and Mary reveals she made a deathbed promise to her parents to never abandon Elizabeth.
After going home to think it over, Morgan decides to go through with his plan anyway, inviting both the Blair sisters to the summer home of "Mr. Jones" (really his own). There, Elizabeth quickly wins over the stuffy butler Mr. Reynolds, and Morgan's eccentric Aunt Genevieve. Morgan also allows Betsy and Spunky to move in as well, buying a cart so Spunky can pull the sisters around the coast. The newly augmented family spends a wonderful summer together; the sisters also put on a benefit concert to buy playthings for the girls at the Orphanage, as Mr. Wycoff had earlier stated he refused to allow money to be spent on a playground.
Morgan begins to fall in love with Mary, but before he can propose to her, she is proposed to by pilot Jimmie Rogers, one of several young men and women she has been spending time with on the beach. Mistakenly believing Morgan is not interested in her, Mary accepts. Elizabeth, not wanting to move in with Jimmie and accidentally confusing the concepts of adoption and marriage, decides to directly ask Morgan to marry her sister. Mary is mortified when she finds out, but admits she had almost immediately broken her engagement, realizing she liked but did not love Jimmie. Morgan confesses he is the real benefactor of the girls, and he and Mary become engaged, causing a surprised Elizabeth to mimic Mr. Reynold's catchphrase "Oh My Word!"
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