It must have been awkward to have been a teen actress during World War II, as Judy Garland once sang about it, "In between", not a child, yet not yet a woman, but still blossoming and often awkward. At the age of 18, Jane Withers wasn't really a beauty, but there's a sparkle to her personality to where you can genuinely see why she was so well liked. If lacking the magic of Garland and the wide-eyed boy craziness of the mostly forgotten Marcy McGuire (the first girl to get a kiss from Frank Sinatra on screen), Withers gave it all she had to shine. She was much more successful in her teens than former rival Shirley Temple of "Bright Eyes", and her "Little Miss Fix-It" was less cloying as she got older. Here, she's a happy go lucky teen who can't even sing in the shower without the entire neighborhood stopping by to hear her. Boyfriend Jimmy Lydon has written a musical play he wants professionally produced, and thanks to Withers' exuberant energy, that just might happen. She takes over Franklin Pangborn's drugstore (where she works as a cashier) to give an audition with the entire gang present for alleged producers, but the real producers interested in Lydon's play only want Broadway professionals. When her grandfather (Frank Craven) becomes ill and needs an operation, Lydon makes a decision that seems like a betrayal to all his pals, but with Withers' help, the show might just go on the way Lydon intended to, even if it is WAY off Broadway.
When I first saw this years ago, I felt it rather absurd that Withers would be exactly like the characters Judy Garland played in all those "let's put a show on in a barn" musicals along side Mickey Rooney. Withers' singing of "The Upsy Downsy" isn't exactly "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee", but she does show off a shapely pair of legs and does have the ability to dance. I don't think after seeing that number again along side the other songs Withers sings here that "Upsy Downsy" was played in a comfortable key for Withers, so based upon that discovery, I was able to up my rating to reflect changes in my opinion. The drug store sequence is the stand-out with all sorts of mayhem going on in a brilliantly choreographed way. The mood gets a bit maudlin when the subplot of grandpa Craven's illness is developed, but there certainly was a purpose, and the scenes surrounding that are actually quite touching and well written. This was a reunion for Withers and Lydon after "The Mad Martindales", and this time, he's more than just the pesky neighbor harassing her to be his girl; She is his girl! Typically patriotic as the kids become determined to do their effort for entertaining the troops, this may not be MGM quality, but for a Republic film, it is quite good.
