Ginger (1935): Jane Withers is a force of nature

Is this worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s sentimentality that occasionally gets sharp, sure. You’ll love it if you like watching a kid actor actually have some grit instead of just being a polished doll. You’ll probably hate it if you can’t stand moralizing social workers or those classic 'rich people learn a lesson' plots.

I sat down with Ginger thinking it would be another one of those sugary, forgettable flicks from the mid-30s. Honestly, it mostly is. But then Jane Withers shows up.

She has this way of looking at the camera that says she’s already bored with the script. It’s refreshing. She’s taking care of her foster-uncle Rexford, who’s basically a walking hangover of an actor, and she does it with a weirdly grown-up exhaustion.

Then the meddling happens. It’s always a meddling do-gooder in these stories, isn't it? Suddenly she’s tossed into a fancy home with Hamilton, a boy who clearly hasn't heard the word 'no' since he was in diapers.

The clashes are exactly what you’d expect. A lot of shouting. A lot of slamming doors. But there’s a moment in the kitchen where the framing feels oddly claustrophobic, like the director just wanted to get it over with. It works, though. It makes their arguments feel messier.

I found myself thinking about Mary Jane's Pa while watching this. Both films have that weird, heavy-handed way of dealing with family structures from that era. They both want to fix everything by the time the credits roll, even if the characters seem too broken to actually be 'fixed' in real life.

There is this one scene with the china. You know it’s coming. The kid is going to drop something or break something and everyone will gasp. It happens, but it’s the silence right before the crash that’s actually well-timed.

The pacing is a bit all over the place. Sometimes scenes linger on a reaction shot until it’s borderline uncomfortable. Other times, the plot moves so fast you miss why someone is even angry in the first place.

Maybe it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s got a pulse. Sometimes that’s enough. 🤷‍♂️

Random notes:

• The wallpaper in the Parker house is distracting. Why is it so busy?
• Jane Withers could probably have carried the whole thing without any dialogue.
• The 'do-gooder' character is a total caricature. We get it, she’s annoying.
• I’m still not sure if the uncle is a tragic figure or just a bum. The movie can't decide either.