The film was okay up until the last quarter of the film where they start establishing a bond between Midge and Shoo Shoo that has a hint of romance to it.

They made O'Brien who was a pre-teen at the time physically appealing to this woman named Shoo Shoo. They had her sneak into a bar to watch her performance with nobody being wary about a child being in the bar and forced her and Shoo Shoo to develop a shallow romance and what disgusts me is that this is between a grown woman and a young child. I mean, I guess I kind of understand that they want to bond and connect to each other because they're potentially going to be mother and child but I still find this romance and Midge's sneaky behavior inappropriate. And yes, I get it, it has a lot of romance in it and it's about family but it's not much of a romance film.

As for my problems with the earlier parts of the film, there is one major problem I had, I didn't like the parts where they have boys messing with Midge for reasons out of her control yet they barely do anything about this. There could've been a positive message about coming to accept others instead of bullying them but that unfortunately doesn't become the centerpoint of the film and thus, the boy has a fairly shallow redemption character arc and this is because he has too little screentime in the film.

It's a disappointing film which is quite a waste of talent from the sweet, talented Margaret O'Brien on a shallow screenplay and somewhat poor direction.