Curly Top (film) Institute in these lists: Curly Top (film) Curly Top is a 1935 American musical film directed by Irving Cummings. The screenplay by Patterson McNutt and Arthur J. Beckhard focuses on the adoption of a young orphan (Shirley Temple) by a wealthy bachelor (John Boles) and his romantic attraction to her older sister (Rochelle Hudson). Together with "The Littlest Rebel", another Temple vehicle, the film was listed as one of the top box office draws of 1935 by "Variety". The film's musical numbers include "Animal Crackers in My Soup" and "When I Grow Up". This film was the first of four
Top Hat they duly do, in this fragment of a much longer duet – the original was cut after the July 1935 previews – but not before they parade across the Venetian set and reprise the Piccolino step. The film earned $1,782,000 in the US and Canada and $1,420,000 elsewhere. RKO made a profit of $1,325,000, making it the studio's most profitable film of the 1930s. It was the 4th most popular film at the British box office in 1935–36. Reviews for "Top Hat" were mainly positive. The "Los Angeles Evening Herald Express" praised the film, exclaiming ""Top Hat" is the tops!