Our Little Girl is a middling Shirley Temple vehicle. Those who are immune to the star's charms will find nothing here to entice them, and those who adore her will find plenty to keep them hooked to the screen. The story is supremely sentimental, meant to tug at the heartstrings and rarely missing the opportunity to do so. But Temple really knows how to play such material, and although her reputation is over-the-top, too cuddly goody-goody, the truth is that she really is a much better performer than that. True, she's mannered at times, but any child of her age would have to be to pull off the demands the screenplay places upon her. And when she's left to her own devices, there's an appealing naturalness to her that does a lot to redeem Girl's writing. As her parents, Joel McCrea and Rosemary Ames are a good pair, even if they have less luck at rising above the material than Temple. As a matter of fact, John Farrell MacDonald as a philosophical tramp is the only adult who manages to master the material, and his short turn is a delight. The direction is average for this kind of film, but there are some shots of the aerial act in the circus, shot from a "net's eye view," that are actually quite impressive.