John Diedrich Movies

Between 1934 and 1940, Shirley Temple was the biggest little star in Hollywood; the curly-headed tyke began doing song-and-dance numbers in one-reel comedies at the age of four, at six years she stole the show in the musical Stand Up and Cheer, and at ten she was the number one box-office attraction in America, and had even taken home a special Oscar. Based on Temple's 1988 autobiography, Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story stars Ashley Rose Orr as the pint-size superstar in a story that concentrates on the sunny side of her rise to fame and soft-peddles allegations that her parents (here played by Connie Britton and Colin Friels) mismanaged the fortune she earned during her years as a pre-teen celebrity. Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story was produced by the mother-and-daughter team of Paula Hart and Melissa Joan Hart; the Harts have their own perspective on life as a youthful celebrity, thanks to Melissa's career as the star of the TV series Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, while Paula's younger daughter (and Melissa's younger sister) Emily Anne Hart appears in the film as the teenaged Shirley Temple. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Australia was a powerhouse in world swimming competitions long before the U.S.'s Mark Spitz was a gleam in his father's eye. Foremost among these sports heroes was high-spirited Dawn Fraser, who won four gold medals at three Olympics (1956, '60 and '64). This clear-sighted biographical drama explores Fraser's life before, during and just after her competitive years. Fraser was forever getting herself into trouble, and she consistently rebelled against authority. Among the many dramatic events which marked her career, she was banned from Australian swimming for 10 years after stealing a flag during the Tokyo ('64) Olympics. The movie underscores her strong family ties and her attachment to Balmain, the working-class suburb of Sydney she grew up in, which makes her later career as a Member of Parliament for the area easier to understand. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Fred Schepsi wrote and directed this tense melodrama which takes place at a Roman Catholic boarding school. The film deals with the charged emotional tensions of a group of pubescent boys, who find their sexual urges stifled by the school's oppressive atmosphere. Depicting the chaste lifestyle of the religious functionaries, the burgeoning sexual desires of the young men are bottled up until they are ready to explode. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi