Before Charles Laughton would cast five-year-old Sally Jane for the role of little Pearl Harper in his thriller classic The Night of the Hunter, she was already considered a veteran of TV, radio, and such films as Kids Will Be Kids (aka Mischief Makers or Best Dog Wins as the working title of this 1954 16 minute short film by Jules White was also known).
According to an United Artists press release, mentioned in Preston Neal Jones' documentary book on the shooting of The Night of the Hunter: "... she got her big break by singing with a full orchestra for a contest sponsored by a Los Angeles newspaper. Winning that competition led to her first role in a Joan Davis comedy, and ultimately to the attention of (producer) Paul Gregory".
Laughton later told Davis Grubb, the original author of the story, that he found little Sally Jane to be "a repulsive, little insensitive pie-faced 'teacher’s pet'" — and yet, this was precisely why he cast her as Pearl.
Read more about this topic: Sally Jane Bruce
Famous quotes containing the word night:
“Were I laid on Greenland’s Coast,
And in my Arms embrac’d my Lass;
Warm amidst eternal Frost,
Too soon the Half Year’s Night would pass.”
—John Gay (1685–1732)