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:
“Undershaft: Alcohol is a very necessary article. It heals the sick—Barbara: It does nothing of the sort. Undershaft: Well, it assists the doctor: that is perhaps a less questionable way of putting it. It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)