Paddy O’Day (1935) is about an illegal immigrant we don’t have the heart to send back.  Maybe it’s because she sings and has a puppy. Maybe because mainstream America was a generation or two closer to the immigrant experience, where Ellis Island represented both the dreams, and the deepest fears of the immigrant, and so our understanding and compassion was deeper. We may muse with chagrin and raised eyebrows that such a lighthearted and fanciful movie flies in the face of one of the most contentious political issues of current times.

Jane Withers, a little Irish girl who is slated to be sent back to Ireland, takes matters into her own hands by sneaking into the U.S. illegally by hiding in a milk can. A multi-talented youngster, she was nine years old when this movie was made, and already a veteran of a dozen films. Most recall her as the brat tormenting Shirley Temple in Bright Eyes (1934), but she had no less an important career over at 20th Century Fox as another feisty Depression kid. Though her fame generated its own line of merchandising, as did Shirley’s, Jane never reached quite the heights of stardom that the moppet with the golden curls did.

Shirley’s talent was prodigious, and she was a hard act to follow. But Jane Withers had a better singing voice, was just as fine a dancer, could mimic and do accents where Shirley did not, and most especially, despite bursts of mugging, had a larger acting range and a quality of being “in the moment.”

We meet the little Irish lass, Paddy O’Day in steerage on a ship to the U.S. She sings “With a Twinkle in Your Eye,” complete with accent. The wretched refuse of many teeming shores are dressed in native costume and singing native songs, among them Rita Cansino, who plays a Russian girl traveling with her mother and father, of course, called Momushka and Popushka.

Rita performs a spirited Russian dance. She would make a few more movies before she became Rita Hayworth — the red-haired sex symbol came later under Columbia. She and her parents, Momushka and Popushka take little Paddy under their wing, for the Irish girl is traveling alone. Paddy’s mother, working as a servant in a wealthy household on Long Island, will meet her at Ellis Island.

Tragically, little Jane’s mother is not there to meet her, because she has recently died, and with no one to claim her, Jane will be sent back to the old country.

But she escapes the watchful eye of the immigration officer, played by Francis Ford. Paddy arrives at her mother’s workplace — not knowing she has died. Jane Darwell, kindly cook, breaks the bad news. She and the other servants convince the dour butler, Russell Simpson, to let the girl stay until they can figure out what to do.

A pair of fussy old ladies lives in this mansion with their studious, mild-mannered and somewhat vague nephew, played by Pinky Tomlin. Tomlin had appeared in a few minor films, but his main gig was as a bandleader and composer.

Rita and her family, now including a boisterous uncle who runs a café in New York, played with aplomb by George Givot, want to help keep her in the country. It is agreed she will stay with her Russian pals and work for Uncle as a performer. George Givot, a bullying impresario, mangles English with delightfully silly malapropos. Jane, dressed up like a little Russian doll with painted cheeks sings, “I Like a Balalaika.”

The aunties and the immigration officer are hot on the trail, but Pinky Tomlin and Rita decide to marry and adopt Jane, which will keep her here for good. A WASP dad, a Russian immigrant mom, and loudmouth Uncle George. What little Irish lass could ask for anything more?

Jane Withers forged a special bond of friendship with the shy young woman who would come to be known as Rita Hayworth. Rita, 16 years old, was nervous on the set. Jane, nine years old, felt protective of her. Before the cameras rolled, Jane held Rita’s hand and said a prayer to comfort her.

Decades later, in 1987, when Rita Hayworth died, Jane was asked to deliver the eulogy at her funeral. She repeated on that occasion the prayer she said while holding Rita’s hand on the set of Paddy O’Day: “Lord, this is Rita and she’s afraid…Please be with her because she’s special.”

Jane Withers is pretty special too.

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time: Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century, available online at Amazon, CreateSpace, and the author. Website: www.JacquelineTLynch.com.