Little Miss Roughneck (1938)

Talented 10-year-old singing prodigy Foxine LaRue, who is only slightly less artificial and theatrical than her name, is pushed into vaudeville by her stage mother supreme, Gert LaRue, who is even more artificial and theatrical than her name. Foxine's pretty older sister Mary LaRue makes sacrifices to support the trio. Hollywood agent Al Partridge becomes interested in Mary and takes the family to Hollywood to try to get Foxine into the movies. After several incidents by the rowdy Foxine on the train, and later at International Studios, Foxine is further from being in the movies than she was in New York. Gert decides that a "hoax" kidnapping is just the ticket to get Foxine the publicity to land a studio contract. That night Foxine dresses as a boy, disarranges her room, leaves a "ransom note" and hops a freight train. The police arrive the next morning and hear Mary accuse Al and Gert of staging the kidnapping, and they are arrested. Foxine leaves the train several hundred miles away and takes shelter with the good-natured Pascual Orozco and his family. The arrested pair are released when the police receive another ransom note--sent by Foxine.