Too much of everything

i must have seen a different film!!

From my favorite movies..

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In a recent tribute to Shirley Temple by TCM, upon her recent death, this was my favorite of 4 pre-'39 films, including "Heidi". It was also the only one of the 4 I didn't remember seeing in the distant past. I enjoyed it more than the others for several reasons. It has the zaniest story, which some reviewers consider a negative, but I find amusing. Shirley is mostly called by her pet Chinese name Ching-Ching, this story supposedly taking place in several parts of China, or on a ship. Unlike many of her films, there is no real sourpuss(adult or child) that Shirley has to deal with much of the time. The cute and charismatic Alice Faye is often present(as Susan). She gets to sing a couple of Revel-Gordon songs without Shirley.. Then, Shirley is at her most charismatic age as a child star, in my opinion. Non-musical, but personable, Robert Young was borrowed from MGM to serve as the male lead: notorious playboy Tommy Randall. He and Shirley seemed to get along great, the scripted Shirley having a closer relationship with him than with Alice(true in most S.T. films I've seen) Although rotund Eugene Palette is billed high on the player's list, in fact, he had only a small, inconsequential, role. Helen Westley, as the mother of Young's rival(Richard) for the affections of Alice, plays her usual domineering matron role. Arthur Treacher is present at times, in his usual stiff British valet role.The story begins in the apparently mythical Chinese city of Sanchow, situated upstream from Soochow, on the Yangtze. Shirley's foster parent, a missionary, declares that he and Shirley will remain in Sanchow, despite the report that a large bandit army is about to descend on the city. However, Shirley's Chinese friend, sun lo, arranged for a friend, Chang, to take her by sampan, down the Yangtze, to stay with his brother in Shanghai. But upon arrival, Chang steals Shirley's purse so he can participate in a gambling game, and disappears. So, with her Pekinese: Mr. Woo, she wanders around the wharf area, until she spies Young, trying to communicate with a shopkeeper about a purchase, Shirley translates his want and saves him some money. So, they become acquainted, and Shirley gets a ride in his open car, he stopping to visit a friend. While she waits in the car, a shower passes, causing her to transfer to the trunk, which she closes and falls asleep. Soon, the car is loaded onto a ship for Hong Kong and beyond. Thus, she is an accidental stowaway, eventually hiding in the room occupied by Alice and her mother-in-law-to-be. This eventually leads to the meeting of Alice and 'Uncle Tommy'(Young), relating to Shirley. Despite Alice being engaged to another man(Richard Hope),she responds somewhat to Young's romantic overtures, and they dance lightly while she sings the love song "Goodnight My Love", previously sung by Shirley as she is drifting off to sleep.. Richard boards the ship at Hong Kong, and friction between the two men begins when Hope discovers the dalliance with his fiancé, which the duo ascribe to their common interest in the welfare of Shirley.Later, Alice decides to cancel her planned wedding when she discovers what a mama's boy her fiancé is, and that mama plans to live with them. Meanwhile, Young gets news that Shirley's missionary father was killed in the bandit raid. He wants to adopt Shirley to prevent her being sent to a Shanghai orphanage. But, as a bachelor, Young can't legally qualify. Thus, he finally arm-twists Alice into marrying him, so they can adopt Shirley, with the understanding that Alice can then go to Reno for a divorce, if she doesn't want to stay married to the wealthy, but playboy, Young character. Shirley is very happy at this news, as Young and Alice seem like her fantasy new parents.Well, Alice decides to go through with the divorce in Reno, with her old boyfriend, Hope, waiting in the wings, promising to dump his mother, if Alice will take him back. But the judge(played by Edward Bromberg), after taking a look at the duo of Young and Shirley, decides to have a private talk with Shirley, who obviously tells him she doesn't want her new parents to split. The judge has Shirley take the stand, after coaching her what to say in response to his questions. However, at one point, she says 'holy macaroni' for 'holy matrimony', thus clearly exposing her act. Nonetheless, the judge rules against the grounds for divorce, and the threesome have a happy Christmas, with Shirley singing "That's What I Want for Christmas": quite a catchy tune, with its depression-era appropriate lyrics, not always clearly enunciated by Shirley. The gifted lyricist Irving Caesar Irving did the lyrics to this, as well as Shirley's signature song "Animal Crackers in My Soup" While the ship is docked in Hong Kong, Shirley has a stage performance, in which the audience members are invited to go on stage and give a performance. She follows oriental Sammee Tong's imitation of Bing Crosby's singing style, with "You Gotta S-M-I-L-E to be H-A-double P-Y". She does stage impressions of Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, then danced with a dummy, supposedly representing Fred Astaire.

Ms. Temple is an adorable orphan whose missionary parents were killed as the result of the attack on their Chinese town by a group of bandits. Now her foster parents are at risk too but refuse to let Shirley's Chinese pal (Phillip Ahn) take her to safety. He does anyway, but when she believes he's abandoned her, she leaves their boat to find food. Instead, she encounters wealthy American Robert Young who falls under her spell and takes her out to lunch. She falls asleep in the back seat of his car, and wakes up to find herself inside the car on a cruise liner. Reports of stowaways frighten her, and she hides in the suite of wealthy American matron Helen Westley and her daughter-in-law to be (Alice Faye). Young and Faye are introduced and Westley summons her son out of suspicions regarding Ms. Faye. Will Shirley get the more appealing couple of Young and Faye together? While pleasant overall, I found the movie to be slightly disappointing over the idea that Young's fake marriage to Faye in order to adopt Shirley then divorce would be the ideal way to save Shirley from another orphanage. Shirley has a pleasant musical number, "You've got to be H-A-Double P-Y" while imitating Jolson, Eddie Cantor and dancing to the song with a Fred Astaire dummy while impersonating Ginger Rogers. Faye, taken out of those Jean Harlow roles she was doing in such films as "George White's Scandals" and "King of Burlesque", sings a few songs too, but lacks the vigor of other roles she had before and after. Westley plays a most unpleasant character, even more aggravating than her still lovable Parthy in "Show Boat". Arthur Treacher is amusing in his typecast role of suave playboy Young's butler, while raspy-voiced Eugene Palette is wasted as Young's constantly wasted friend.

I had been living in China about a year, when I saw this DVD. (It's a very popular title in the People's Republic: there are original dialog versions, Chinese dubbed versions, colorized versions, even a sing-along version where you follow the lyrics as Shirley or Alice Faye warble.I was humbled that a 7-year-old, under the tutelage of a Mandarin coach, could get her mouth and lips around some of the words she was using. She spoke pretty good Chinese!! Much better than mine was after living for 12 months in the country.Aside from that, *Stowaway* is a good product of the studio system. The tunes are hummable; Alice Faye is gorgeous and has the dreamiest contralto voice; Eugene Palette is gruff yet lovable; the plot twists are fun. Plus there's a little darkness in it, because Shirley is orphaned and then abandoned after her money is stolen from her. So the first reel is anything but sweetness and light.A fun movie.

Shirley Temple was, deservedly, the most famous child star ever. She was a natural, endearing actress, with little of the cloying "cuteness" that afflicted so many of her contemporaries (Jane Withers, Darla Hood, e.g.), and an amazingly talented singer/dancer. Normally I don't mind her movies all that much, and a few ("Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm", for example) I even find enjoyable. However, something went wrong here.It's hard to put a finger on exactly who or what to blame. William A. Seiter was a first-rate comedy/musical director; Nat Perrin was a top comedy writer who wrote for, among others, the Marx Brothers; Robert Young and Alice Faye were solid actors who were more than capable of carrying a picture by themselves. However, absolutely nothing works in this picture. The story (for lack of a better word) is so far out it should be classified as science fiction. Shirley is a street kid nicknamed "Ching-Ching" (!) who befriends Robert Young in China; the two of them wind up on a cruise ship to Hong Kong and Singapore, where Young meets Alice Faye, who is aboard with her fiance's mother. The fiance, as played by Allan "Rocky" Lane--a future Republic Pictures cowboy star--is a wealthy banker who has a mother fixation that would shame Cliff Claven. The film is so full of embarrassing moments it's difficult to pick out just one. Shirley's spouting of witless "Chinese proverbs" at every conceivable opportunity is infuriating; there is a jaw-dropping scene at a Hong Kong version of "The Gong Show" where a Chinese singer does Bing Crosby impressions, and Shirley gets on stage and dances with a life-size (for her) doll that is attached to her shoes. To make a long and idiotic story short, Alice dumps her fiance, she and Young agree to get married so Young can adopt Shirley, then they will go to Reno to get a divorce; however, after the marriage, when they arrive in Reno, Shirley manages to persuade the presiding judge (and Young and Faye) that they actually love each other and should stay married.There. I've saved you the trouble of sitting through this. You're welcome.