Stowaway (1936)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

This is still Shirley Temple's film, but the romance between Alice Faye and Robert Young gets lots of time in this film...making it a bit more balanced and not quite as child-oriented as some of Shirley's films.Shirley is...well...Shirley, with her musical highlight being "Goodnight, My Love", with the song being reprised by Alice Faye.Faye is very good here, and Robert Young is excellent. You really do hope they get married! The supporting cast does their jobs -- Helen Westley is suitably unbearable as the potential mother-in-law. Eugene Palette doesn't get much screen time, but his barrel-voice is always welcome. Arthur Treacher also doesn't get much film time, and does better in other Temple films.This is one of the better Temple films, but far from the best. But the balance with a more adult story line makes it quite enjoyable.

Well, Shirley Temple is in Shanghai for this feel-good musical-drama-romance. She is an inadvertent stowaway in this story and even speaks in Chinese quite a bit. In addition she relates a few profound and touching Chinese sayings and does a cute song on stage on the boat.Looking after her are the adults leads: Robert Young (who looks very young in here) and Alice Faye. Also fun to see, speaking of young, is Arthur Treacher, who has some funny lines. There is not a lot of funny material in here but it's a nice film and definite good addition to any Shirley Temple collection. I also saw a colorized edition of this, and they it was one of the better jobs in that regard. It hasn't been issued on DVD yet, but I assume it will since most of films are out on that format by now.

Fleeing from bandit-ridden China, a cute & incredibly precocious little orphan accidentally becomes a STOWAWAY on a luxury liner. Once aboard, she proceeds to charm (nearly) everyone in sight, while working to bring about the marriage of two lonely Americans.Shirley Temple switches on her megawatt smile & captures the viewers' hearts once more in this pleasant, crowd pleasing movie. Amply displaying the charm which made her Hollywood's box office queen for years, Shirley gets to sing, dance, and even speak quite a bit of Chinese.Robert Young & Alice Faye appear as the romantic leads, and they do a good job, but ultimately they are just so much grist for Shirley's mill. Little Miss Temple always found her stiffest acting competition coming from the character performers and this film features some fine examples: Helen Westley as a dreadful mother-in-law in-waiting; wonderful Arthur Treacher as Young's comic butler; Eugene Palette, boisterous as a perpetually inebriated American; Philip Ahn as a faithful friend of Shirley's family; Willie Fung as the negligent boatman who spirits her to Shanghai; J. Edward Bromberg as a no-nonsense judge; and Robert Greig as the kindly ship captain.20th Century Fox obviously pumped a good deal of money into this film and the production values show it. The scenes in China are particularly well done, although the use of rear projection during Shirley's walk near the Shanghai waterfront is all too obvious.Shirley sings 'Goodnight My Love,' 'That's What I Want For Christmas' & 'You've Gotta S-M-I-L-E To Be H-A-double P-Y'. During the performance of this latter song Shirley mimics Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor & Ginger Rogers. Originally, she also impersonated Mae West but that segment was considered too hot and excised.