Captain January (1936)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Excellent but underrated film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A fairly simple plot, with a good dose of singing and dancing. Captain January(Guy Kibbee) has been living at his Cape Tempest, Maine,lighthouse with Shirley for 4 years, since her parents died in a boat accident nearby. Now, their happy life is threatened by two recent developments: 1)the replacement of a lenient district truant officer with a very strict one, full of herself, who wants to require Shirley to go to school and January to formally adopt Shirley or give her up.2)The upcoming obsolescence of January's job due to replacement by an automatic lighthouse light.Sara Hayden did a superb job of playing the one villain: the nasty, if thorough, truant officer, Miss Morgan. In comparison, June Lang, as the kind schoolteacher and Jane Darwell, as the widow with ambition to become Mrs. January, had easy conventional roles. June would return the next year, as Shirley's widowed mother, in "Wee Willie Winkie". Jane played a subsidiary role in 5 of Shirley's films.. Guy Kibbee(January) was borrowed from Warner, while Buddy Ebsen was borrowed from MGM.The central problem of a prospective jobless and Shirleyless January appears to have a solution in the end. Shirley's discovered relatives hire January to captain their large yacht, with Shirley aboard. In addition, Captain Nazro is hired as first mate, Ebsen as the seaman and Jane Darwell as cook.(What happened to the crew they had when they arrived?). We still seemingly have the problem of Shirley's truancy.Turning to the music: Shirley starts things off with "The Early Birds", as she is awakening. Next, Ebsen dances to "The Sailor's Hornpipe". Then, Shirley starts off with "The Codfish Bowl", with Ebsen later joining in, dancing around the wharf area with Shirley. Many people consider this the highlight of the film. Then, after Shirley dawns a fancy dress, she and Captains January and Nazro informally sing an opera from "Lucia di Lammermore". Then, Shirley has a strange daydream in which she sings the ballad "The Right Somebody for Me". A chorus takes over while she is feeding January, who is in the form of a huge baby in baby clothes. Later, she again sings this song to her favorite doll, which she claims looks rather like her deceased mother. Finally, a reprise of "The Codfish Bowl" by Shirley and the two captains, while aboard the yacht.

CAPTAIN January (Fox, 1936), directed by David Butler, is prime Shirley Temple in a formula story about an orphan named Star who is being raised by Captain January (Guy Kibbee), a crusty old lighthouse keeper of Cape Tempest, Maine, after being rescued from a shipwreck that has drowned both her parents four years ago. All goes well until Agatha Morgan (Sara Haden), a new tyrant officer from Salem, who feels that the child isn't being reared properly, makes arrangements to take the child away from him and have her placed in an institution.Based on the story by Laura E. Richards, CAPTAIN January is an updated reworking to an earlier 1924 Principal Pictures 1924 silent version starring Baby Peggy, Hobart Bosworth and Irene Rich. As much as this new adaptation has the makings of a straight drama, due to Temple's musical talents, and the support of a young hoofer named Buddy Ebsen (on loan from MGM), song numbers were inserted to give it some added sparkle. With the score by Lew Pollack, Sidney Mitchell and Jack Yellen, songs include: "Early Bird" (sung by Shirley Temple); "The Codfish Bowl" (sung and danced by Temple with Buddy Ebsen); a portion from "Lucia di Lammermoor" (an opera by Gaetana Donizetti, performed by Temple, Guy Kibbee and Slim Summerville) "The Right Somebody to Love" (sung by Temple/ and unseen chorus during dream sequence); "The Right Somebody to Love" (reprise by Temple) and "The Codfish Bowl" (sung by Temple, Kibbee and Summerville). With the exception of a dream sequence, where singing is possible, all the other song numbers are inserted the story, with the music played by an off-screen orchestra right on cue. For the fade-in, it's morning and Kibbee places a record player into Temple's bedroom. Temple awakens, stretches her arms into the air and looking straight into the camera starts singing the opening lyrics of "Good Morning" which begins her opening number of "Early Bird." She dances her way to the bathroom where she changes into her sailor clothes, and occasionally continues to look her way towards the camera as she brushes her teeth. A little fake, but not as imaginative as her next number, "The Codfish Bowl," displaying the dancing talents of both Temple and Buddy Ebsen. This is performed on the dock surrounded by loafing seamen playing a harmonica and according before the hi-fi off-screen orchestration sets in. A show stopper that's regrettable in not having Ebsen and Temple performing another one for an encore. Also in the cast are Jerry Tucker (Cyril Morgan); Nella Walker (Mary Mason); George Irving (John Mason); Harry Hayden(Ira J. Slocum(; and James Farley(The Deputy Sheriff).While 20th Century-Fox might have used some of its own resident lovable old coots as Claude Gillingwater Sr., playing Captain January, for example, the studio used Guy Kibbee from Warner Brothers, who, in the final product, proved to be the logical choice. Kibbee also makes a memorable over-sized baby with a bib sitting in the high chair in an amusing dream sequence with Temple acting as his nursemaid.Aside from some melodramatic scenes, including Temple crying for "Cap" as she is being being taken away by the officers after losing his position as lighthouse keeper, CAPTAIN January is equipped with amusements, the best being the exchanges between Guy Kibbee and the underrated Slim Summerville as Captain Nazro, January's best friend, along with the middle-aged Eliza Croft (Jane Darwell), a rich widow woman after the affections of January. Buddy Ebsen, years before immortalized on television as Jed Clampett in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES (1962-1971), supports as the loafer with a talent for dancing who finds companionship with the local school teacher named Mary (June Lang). Their characters are essential to the plot, but both have little to do. The story relatively belongs to the trio of Temple, Kibbee and Summerville. Temple, who rarely gets a chance to share screen time with another child actor of equal age status, does so this time with Cyril Morgan (Jerry Tucker), a precocious but obnoxious little boy with whom she finds she has to compete in an entrance exam to enter the third grade. It so happens that Cyril happens to be the nephew of the woman who wants to take Star away from January. As much as the boy keeps telling Star that she knows nothing, this equally precocious little girl eventually displays how much she does know and more.CAPTAIN January, at 76 minutes, was one of the handful of feature films displayed in 1989 on Playhouse Video, a division of CBS/Fox Video, as part of the Shirley Temple collection. With video transfer satisfactory, most important, it's complete, with the restoration of the closing cast credits to the underscoring to "The Codfish Bowl", usually cut from TV prints. In some local television markets (particulary the New York City area prior to 1976), the closing cast credits was substituted with a NTA (National Television Association) logo. When the Disney Cable Channel presented Shirley Temple movies in the early 1990s, all of which were colorized, the closing cast credits were included while prints for American Movie Classics (1996-2001) and later, the Fox Movie Channel, in the original black and white format, eliminated the closing credits with an insertion of a THE END title card taken from another movie. FMC later had the closing credits restored. While the Shirley Temple collection from Playhouse Video has been out of print, CAPTAIN January can also found colorized in both the VHS and DVD format.Regardless of format CAPTAIN January, is recommended viewing for adults and youngsters alike, especially those who endure themselves with old-fashioned screen entertainment equipped with comedy, songs and a touch sentiment combined. (**1/2)

Maybe the best all-around movie of Shirley's career in terms of the acting of the entire ensemble and a well-constructed script. Shirley tugs at your heartstrings, of course, but the story never strikes a false note. And some of the scenes of the lighthouse are magnificent. Watch this one with the entire family.

I have loved this movie since I first saw it in 1984. My favorite Temple flick. It is a good story and quite typical of the Shirley Temple movies of the time, but what stands out to me is the songs and innocence of the period.