Now and Forever (1934)

Good movie but grossly overrated

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Blistering performances.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Director: HENRY HATHAWAY. Based on the story Honor Bright by Jack Kirkland, Melville Baker. Screenplay: Vincent Lawrence, Sylvia Thalberg. Camera: Harry Fischbeck. Film editor: Ellsworth Hoagland. Art directors: Hans Dreier, Robert Usher. Song: Larry Morey, Leigh Harline, "The World Owes Me a Living", sung by Shirley Temple. Additional song by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon. Additional music: Rudolph G. Kopp, John Leipold, Karl Hajos. Costumes: Travis Banton. Sound recording; Harold C. Lewis. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Louis D. Lighton. Executive producer: Adolph Zukor.Copyright 29 August 1934 by Paramount Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount, 12 October 1934. U.S. release: 31 August 1934. U.K. release: 30 March 1935. Sydney release at the Prince Edward (on a double bill with Cary Grant's Kiss and. Make Up), 5 January 1935 (ran 3 weeks). 9 reels. 81 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Callous jewel thief (Cooper, would you believe?) tries to sell his motherless child to his brother-in-law for $75,000.NOTES: Academy Award to Shirley Temple for her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment in 1934. Originally, Stephen Roberts was assigned to direct, and Claudette Colbert was announced for the Lombard role.COMMENT: Now and Forever is exactly how long this talking bore of a film seems to last. Admittedly, it opens promisingly. Cooper and Lombard are a pair of confidence crooks. Even though they talk too much, we are fascinated by the ingenious way in which Coop swindles the Shanghai Hotel out of his bill. But the story then becomes increasingly slight and banal. Almost nothing happens as soon as Miss Temple enters (about 15 minutes in). The characters just sit around and talk, talk, talk. When a bit of action finally does come along, it is the most tamely staged in all of Hathaway's films.Although the picture is set in Shanghai and Paris, there is no location work except for a brief sequence on a lake.Hathaway has stated that he pays close attention to acting. This we doubt. In nearly all his movies, there are performances that seem strained and amateurish. (Perhaps because of a lack of rapport?) In this film, I would single out Shirley Temple and Gary Cooper. She just rattles off her lines like a well-trained parrot, while his naturally slow delivery is even more expressionless than usual. Even a talented player like Carole Lombard can give little animation to her routinely conventional role. Sir Guy Standing is similarly hamstrung. Although he plays in his customary hearty manner, his characterization seems shallow and superficial. Charlotte Granville is okay in a part in which Alison Skipworth would have been preferable. Other roles are small, but competently played. Miss Temple has one song. She puts it across with enthusiasm, if little talent. (Hathaway doesn't think too highly of her vocal ability either, as he breaks into the middle of the song with a scene off- stage.)Although production values are very moderate, photography and sets are attractive. Other credits are okay, though Miss Lombard is saddled with some ridiculous costumes. OTHER VIEWS; Shirley Temple is such a charmer that she makes even a sludgy script pleasant-going. I also enjoyed Sir Guy Standing as a self-confessed rat and Charlotte Granville as a typical Hollywood bejeweled Jessie Ralph matron. Cooper and Lombard are both sufficiently adroit and charismatic to overcome the wearisome banalities of much of their dialogue."Now and Forever" is beautifully photographed and set. Not a typical Hathaway movie by any means, but very competently directed. All the same, it's true that Hathaway only sparks into real life during the action bits — particularly in the smooth piece of camera-work with which he interrupts Shirley's song, which continues off while Coop steals the necklace, then back to Shirley for the delightful last verse. — JHR writing as George Addison.

I recently discovered that I enjoy Shirley Temple movies and I have been looking for them wherever I can find them. I came across one on YouTube and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. This movie has not been seen as often as other Shirley Temple films because it is NOT a Shirley Temple film, it is a Gary Cooper/Carole Lombard movie that also stars Shirley Temple. I thought that the performances were outstanding and both the script and the actors did a fine job of developing the characters. We get a thorough idea of what sort of man Jerry Day (Cooper) is right away, a crook but not a black-hearted one. He takes advantage of others but doesn't really hurt anyone. Toni (Lombard), his wife, enjoys their lifestyle hopping from place to place staying just a step or two ahead of the authorities. She doesn't actively participate in his illegal actions, but benefits from them, so she stays with him despite her misgivings. She finally decides to part ways with him over his very callous attitude toward his daughter Penny (Temple), who is living with the brother of his deceased wife in the U.S. He goes to Connecticutt and at first attempts to get $75,000 for giving up his rights to her. However, he meets and spends some time with her and discovers she is pretty and imaginative (chasing pirates with her invisible friend Mr. Cosgrove) and on the spur of the moment decides to take her with him. Penny meets Toni in Paris and is at first not too taken with her, but they grow on each other. They establish themselves as a family in Paris and Toni convinces Jerry to stop his con-man ways. So he gets a job in a real estate office that only pays $35 a week. After a while this pittance is not enough so he meets up with a jewel thief named Felix Evans who convinces him to steal a valuable necklace from Mrs Crane, a wealthy elderly woman who has been very kind to them. He does, but before Evans fences the jewels Penny discovers them hidden in her Teddy Bear and realizes her father is a thief - AFTER he promised "honor bright" that he didn't take them. Her reaction breaks his heart and when he tries to retrieve them from Evans, they shoot each other. The jewels are returned, but Jerry is convinced he will die from his injuries (and that he deserves to), so he arranges with Mrs. Crane to adopt Penny and sends her off to an expensive boarding school. In the end, Toni calls for a doctor, the gunshot wound triggers a police investigation, and when the movie ends Jerry lives but is ready to go off to prison and Toni stands by her man.It was 1934 and still early in the careers of both Cooper and Lombard but they were already stars when this film was made. Temple was just starting out, so I am surprised that she received third billing on the title card. Despite her inexperience, Shirley's acting in this film is remarkable, especially considering she was only six years old at the time! I have read criticisms of the plot holes and the acting of both Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard. I believe that reviewers who point fingers at these things are failing to take into account that the actors were still developing their on- screen personalities. Lombard, for example went on to be most well known for "screwball" comedies and this movie was made before she made that mark. Also, America was still working its way out of the Depression and movies were a cheap way to enjoy some free time. They were made quickly and simply and the scripts were rarely works of art. Other reviewers have commented that they did not like this movie because, unlike all of Shirley's other films, this one doesn't have the usual happy ending. This movie has a dark side to it and was DEFINITELY not made for children. Well I like a bit of variety, and therefore I was very pleasantly surprised by this. I recommend it to fans of any of the actors.

This movie is well worth viewing, if only to see Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard in relatively early roles and to see Shirley Temple in an unusual part before she really peaked in popularity (here she is an incredible SIX years old). This is not a typical Temple film, in that she sings only one song (expertly), but you do get to see her act in a thoroughly convincing way. The supporting players are excellent as well.This is a rather odd movie that can't quite make up its mind what to be...a decidedly downbeat ending that is actually starker than it's presented in some reviews here and a series of rather improbable con jobs that are not dramatically convincing. However, it's a treat to see the incredibly talented Temple, the skillful Carole Lombard, and the totally charming Gary Cooper (who, by the way, sports a very impressive wardrobe throughout, as does Lombard).I watched the colorized version--better than I expected--but would have preferred black and white. See this movie with a "willing suspension of disbelief" and you'll enjoy it as a blast from the long-ago past.

This is a pretty bad movie directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard and Shirley Temple. Cooper plays a thief who is married to Lombard and they are not getting on that well. Cooper finds out he has a daughter, played by Temple, and he winds up keeping her over his relatives objections. Cooper tries to quit being a thief and be a good father but he's in debt and it's the only way he can get the money. Guy Standing offers him one last job but Lombard wants him to quit and Cooper doesn't want Temple to find out. Shirley Temple only sings one song here and it's pretty short and it's hard to see why Cooper or Lombard would want to do this movie.