Customer Reviews

Shirley Temple: America’s Sweetheart Collection, Volume 6 (Stowaway / Young People / Wee Willie Winkie)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Fox continues to release the Temple films without any real extras; this one appears to be no exception. According to the Fox press release, all films have undergone restoration, although "Wee Willie Winkie" is the only one that shows the restoration comparison. Since it was also part of a John Ford boxed set, it underwent the most extensive overhaul (about 77 hours according to the background information on the DVD). Original elements at Fox were unusable for "Winkie," but the final result is very good. "Stowaway" is probably the least of the three, lacking sharpness, but about what you'd expect from a film of this era. As a departure from the other releases in this series, there are NO colorized films in this set. For film buffs, this is a plus!

"Stowaway" (1936) Story: Ching-Ching (Temple), a child whose guardians are killed in Shanghai, seeks refuge from the streets in a car's open trunk, only to wake up and find the car on a ship bound for the U.S. The car's owner, a wealthy playboy (Robert Young), is charmed by Ching-Ching, and offers to marry another passenger (Alice Faye) in order to keep the child. When the two adults meet in divorce court, it's up to Ching-Ching to keep them together. Quite a few memorable songs (Faye & Temple on "Goodnight My Love" & Temple imitating Ginger Rogers & Al Jolson in "You've Gotta' S.M.I.L.E.") Features the original black and white film in its original theatrical aspect ratio with English Stereo and English and Spanish Mono and includes English, French and Spanish subtitles. 85 minutes.

"Wee Willie Winkie" (1937) Loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's popular story. Taken by her mother (June Lang) to live in India, a young girl (Temple) gradually wins the heart of her feisty grandfather (C. Aubrey Smith), a colonel at a British army outpost. Before long, she captures the hearts of his entire regiment as well as his chief enemy (Cesar Romero), using her charms to prevent a full-scale war. Directed by John Ford; definitely one of Temple's best films. Presented as a flipper disc featuring a tinted version of the film (in a very pleasing sepia tone) that was based on original notes and research to make the film look as it was first released as well as the black and white original, both in their original full-screen theatrical aspect ratio. With English Stereo plus English and Spanish Mono, the feature also includes English, French and Spanish subtitles. 100 minutes. Bonus feature: Restoration Comparison.

"Young People" (1940) Story: Wendy (Temple, in her final film at Fox) is adopted as an infant by the husband and wife vaudeville team of Joe and Kit Ballantine (Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood), she grows into childhood as a vital part of their act. As she approaches school age, the couple feels that life on the road is not the best thing for Wendy and decide to settle down on a farm in Vermont. However, the locals openly express their doubts about the morality of show business people. A few pleasing tunes ("On Fifth Avenue" and "Tra La La La") and some solid performances, but it comes off as an enjoyable B-Movie version of the Judy Garland & Mickey Rooney backyard musicals...WITHOUT a Mickey. Shirley shows the awkwardness of a teen; her acting and dance routines do not look natural; they seem very mannered and over-rehearsed. With a higher quality director and better script, Shirley could have had a more successful transition into the teen years (as witnessed by her later films during the Selznick years). Greenwood is great in this film, but Oakie comes off as an oaf. His dancing in the finale ("Tra La La") is plain horrible; instead of dancing, he looks like he is fighting off a bad case of gas. Original black and white film in its original theatrical aspect ratio with English Stereo and English and Spanish Mono and includes English, French and Spanish subtitles and a theatrical trailer that really would have benefitted from a little digital stabilization. 78 minutes.

Just saw this on the web: "Fox Home Entertainment, the video division of movie studio 20th Century Fox, is marking [Shirley Temple] Black's [80th] birthday on Wednesday by releasing the sixth and last volume of a retrospective series of her films." It appears that "Poor Little Rich Girl" & " Our Little Girl" are getting the shaft this time around.

Overall, 2 solid films in this collection, with "Young People" being the somewhat weak (albeit still enjoyable) link.

Shirley Temple movies are almost a pick me upper in difficult times. My family and I like to watch these from time to time. Product arrived on time and in good condition

Okay- not like Stowaway is a long lost and recently discovered film. There are many copies of this film in existence; but the DVD I received is not a very good quality. It has flickering scratches that seem to be on the film itself - consistent pops of little vertical thread lines that you'd expect to see in a silent film that had long been neglected. I'm not a huge fan of colorization, so no color - fine with me. Black and white film has a beauty all its own, but I'd at least expect these big budget films to have had as good a treatment as Cabin Fever gave The Little Rascals on their VHS releases in the 1990's. I'm finding it VERY hard to believe that Stowaway at least has been "digitally remastered".

I only paid $12.95 for the three disc set at Sam's - I'd be royally ticked off if I paid retail for this copy. I have not seen the other two discs in the set, but either my disc is flawed or the nitrate itself was a poor copy of a widely circulated and available film.

I realize that the plots for all Shirley Temple movies were hokey, and that the little girl characters she played were all just too good to be true. But one has to keep in mind (or should, at least) the era in which these films were first seen. Times were hard. The last thing moviegoers needed was a story about failure--amd only a few movies of the period so much as mentioned the hard times.

Then along came this little girl--singing, dancing, smiling, and always prevailing because she had those darned dimples and those sausage curls. Who cared that the stories made no sense? People left the theater feeling just a little better, I imagine. For a hint of this, see Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo."

The stories in this collection are not among Shirley Temple's best, but then her best films weren't much either, if you took her talent and personality away from them. For example, "Stowaway" manages to get a little American girl lost in China and put her into the trunk of a luxury car placed on a ship bound for California. Along the way she performs miracles of sorts and steals the hearts (as the cliche goes) of all she meets.

This set of three films is hardly the place to start, if you've never seen a Shirley Temple movie, but it's OK.

I prefer to watch my Shirley Temple movies in black and white, the way they were intended, so the lack of colourization doesn't bother me too much (it would have been interesting to see, especially with the nice colourization process that was used in the previous sets, but it's not essential). I was pretty impressed with the quality of the restorations here, in any case. Stowaway had a little bit of grain or dirt at the beginning, but the rest of the print seemed nice and clear. Wee Willie Winkie and Young People were likewise very nicely restored.

I watched the tinted version of Wee Willie Winkie (it just happened to be the side of the disc I set into the player). The sepia was nice... but I was a little thrown by the cyan tinting for the nighttime scenes! All in all, though, this was probably the best film of the bunch. The story was stronger than that of the usual Temple vehicle, and the supporting characters were good.

Stowaway is pure Shirley Temple, one of the four trademark films she made in 1936 (the others being Captain January, The Poor Little Rich Girl, and Dimples). The racist overtones and over-the-top characterizations of the Chinese may make some people uncomfortable. But it was the 1930s after all, and political correctness hadn't yet come into play. There are still some great musical numbers, though, and watching Shirley spout proverbs like a little fortune cookie is always amusing.

Young People is the weakest of the set. You can't help but feel vaguely embarrassed for everyone involved as they plod through the contrived plot and silly lines. The few catchy songs are probably the movie's only redeeming quality.

All in all, the quality of the prints is what makes this a decent set. I would have preferred to see The Poor Little Rich Girl instead of Young People (especially since this is supposedly the last set), but other than that I have no major complaints. For Shirley Temple fans, it's another nice addition to the collection.

If you are a die hard Shirley Temple fan this volume in the Sweetheart series is a collectors dream. The quality of the dvds is outstanding. Shirley was never cuter than in "The Stowaway". Yep, this is a keeper!

I love Shirley Temple. I was sooo excited when this came out. I went right out the day it was released and bought it. I unwrapped them and looked at the back of each movie. I was actually very disappointed that there weren't any color versions. Now, I know that they weren't originally made in color, but the color versions looked great. Fox was doing great releasing the color and black and white versions in the earlier dvds. I actually have the vhs color version of Stowaway. I was going to give it away once I got the dvd. But now I don't have a color version so I am going to have to keep it. :(

Keep the color versions FOX!!!!

A great dvd, well done!I have bought the whole set!Great feature to pick black & white or color viewing!

I AM VERY PLEASED WITH MY PURCHASE. I HAVE BEEN WANTING TO GET SHIRLEY TEMPLE FOR QUITE AWHILE AND I HAVE HER AND IT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD. FANTASTIC.

These classic movies are in such great shape, that I really think most of the movie companies are aware of the treasures they have in their vaults. Fox with Shirley Temple are examples. Any fan of old movies will appreciate this and any other set of Temple movies for the collection. And to Amazon having sales at times, I can order these collections with the high shipping rates to have sent to Europe anyway, I live in Switzerland. Thank you Amazon.