Shirley Temple – America’s Sweetheart Collection – Volume
Six (Stowaway/Wee Willie Winkie/Young People/Fox DVD Box Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Films: C+
Fox’s
definitive unspooling of their many classic Shirley Temple films continues into
a sixth box set on DVD, this time with films from the late 1930s as she was
starting to grow up.
Stowaway (1936) has Temple playing a
Chinese orphan named Ching-Ching (!!!) when a travelling American businessman
(Robert Young, later of Father Knows
Best) finds her asleep in his cabin on the way back to San Francisco,
U.S.A. and suddenly, she is in the land of opportunity. Can she get him together with Alice
Faye? Eugene Pallette and Arthur
Treacher also star.
Wee Willie Winkie (1937) was directed by no less
than John Ford, based on a Rudyard Kipling book and Temple as a young girl with
her mother making a passage to India, finding Cesar Romero and other adventures
in this big production showcase as Temple continued to be a big box office star
for the studio.
Young People (1940) became Temple’s final film
under contract to Fox, directed by the ever-capable Allan Dwan, as Temple’s
character becomes involved with a show biz couple on tour in this
family-friendly backstage musical that ends her classic run at the studio on a
high note. It also rounds out this set
nicely.
The 1.33
X 1 black and white image on all three films looks good for their age and
though Winkie has a bonus version
that restores the tinted colors in certain prints issued. In most cases, I always thought of this as a
novelty and gimmick, even in the silent film era and except for a few
interesting moments, everything is in sepia color except some nighttime footage
in green. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
and Mono mixes are about the same in all cases, sounding as limited as you
would expect for films this age, but Fox has restored them pretty well. The few extras
For more
on Temple at Fox, try the links for some of the previous volumes we looked at:
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3468/Shirley+Temple+Volume+Three
Five
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5183/The+Shirley+Temple+Collection+-+Vol
- Nicholas Sheffo
