Stowaway
Directed by	William A. Seiter
Produced by	Buddy G. DeSylva
Written by	Screenplay: William M. Conselman Nat Perrin Arthur Sheekman Story: Samuel G. Engel
Starring	Shirley Temple Robert Young Alice Faye
Music by	Harry Revel Mack Gordon
Cinematography	Arthur C. Miller
Editing by	Lloyd Nosler
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	December 25, 1936 (1936-12-25)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Stowaway is a 1936 American musical film directed by William A. Seiter. The screenplay by William M. Conselman, Nat Perrin, and Arthur Sheekman is based on a story by Samuel Engel. The film is about a young orphan called 'Ching Ching' (Temple) who stows away on a ship and is adopted by Tommy Randall (Young) and his wife Susan (Faye). The film was hugely successful (Windeler 179), and is available on videocassette and DVD.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Music 5 Release 5.1 Critical reception 5.2 Home media 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

Barbara 'Ching-Ching' Stewart is an orphan living in Sanchow, China. When bandits threaten, she is taken to Shanghai for safety and meets Tommy Randall, a rich playboy traveling about the world on a ship. Barbara accidentally becomes a stowaway on his ship. When discovered, she is provided for by Tommy and Susan Parker, a passenger on the ship engaged to the son of her traveling companion, Mrs. Hope. Susan and Tommy become romantically involved. Barbara plays Cupid in furthering their romance. The couple realize they love Barbara and want to do the best for her after learning she will be put off the ship and sent to an orphan's asylum. Susan breaks her engagement with Hope after discovering his selfish nature and marries Tommy. The two adopt Barbara.

[edit] Cast

• Shirley Temple as Barbara 'Ching-Ching' Stewart, an orphan
• Robert Young as Tommy Randall, a playboy and world traveler
• Alice Faye as Susan Parker, Mrs. Hope's shipboard companion and the betrothed of Richard Hope
• Helen Westley as Mrs. Hope, Susan's companion and her future mother-in-law
• Allan Lane as Richard Hope, the son of Mrs. Hope and Susan's fiance
• Eugene Pallette as the Colonel, Tommy's friend
• Astrid Allwyn as Kay Swift, Tommy's friend
• Jayne Regan as Dora Day, Tommy's friend
• Arthur Treacher as Atkins, Tommy's valet
• Philip Ahn as Sun Lo, Barbara's friend in Sanchow
• Willie Fung as Chang, Sun-lo's friend and a boatman
• Robert Greig as Captain of SS Victoria
• J. Edward Bromberg as Judge J.D. Booth

[edit] Production

Temple learned forty words in Mandarin Chinese for the film, later stating the learning process required six months of instruction (Edwards 101,306). In the film, she impersonates Ginger Rogers (with a life-sized male doll fixed to her toes), Eddie Cantor, and Al Jolson singing “Mammy” (Windeler 179). Temple’s IQ was tested during the Stowaway period and found to be 155, the genius classification (Edwards 102).

[edit] Music

The film features three songs by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon: "Goodnight, My Love" (sung by Temple, reprised by Faye), "One Never Knows, Does One?" (Faye), and "You Gotta S-M-I-L-E To Be H-A-Double-P-Y" (Temple). Other songs are "Please" by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin (sung by a Chinese performer in a theater), and the film's finale, "That's What I Want for Christmas" by Gerald Marks and Irving Caesar (sung by Temple).

[edit] Release

[edit] Critical reception

Variety remarked, “It’s a nifty Shirley Temple comedy with musical trimmings” (Edwards 101). Variety commented, “Whether or not due to Seiter’s efforts, [Shirley] does not appear to have outgrown […] the Little Miss Marker stage in this one as she had in her last pictures” (Edwards 102).

The New York Times applauded the film, noting that Temple had “an amusing script behind her, an agreeable adult troupe with her, and a clever director before her.” The reviewer thought the film the best from Temple since Little Miss Marker^[1]

[edit] Home media

In 2009, Stowaway was available on videocassette and DVD in the black and white original and in computer-colorized versions of the original. Some versions featured theatrical trailers and other special features.

[edit] See also

• Shirley Temple filmography

[edit] References

Works cited

• Edwards, Anne (1988), Shirley Temple: American Princess, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., pp. 101-2,306 
• Windeler, Robert (1992) [1978], The Films of Shirley Temple, New York: Carol Publishing Group, pp. 178-181, ISBN 0-8065-0725-X 

Web citations

[edit] External links

• Stowaway at the TCM Movie Database
• Stowaway at the Internet Movie Database