Young People

Shirley Temple's last film on her 20th Century Fox contract was a good one. Young People is the story of Shirley and her adoptive parents Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood, a pair of vaudevillians who have decided to settle down on a Vermont farm that Shirley's real father left her to give her a home and some stability. They figure she ought to have some at the ripe old age of twelve after a life of born in a trunk.

Oakie and Greenwood are the Ballantines and they have some nice chemistry between them. They should have been teamed more often.

Sad to say what they get is a bunch of hidebound New Englanders who don't take lightly to strangers telling them what's wrong with their way of living. Especially from a brash show business type and they don't come more brash than Jack Oakie. But in her usual fashion Shirley brings them together. As the Good Book says, 'and a little child will lead them'. Even though the little child is starting to show signs of puberty. No doubt why Darryl Zanuck did not renew her contract.

Shirley Temple left 20th Century Fox on a good note.

This is Shirley Temple's last film under her very successful Twentieth Century-Fox contract. And, sadly, it's NOT among her better films. Part of it is that Shirley now was 12--and no longer the adorable 7 year-old. Most of it, however, was the script--which was rather weak.

The film begins with two show people (Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood) being given a baby. It seems their friend has died and he wanted them to raise the kid. Years pass and the child grows into an adorable show-stopping kid herself (Shirley Temple). During this montage sequence, you see several cute clips of a younger Shirley in previous films. After years of working hard on the road, the family has decided to call it quits and settle down on a farm left to Shirley by her biological parents. However, Oakie and Greenwood REALLY come on very, very strong in this VERY conservative neighborhood. Now these townsfolk are obnoxious old drips---but I also thought that if this family came storming into town like this family did, I might hate them, too. This is a seriously weak part of the film as you were supposed to love Shirley's family and dislike the townsfolk--but I really didn't like any of them. Eventually, however, the family is able to convince everyone how wonderful they are and the film ends--a contrived and weak ending if I've ever seen one. Overall, this film is a time-passer at best. It's not bad but neither is it very good.

The first time I saw this movie when I was a pre-teen, I loved it. It is innocent, real, true to life and I love Charlotte Greenwood and Shirley Temple. I can still see it in my memory.

This movie has touched me with it's warmth and charm from the time I saw it as a teenager. I feel in love with Charlotte Greenwood and have been a fan of hers ever since. Her delivery was only matched by Eve Arden and what a pity we never had the two of them together. What a delight to see elegant Miss Greenwood cut loose and let her dancing legs fly. There has been none like her. For fans of Shirley Temple this was an opportunity to see her as she was about to enter the teen years. Too bad her last film at Fox was not a big success. "Young People" had some great old clips of Shirley in her earlier film roles and made for a proper tribute to her talent and poise as a young lady. Miss Greenwood and Jack Oakie play off of Shirley with perfection and make for the perfect vaudeville family trying to find a new life and real home.

This is certainly not a bad film if one accepts the fact that Shirley is growing up. There is a predictability to it, for sure but can anyone deny the all-the-more-so predictability of every Astair-Rogers film? We still love them, don't we? Young People suffers from a mediocrity that gives it a feel of a second rate Andy Hardy film, but it has a way of growing on you. My daughter and wife occasionally can be heard humming "5th Avenue" a very catchy number from the film.

I wonder if anyone out there noticed the scene when Shirley, reading the paper in the parlor, points out casually to her parents that an old show biz acquaintance is going to appear on "television"! This may be the first time the new (very very new) medium is mentioned in a "throw-out" line. Any comments?