Starring Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Robert Young, and Helen Westley
Directed by William A. Seiter
Music by Harry Revel; Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Let's celebrate the Year of the Tiger with one of Temple's most successful features. This one changes things up slightly by going for not one, but two exotic settings and focusing more on the lovers than the older curmudgeon and Temple's antics. How does the story of a little American girl raised in China who plays matchmaker to a confirmed bachelor and a young lady look today? Let's begin in the village of Sanchow, China, which is about to be raided by bandits, and find out...
The Story: Barbara "Ching-Ching" Stewart (Temple) flees Sanchow with a guide hired by her friend Sun Lo (Phillip Ahn). The guide abandons her and makes off with her money, leaving her alone in Shanghai. She runs into Tommy Randall (Young), a handsome playboy on a world cruise with his valet Atkins (Arthur Treacher). He leaves her and her dog Mr. Wu in his convertible, but she flees into the rumble seat to avoid the rain. After she falls asleep there, she finds herself on the ocean liner when the convertible's loaded on there.
Susan Parker (Faye), who is traveling to Bangkok to marry her banker fiancée Richard Hope finds Ching-Ching when she's hiding from the Captain (Robert Grieg). Susan agrees to take her in for the voyage, to the dismay of Richard's pushy mother (Wesley). Ching-Ching tries to bring Susan and Tommy together, but Mrs. Hope doesn't like that one bit. Richard likes it even less. There may not be much anyone can do when it turns out Ching-Ching is now an orphan and has to be taken to Shanghai, unless Tommy steps up to take responsibility for her and Susan figures out which man she really wants.
The Song and Dance: The exotic Chinese setting is relatively well-represented for 1936, as are the Chinese themselves. Most of the Chinese characters speak in Confucius homilies and we can hear a few "me speekee English," but they're at least somewhat respected and are played by actual Asian actors. It makes Tommy look even more ridiculous arguing with a shopkeeper when he first meets Ching-Ching. Temple's having a blast, whether she's ordering around her dog or imitating Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, and Faye is a warm and inviting presence as the woman she latches on to.
Favorite Number: Ching-Ching first sings "Goodnight, My Love" as a lullaby to herself. Tommy and Susan later dance to it after she sings while they chat about Ching-Ching on the deck. Faye's solo also has her on deck in the moonlight as she muses "One Never Knows, Does One?" Temple's big cheer-up number she performs at the talent show is "You've Gotta S-M-I-L-E to Be H-A-P-P-Y." The movie finishes with a delighted Ching-Ching and her new family gathered around the tree as she sings "That's What I Want for Christmas."
Trivia: Temple was eventually given the Pekinese she had in this movie. She renamed him Ching-Ching, after her character.
Temple learned 40 words of Mandarin Chinese for her role.
What I Don't Like: While this one does switch things up a bit by putting the emphasis on the lovers and making the crochety old person the villain, it still comes off as Temple's standard melodrama. For all that they get right with the Chinese, the things they get wrong (like the guy who abandons Ching-Ching, Temple's sing-song delivery, and some of more obvious "me speekee English" in Shanghai and Hong Kong) stand out all the more as annoying and dated. The songs in this one, aside from Temple's imitations and "Goodnight, My Love," are barely afterthoughts, and certainly not up to the scores in some of her earlier movies. The courtroom finale is silly and a bit unnecessary, given that even the judge could see Tommy and Susan were in love.
The Big Finale: One of Temple's better films is a must if you're a fan of hers, and not a bad place to start with younger kids if you explain about some of the more overt Asian stereotypes.
Home Media: As with most of Shirley's films, this is easy to find on DVD and streaming.
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