Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17286 in VHS
• Model: 8580
• Released on: 1995-03-01
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Great Temple Film
Filmed in 1936 at the height of Shirley Temple's popularity, "Stowaway" is a lovely, light-hearted comedy.

Shirley plays "Ching-Ching," the orphaned daughter of missionaries in China. When her village is threatened by invaders, she is plucked from school by the village elder and sent off to the big city for safety. Along the way, her purse is stolen, she loses her guide and, while wandering through the streets, she befriends American playboy Tommy Randall (Robert Young, in a character that is miles away from his clean-cut "Father Knows Best" role!). After falling asleep in Randall's car, she finds herself an unwilling stowaway on a luxury cruise ship. Of course, she gets to stay on the boat, plays Cupid with Randall and Susan Parker (Alice Faye) and attempts to stay out of the mean old orphanage.

The story here is a lot of fun, and the setting is interesting. Temple was given a great showcase for her dramatic, rather than musical, abilities, and worked well with both Faye and Young. She spoke hundreds of Chinese phrases with correct tone and accent and did hilarious imitations of Al Jolson and Ginger Rogers. "Goodnight My Love," which was sung in the film (with different lyrics) by both Temple and Faye, was a 1936 radio hit.

one of Shirley Temple's best
STOWAWAY is one of Shirley Temple's best films, from her middle years with Twentieth Century-Fox. She gets to speak in another language and impresses with her impersonation skills.

She plays Ching-Ching, the enchanting young ward of two Chinese missionaries who are killed. Ching-Ching is smuggled away to Shanghai by the faithful Sun-Lo (Philip Ahn), only to get mixed up with carefree playboy Tommy Randall (Robert Young) after taking refuge in the trunk of his car. The car is loaded into the cargo of a luxurious ocean liner, of which Tommy is a passenger. Thus, Ching-Ching becomes the 'stowaway' of the title.

Alice Faye turns in a great performance as Susan, another passenger on the ship, traveling with her prospective mother-in-law (Helen Westley). All kinds of misadventures and misunderstandings occur before Ching-Ching ultimately brings together Tommy and Susan. Temple displays her uncanny skill for impersonation with her delightful takes on Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire!

Shirley Temple sings "Goodnight My Love", "You Gotta S.M.I.L.E." and "That's What I Want for Christmas" and Alice Faye performs "One Never Knows". Truly a delightful film. This is the colourised edition, but do yourself a favour and turn down the colour setting on your TV - and watch the film as it was originally intended to be screened.

Shirley will make you H-A-double P-Y
This is one of Shirley's greatest films she ever made. In this movie you see
all of that talent shine through with a great cast, sweet music, and a
lovable story you can't go wrong with this Temple treasure.

In this film Shirley becomes a little lost girl after wandering away from
her care-giver and by luck runs into Robert Young who becomes quickly
charmed by little Shirley who speaks fluent Chinese and knows dozens of
Chinese proverbs, When, Shirley accidently wanders onto Young's ship and
quickly becomes a Stowaway making another friend Faye who returns her to her
friend Young-- both Young and Faye fall in love with Shirley and un-knowly
with eachother. When they learn Shirley must be sent to orphanage both are
eager to adopt the Young girl only problem-- it has to be a married couple.
So, both of them get married to be a "marriage in name only" but, will
divorce when they arrive back in the states-- but things don't go as planned
when a well-meaning judge and Shirley team up-together to save the couple.

A great Temple film featuring two of her hits "You Got To Smile To Be H-A-
double-P-Y" and "Goodnight, My Love" this movie includes Shirley doing an
impressive Astaire imitation and of course her precious nature. Shirley is
adorable in this film and quickly you fall in love with her as the Chinese
missionary orphan. Young also does a fabulous job as the instant father who
is changed for the better because of Shirley. Faye also has a beautiful
voice that you get the chance to hear in "Good-night My Love."

All in all this movie will make you H-A- double P-Y.