Absolutely delightful. Taking full advantage of a smoothly and wittily characterized script, director Bill Seiter and his talented players hit high notes of rollicking entertainment almost continually until the forced and somewhat strained ending changes the film's mood as well as its locale. Never mind, so much of what has transpired before is so attractively amusing, the Bromberg machinations don't really matter. Young as usual is most ingratiating, playing with just the right balance of rakishness, sophistication and boyish charm. Miss Temple gets a chance to practice her Chinese as well as to perform the movie's show-stopping "If You Want To S-M-I-L-E", complete with vigorous impersonations of Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and Astaire-Rogers! Miss Faye never looked more lovely, and renders two of her most famous songs. The script has also provided meaty roles for Helen Westley, Arthur Treacher and Robert Greig. Production values are high, with superb cinematography, sets and costumes. In short, pretty close to superlative entertainment.

In a recent tribute to Shirley Temple by TCM, upon her recent death, this was my favorite of 4 pre-'39 films, including "Heidi". It was also the only one of the 4 I didn't remember seeing in the distant past. I enjoyed it more than the others for several reasons. It has the zaniest story, which some reviewers consider a negative, but I find amusing. Shirley is mostly called by her pet Chinese name Ching-Ching, this story supposedly taking place in several parts of China, or on a ship. Unlike many of her films, there is no real sourpuss(adult or child) that Shirley has to deal with much of the time. The cute and charismatic Alice Faye is often present(as Susan). She gets to sing a couple of Revel-Gordon songs without Shirley.. Then, Shirley is at her most charismatic age as a child star, in my opinion. Non-musical, but personable, Robert Young was borrowed from MGM to serve as the male lead: notorious playboy Tommy Randall. He and Shirley seemed to get along great, the scripted Shirley having a closer relationship with him than with Alice(true in most S.T. films I've seen) Although rotund Eugene Palette is billed high on the player's list, in fact, he had only a small, inconsequential, role. Helen Westley, as the mother of Young's rival(Richard) for the affections of Alice, plays her usual domineering matron role. Arthur Treacher is present at times, in his usual stiff British valet role.The story begins in the apparently mythical Chinese city of Sanchow, situated upstream from Soochow, on the Yangtze. Shirley's foster parent, a missionary, declares that he and Shirley will remain in Sanchow, despite the report that a large bandit army is about to descend on the city. However, Shirley's Chinese friend, sun lo, arranged for a friend, Chang, to take her by sampan, down the Yangtze, to stay with his brother in Shanghai. But upon arrival, Chang steals Shirley's purse so he can participate in a gambling game, and disappears. So, with her Pekinese: Mr. Woo, she wanders around the wharf area, until she spies Young, trying to communicate with a shopkeeper about a purchase, Shirley translates his want and saves him some money. So, they become acquainted, and Shirley gets a ride in his open car, he stopping to visit a friend. While she waits in the car, a shower passes, causing her to transfer to the trunk, which she closes and falls asleep. Soon, the car is loaded onto a ship for Hong Kong and beyond. Thus, she is an accidental stowaway, eventually hiding in the room occupied by Alice and her mother-in-law-to-be. This eventually leads to the meeting of Alice and 'Uncle Tommy'(Young), relating to Shirley. Despite Alice being engaged to another man(Richard Hope),she responds somewhat to Young's romantic overtures, and they dance lightly while she sings the love song "Goodnight My Love", previously sung by Shirley as she is drifting off to sleep.. Richard boards the ship at Hong Kong, and friction between the two men begins when Hope discovers the dalliance with his fiancé, which the duo ascribe to their common interest in the welfare of Shirley.Later, Alice decides to cancel her planned wedding when she discovers what a mama's boy her fiancé is, and that mama plans to live with them. Meanwhile, Young gets news that Shirley's missionary father was killed in the bandit raid. He wants to adopt Shirley to prevent her being sent to a Shanghai orphanage. But, as a bachelor, Young can't legally qualify. Thus, he finally arm-twists Alice into marrying him, so they can adopt Shirley, with the understanding that Alice can then go to Reno for a divorce, if she doesn't want to stay married to the wealthy, but playboy, Young character. Shirley is very happy at this news, as Young and Alice seem like her fantasy new parents.Well, Alice decides to go through with the divorce in Reno, with her old boyfriend, Hope, waiting in the wings, promising to dump his mother, if Alice will take him back. But the judge(played by Edward Bromberg), after taking a look at the duo of Young and Shirley, decides to have a private talk with Shirley, who obviously tells him she doesn't want her new parents to split. The judge has Shirley take the stand, after coaching her what to say in response to his questions. However, at one point, she says 'holy macaroni' for 'holy matrimony', thus clearly exposing her act. Nonetheless, the judge rules against the grounds for divorce, and the threesome have a happy Christmas, with Shirley singing "That's What I Want for Christmas": quite a catchy tune, with its depression-era appropriate lyrics, not always clearly enunciated by Shirley. The gifted lyricist Irving Caesar Irving did the lyrics to this, as well as Shirley's signature song "Animal Crackers in My Soup" While the ship is docked in Hong Kong, Shirley has a stage performance, in which the audience members are invited to go on stage and give a performance. She follows oriental Sammee Tong's imitation of Bing Crosby's singing style, with "You Gotta S-M-I-L-E to be H-A-double P-Y". She does stage impressions of Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, then danced with a dummy, supposedly representing Fred Astaire.

Ching Ching, er, Barbara (Shirley Temple) is the young daughter of missionaries to China. Unfortunately, her parents were killed and her present guardian, a fellow minister, is determined to stay put, even though lethal bandits are coming to the village. Therefore, a Chinese citizen who knew the little gal's parents whisks her secretly away to Shanghai. However, things get confusing when Ching Ching's new caretaker suddenly vanishes (with the tot's own piggy bank). Now, on the streets of Shanghai, Barbara is fortunate to run into millionaire American Tommy Randall (Robert Young), who is attempting to buy a dragon head at a local market but can't speak the language. When Ching Ching helps him with his business, the two begin to talk and Randall discovers she is parentless and homeless. Tommy's plan is to watch over her but when he leaves her in the car to talk with friends, she hides in the trunk with her dog, Mr. Wu, as rain starts to fall. Coming back, Tommy thinks she has taken off and he drives his car back to the ship, where the auto is loaded onto the vessel. Thus, Ching Ching is a "stowaway". But soon, the two are reunited, even though Tommy has a strong reputation as a playboy whose own butler, Atkins (Arthur Treacher) often covers for him. Alas, the ship's captain is determined to find another home for Barbara in the meanwhile. But then, Barbara makes friends with a lovely young woman, Susan (Alice Faye), who is engaged to a stuffed shirt in Bangkok, and the little lady introduces her to Tommy. Could there be a little matchmaking and family planning in Ching Ching's mind? This is a lovely film that I have admired since childhood. When I was a girl, "Shirley Temple Theater" came on every Sunday, as one of the local channels was obviously keen to find suitable viewing material for the church going crowd. My opinion is that if you have never seen a Shirley film, this is a good one to begin upon. First, Shirley shows she can do it all, sing, dance, crack jokes, speak Chinese, and be utterly adorable. Complimenting her nicely is a young Robert Young, who has plenty of charm and humor in his own right. Ditto for Treacher, who is hysterical as the snooty butler. Beautiful Faye can also sing up a storm and the rest of the cast is quite nice, too. The setting in China is exotic, the costumes are very nice and the story and direction are snappy and "funtastic", with the expected happy ending a very welcome one indeed. In conclusion, a Shirley Temple film can be greatly enjoyed on a child's and on an adult's level and this is one of her best works. Therefore, do stow away enough family free time to catch this one, as everyone watching it will forget their woes. Indeed, few film stars can lift the spirits like our treasured Shirley.

Fleeing from bandit-ridden China, a cute & incredibly precocious little orphan accidentally becomes a STOWAWAY on a luxury liner. Once aboard, she proceeds to charm (nearly) everyone in sight, while working to bring about the marriage of two lonely Americans.Shirley Temple switches on her megawatt smile & captures the viewers' hearts once more in this pleasant, crowd pleasing movie. Amply displaying the charm which made her Hollywood's box office queen for years, Shirley gets to sing, dance, and even speak quite a bit of Chinese.Robert Young & Alice Faye appear as the romantic leads, and they do a good job, but ultimately they are just so much grist for Shirley's mill. Little Miss Temple always found her stiffest acting competition coming from the character performers and this film features some fine examples: Helen Westley as a dreadful mother-in-law in-waiting; wonderful Arthur Treacher as Young's comic butler; Eugene Palette, boisterous as a perpetually inebriated American; Philip Ahn as a faithful friend of Shirley's family; Willie Fung as the negligent boatman who spirits her to Shanghai; J. Edward Bromberg as a no-nonsense judge; and Robert Greig as the kindly ship captain.20th Century Fox obviously pumped a good deal of money into this film and the production values show it. The scenes in China are particularly well done, although the use of rear projection during Shirley's walk near the Shanghai waterfront is all too obvious.Shirley sings 'Goodnight My Love,' 'That's What I Want For Christmas' & 'You've Gotta S-M-I-L-E To Be H-A-double P-Y'. During the performance of this latter song Shirley mimics Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor & Ginger Rogers. Originally, she also impersonated Mae West but that segment was considered too hot and excised.