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If you're looking for a Shirley Temple vehicle, Now and Forever isn't it. She's very young and hardly in the movie. She isn't her singing, tap-dancing persona in this movie. This is a Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard drama that happens to have a little girl in the story. Shirley does sing one song, though, but she's not the lead.

Gary is a small-time crook with no plans to go straight. He hasn't seen his daughter in a long time, and his wife Carole has never met her. While he initially plans to unload Shirley's custody onto someone else, when the father and daughter are reunited, the little curly top melts his heart. Carole adores her, too, and soon Gary vows to clean up his act. But will it stick? Will his vow of "honor bright" to Shirley see him through?

If you're a fan of the cast, you'll want to check out this early '30s picture. Shirley isn't the focal point, but if you love her, you're going to want to watch all of her movies, right?

This is a pretty bad movie directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard and Shirley Temple. Cooper plays a thief who is married to Lombard and they are not getting on that well. Cooper finds out he has a daughter, played by Temple, and he winds up keeping her over his relatives objections. Cooper tries to quit being a thief and be a good father but he's in debt and it's the only way he can get the money. Guy Standing offers him one last job but Lombard wants him to quit and Cooper doesn't want Temple to find out. Shirley Temple only sings one song here and it's pretty short and it's hard to see why Cooper or Lombard would want to do this movie.

Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard reminded me of the romantic thieves in "Algiers" played by Charles Boyer and Hedy LaMarr. That movie was 1938 and this one 1934, so this movie is the original. It is a pre-code movie, so don't expect the stupid moral standards that the Hays office enforced in the years after this movie. Cooper and Lombard are wonderfully charming in their first few scenes together. They become more intense later on and less fun. In fact the whole film become less fun when Shirley Temple enters. At age six, Temple wasn't yet the brilliant seasoned pro and entertainer she became the following years.

This is Henry Hathaway's eleventh film, but eight of those were one hour Westerns with Randolph Scott, so it is only his third non-Western. His work with the actors, camera placements and story-telling techniques are excellent.

The main problem I found was with the stings or cons that are in the film. They seem far too easy. Perhaps people were much more gullible and assumed honesty in those days, but it is hard to believe that Cooper could have pulled off his cons without the luck of having a screenwriter watching over him.

It is not a great film, and not the best for Cooper, Lombard, Temple or Hathaway, but there is a lot of talent here and the film is enjoyable most of the time.

Incidentally, Dorothy Dell starred with Shirley Temple in 1934 in "Little Miss Marker" and died in a car crash at the age of 19. Carole Lombard starred with Temple in this movie and died in a plane crash at the age of 34. I thought I had discovered a "Temple Curse," but when I checked all of Temple's other female co-stars, almost all lived into their 80's or 90's and died of natural causes.

The only Shirley Temple appeared away from Fox studios was in this loan out film to Paramount co-starring Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard. After Fox became 20th Century Fox, Darryl F. Zanuck would not lend out his biggest star and America's biggest star during those years. Now and Forever was made slightly before Temple's peak years, but she was rising fast.

Another viewer said he could not understand why Cooper and Lombard would want to be associated with this film. Very simply it was going to make money and they would also gain exposure. The challenge was holding their own against the adorable little moppet.

Cooper is a confidence man who apparently isn't as good as he thinks he is. He swindles Guy Standing, but later finds out he's actually been the one taken. Of course by that time he's reunited with his little daughter and she introduced to his new wife Carole Lombard.

Cooper just is an instinctive grifter though, content to lead life one step ahead of the law. It's not however a life that he can have a little daughter along with for the ride.

The ending here is a little darker than most Shirley Temple movies are and that makes it somewhat unique. Lombard is good, but she's somewhat subdued in this film. Best in the film besides Shirley is Guy Standing.

Not one of Cooper's best or Lombard's best, but Shirley Temple fans of every generation will probably like it, but find the film a bit strange.

As other reviewers to date note, "Now and Forever" is an unusual Shirley Temple movie, with a quite different ending. But for who Temple was as a child star of the day, such an ending would not be uncommon or bad for people in similar situations. The bottom line being the welfare and future of the child. The film is definitely drama with some music, where most of Shirley's childhood films are comedies with music, and usually some drama.

Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard do quite well in this film against Temple's Penelope Day. Cooper's Jerry Day, struggles with conscience because of his daughter, while he continues to thrive on scams that make enough to carry him from one to the next. The film is based on a story, "Honor Bright," by Jack Kirkland. That is a phrase picked up and used by various authors in the 19th century, that had come to mean to tell the truth, or Scout's honor.

Here are some favorite lines from this film.

Toni Carstairs Day, "Well, what happens now?" Jerry Day, "What do you mean, dear - what happens now?" Toni, "I mean, what happens now?" Jerry, "Oh, you mean, what happens?" Toni, "Yes. What happens?" Jerry, "Why, nothing. I, I mean..." Toni, "You mean, nothing." Jerry, "No, I don't mean that at all."

Jerry Day, "Lookie here, Toni. I know what's eating you. You think I haven't any business with that kind. Well, you're wrong. Dead wrong."

Jerry Day, "You are a rat, Uncle Felix." Felix Evans, "Yes, I know."