Jeunesse

Joe and Kitty, a couple who perform on the vaudeville circuit, take in an orphaned baby named Wendy (Shirley Temple), who they raise as their own and eventually incorporate into their act. Eventually, she becomes the star of their trio, The Ballantines, until Joe and Kitty decide to quit the business and put down roots in New England. Their timing is prompted somewhat by the fading of Vaudeville, caused by the popularity of films.

Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood capture the spirit of vaudeville extremely well. He is a perfect "second banana" and she is the prototypical specialty act. When Joe and Kitty arrive in the New England town of Stonefield, their show biz bluster makes them fish out of water. Daughter Wendy, always the upbeat optimist, helps them negotiate with some social situations. But Stonefield is a town of staid citizenry who like tradition; those in power resist any concessions to modernity. In the end, circumstances arise that demonstrate that the Ballantines are valuable citizens of the community.

Miss Temple carries this film and provides the center of the story. And due to some remarkably edited sequences, we see her performing from ages six to twelve, roughly.

As a musical, this film is not a tremendous success, but it is worth seeing due to Shirley.

YOUNG PEOPLE (20th Century-Fox, 1940), directed by Allan Dwan, not only became Shirley Temple's final "little girl" performance, but marked an end of an era to a legendary child star who entertained and delighted movie audiences during the Depression era 1930s, with box office hits that began in 1934. But by 1940, with the changing of times that would soon lead the country into World War II, and the new likes in movie entertainment, Temple's once popular box-office appeal was now fading, and fading fast.

The storyline opens with Joe and Kitty Ballantine (Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood), a couple of vaudeville headliners, after finishing their performance, being given a basket, finding a baby in it. At first they think it's some sort of a gag to add amusement to the audience until Joe finds a note written by their closest friend, the widowed Barney O'Hara, who hasn't long to live, explaining that the infant is being placed in their care. So the natural thing for Joe and Kitty to do is to keep the baby and raise it up themselves. Over the years the infant girl grows into a talented trooper like her "parents," and after some ten years, the Ballantines decide that it's now time to retire, and to give their young "daughter," Wendy (Shirley Temple) the kind of upbringing she very well deserves. So after their farewell performance, they move to a New England farm in Stonefield where they can live the simple life, and have Wendy educated in a local town school with other children her age. But while it all sounds well and good, they find that they are being snubbed by the resident well-to-dos, and learn that the common folks are nothing but phonies who look down on show people.

YOUNG PEOPLE is a worthy conclusion to Temple's childhood years at 20th Century-Fox mainly because it includes film clips from her past movies, inter-cutting her scenes with her on-screen father, Jack Oakie, including her "Baby, Take a Bow" number from STAND UP AND CHEER (1934), where Oakie fills in for James Dunn; and the Hawaiian dance number from CURLY TOP (1935). After these stardust memory moments are presented, comes Shirley, now age 12, taller, prettier with darker hair, doing her song and dance with top hat, white tie and tales in a very energetic manner, showing that even though she's maturing into a young lady, she still has that gifted talent. Sadly, her subsequent films she starred in during the later 1940s, such as KATHLEEN (MGM, 1941) and MISS ANNIE ROONEY (UA, 1942), failed to recapture the magic she once had, mainly due to mediocre scripts that kept Temple from being the super star teenager she could have been like Deanna Durbin, Jane Powell and/or Elizabeth Taylor. And while Temple had been the center of attention through most all her previous movies, for the first time in her successful career, Temple here is overshadowed by her co-stars, mainly by the unlikely likable pair of Oakie and Greenwood.

Good tunes by Mack Gordon, Harry Revel and Harry Warren include: "The Mason-Dixon Live" (sung by Oakie and Greenwood); "The Beaches of Waikiki" (danced by Temple, from the clip from CURLY TOP); "Baby, Take a Bow" (by Jay Gorney and Lew Brown/sung by Oakie and Temple /Temple scenes lifted from STAND UP AND CHEER); "Fifth Avenue" (sung by Temple, Oakie and Greenwood); "I Wouldn't Take a Million" (sung by Oakie); "Flocently Sweet Afton" (sung by children); "Young People" (Sung by Temple and children); "I Wouldn't Take a Million" (sung by Temple); and "Tra-La-La-La" (sung by cast/finale).

Also seen in the supporting cast are George Montgomery as Mike Shea, the town reporter, editor, typesetter and everything else rolled into one; Arleen Whelan as Mike's girl, Judith; Kathleen Howard as Hester Appleby, the town snob; Minor Watson, Darryl Hickman, Irving Bacon, Olin Howland, Mae Marsh, and among other character actors who fill in the New England town. And that's Mary Gordon as the old lady who brings in the basket into the theater in the opening portion of the story.

Reportedly a bigger box-office failure than Temple's earlier 1940 release, THE BLUE BIRD, YOUNG PEOPLE isn't really all that bad. It just returns Temple to the simple plot formula she's been doing most of the 1930s, featuring songs, comedy, little drama and moments of tears, but by this time, these familiar plots were becoming all too predictable and old-fashioned. Critics were probably saying to themselves that this is now 1940, not 1935! 20th Century-Fox did make an attempt or two to modernize YOUNG PEOPLE, especially during the closing credit cast listing with the underscoring being jazzed up a bit to fit the big band era. Otherwise, its a cute and enjoyable little comedy-drama about adjustment and acceptance with a moral lesson intact without becoming too preachy.

Oddly, YOUNG PEOPLE never became part of the Shirley Temple video package from CBS/FOX VIDEO back in the latter part of the l980s. This oversight was finally corrected in the mid 1990s when YOUNG PEOPLE was distributed to home video, but unlike the earlier packages, it's available only in colorization. While YOUNG PEOPLE had been presented in recent years on several cable TV stations colorized, such as the Disney Channel in the early 1990s, American Movie Classics, which premiered this overlooked Temple feature back in 1996, wisely presents this in its original black and white format, the way it should be presented for that's the way it was distributed in theaters.

YOUNG PEOPLE may not be top Temple material, but it is a fond farewell to a little girl who has now grown up. (***)

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.

It looks as if Fox wasn't prepared to spend anything but a B-picture budget on Shirley's last film for the studio. Even the colorized version that popped up several years ago fails to give the picture an A-picture look that it deserved. All the trappings are on a downscale that makes the film little more than a programmer.

Shirley herself is still a talented girl--still the cheerful disposition, dimples and dancing feet--but while her talent is obviously a modest one, it's Charlotte Greenwood and Jack Oakie that are the real pros. Occasionally Shirley meets their standards and this gives the film the lift it needs. But all too often, it's apparent that the charm she had as a tot isn't enough to maintain her pre-teen appeal.

The story is a simple one about a vaudeville couple who adopt a baby girl and then want to retire to the country so she can have a normal life when she's growing up. The conflict comes when the townspeople refuse to accept the showbiz family in their community. Finally, with the help of George Montgomery and Arleen Whelan, the family overcomes all obstacles. A fierce storm sequence toward the end is extremely well done but fails to save the picture from being anything more than an ordinary yarn.

Clever use of Shirley's earlier film footage as a tot is inserted for the "babe on the road" inserts. It's a pleasant enough show but more funding by Fox would have elevated it to A-status.

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?