Young People (1940)
6/10
The Ballantines settle down
1 June 2014
Shirley Temple's last film on her 20th Century Fox contract was a good one. Young People is the story of Shirley and her adoptive parents Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood, a pair of vaudevillians who have decided to settle down on a Vermont farm that Shirley's real father left her to give her a home and some stability. They figure she ought to have some at the ripe old age of twelve after a life of born in a trunk.

Oakie and Greenwood are the Ballantines and they have some nice chemistry between them. They should have been teamed more often.

Sad to say what they get is a bunch of hidebound New Englanders who don't take lightly to strangers telling them what's wrong with their way of living. Especially from a brash show business type and they don't come more brash than Jack Oakie. But in her usual fashion Shirley brings them together. As the Good Book says, 'and a little child will lead them'. Even though the little child is starting to show signs of puberty. No doubt why Darryl Zanuck did not renew her contract.

Shirley Temple left 20th Century Fox on a good note.
3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed