Stand Up and Cheer!
by Hamilton MacFadden
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: James Dunn, John Boles, Madge Evans, Sylvia Froos, Warner BaxterDirector: Hamilton MacFadden
Brand: 20th Century Fox
Writer: Hamilton MacFadden
Producer: Lew Brown
Producer: Winfield R. Sheehan
Writer: Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Writer: Malcolm Stuart Boylan
Writer: Ralph Spence
Writer: Rian James
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 68 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-27
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Stand Up and Cheer!
Movie Review: Shirley and the other numbers are great--but deep down, the plot is shallow...
Summary: 3 Stars
Shirley Temple gets little more than an enlarged cameo role in Stand Up And Cheer, a mediocre musical from Fox. Shirley outshines many of her adult peers in her musical number; she's absolutely adorable and she acts brilliantly especially considering her age! The plot moves along at a relatively good pace and most of the musical numbers are actually rather well done. The plot, however, is razor thin and frankly I thought it was hokey at its best and dumb at its worst.
The action begins when the president creates a new position in his cabinet for Secretary of Amusement to help the country forget its woes during the depression. When offered the position, showman Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter) accepts the position and eventually Lawrence becomes romantically involved with his assistant secretary of the children's department, Mary Adams (Madge Evans).
But things won't be so easy for Cromwell. Corporate moguls want the country to remain unhappy so that they can make huge profits as always. (Please don't ask me to explain this; it's just ridiculous.) One of the moguls takes Lawrence on a sea voyage to try to bribe him to leave the office and permanently undermine the Department of Amusement. Naturally, Lawrence Cromwell doesn't accept the bribe; he chooses to keep on fighting to help the nation get back on its feet and "out of the red" through amusement.
Shirley Temple fits in as a young child auditioning for Cromwell; and she gets a job from Cromwell despite the fact that she's a tad too young to officially be awarded the job. Shirley dances wonderfully--now if only she could have had the same genius at the age of seven to write a better plot for the movie the film could actually have gone somewhere! Look for James Dunn to play Jimmy Dugan, Shirley's father. James Dunn gives a great performance himself.
Although I've said a lot there's still more. We have the pure delight of watching painfully dated and embarrassing portraits of African American people in the "Aunt Jemima" character; and Stepin Fetchit plays what is today considered a very offensive role as a not very smart black man who just happens to be named George Bernard Shaw. Ouch! In fact, major OUCH!
If you decide to watch this movie, please just do so for the musical numbers--especially the one with Shirley, the "hillbilly" number with the dancing ladies and the strong finale. There's so little plot in the movie it's as if there's no plot at all; this is the first movie in quite a while that had a plot I genuinely considered dumb. It's a shame that Madge Evans, James Dunn and Warner Baxter couldn't be in a better quality film together; but they do act well with what little they are given and Shirley shines like gold!
The only DVD extra (besides scene selection) is a trailer for another film that is actually a REAL Shirley Temple film.
Enter please--but at your own risk. Sorry.
Two and one-half stars.
Summary of Stand Up and Cheer!
With America's economy at a standstill, the President creates the cabinet post of Secretary of Amusement and charges his new appointee with entertaining the country so everyone will forget their troubles. After all, as the President says, "any people blessed with a sense of humor can achieve success and victory". But certain businessmen who are getting rich off the misery of others try to sabotage this effort by launching a smear campaign to discredit the entire idea. Shirley does her part as little Shirley Dugan, Who has a song and dance act with her father (James Dunn).It can't really be called a "Shirley Temple movie," because the original Little Miss Sunshine appears in it for just 10 minutes or so. But you can easily see how Stand Up and Cheer! gave birth to the most dominant star of the mid-1930s: Shirley Temple brings down the house. With just a bit of dialogue and one musical number, "Baby Take a Bow," Ms. Temple sets the cuteness meter to 11 and packs considerable hilarity into her already-definable personality. (Old pro James Dunn, who co-starred with Temple in a few subsequent features, plays her father/dance partner here.) The movie itself is something else again, in every sense. Purportedly based on an idea by Will Rogers, it imagines a new cabinet position--Secretary of Amusement--established by the President himself. Said official (Warner Baxter, fresh off a similar role in 42nd Street) must drum up lotsa socko entertainment to pull America out of its Depression doldrums. The near-surreal results include the acrobatic vaudeville team Mitchell & Durant as loopy senators and a sequence involving Stepin Fechit and a talking penguin dressed up as Jimmy Durante. Yes, you read that right. Meanwhile, corporate fatcats conspire to ruin the plan; they want America to remain scared and passive. But you know they don't stand a chance against Shirley Temple--whose 1930s career fulfilled the movie's idea of cheering up a population staggered by hard times. --Robert Horton
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