Stowaway (1936)

A young girl lost in Shanghai is taken in by an American playboy and his girlfriend.

Director:

William A. Seiter

Writers:

William M. Conselman (screen play) (as William Counselman), Arthur Sheekman (screen play)

Stars:

Shirley Temple, Robert Young, Alice Faye

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shirley Temple	...	Ching-Ching aka Barbara Stewart
Robert Young	...	Tommy Randall
Alice Faye	...	Susan Parker
Eugene Pallette	...	The Colonel
Helen Westley	...	Mrs. Hope
Arthur Treacher	...	Atkins
Allan Lane	...	Richard Hope
J. Edward Bromberg	...	Judge J.D. Booth
Astrid Allwyn	...	Kay Swift
Robert Greig	...	Captain
Jayne Regan	...	Dora Day
Julius Tannen	...	First Mate Jenkins
Willie Fung	...	Chang
Philip Ahn	...	Sun Lo
Paul McVey	...	Second Mate

Storyline

Ching-Ching gets lost in Shanghai and is befriended by American playboy Tommy Randall. She falls asleep in his car which winds up on a ship headed for America. Susan Parker, also on the ship, marries Randall to give Chin-Ching a family.

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Plot Keywords:

girl | melodrama | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Musical

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

25 December 1936 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ching Ching

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shirley Temple was tutored in her Chinese dialogue by Bessie Nyi, a UCLA student from Shanghai. When Shirley tried her phrases on the film's extras, they didn't understand her. Her dialogue was in Mandarin, which was appropriate for her character, but the Chinese community of Los Angeles largely spoke Cantonese, and consequently most of the dialogue spoken by the extras in the movie is in Cantonese, which was not spoken in Shanghai, where this film is set.

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Goofs

When Ching-Ching meets Tommy Randall in the shop where he's trying to buy a dragon's head, the shop owner holds up the dragon head to let Tommy Randall see it. In the next shot, the dragon's head is sitting on the counter.

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Quotes

Sun Lo: [to Shirley Temple] May your shadow lengthen always in the sun of happiness.

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Connections

Featured in Biography: Darryl F. Zanuck: 20th Century Filmmaker (1995)

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Soundtracks

One Never Knows, Does One?
(1936)
Music by Harry Revel
Lyrics by Mack Gordon
Copyright 1936 by Robbins Music Corp.
Performed by Alice Faye

User Reviews

Egads, Shirley as a street kid in China?

Shirley Temple was, deservedly, the most famous child star ever. She was a natural, endearing actress, with little of the cloying "cuteness" that afflicted so many of her contemporaries (Jane Withers, Darla Hood, e.g.), and an amazingly talented singer/dancer. Normally I don't mind her movies all that much, and a few ("Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm", for example) I even find enjoyable. However, something went wrong here.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly who or what to blame. William A. Seiter was a first-rate comedy/musical director; Nat Perrin was a top comedy writer who wrote for, among others, the Marx Brothers; Robert Young and Alice Faye were solid actors who were more than capable of carrying a picture by themselves. However, absolutely nothing works in this picture. The story (for lack of a better word) is so far out it should be classified as science fiction. Shirley is a street kid nicknamed "Ching-Ching" (!) who befriends Robert Young in China; the two of them wind up on a cruise ship to Hong Kong and Singapore, where Young meets Alice Faye, who is aboard with her fiance's mother. The fiance, as played by Allan "Rocky" Lane--a future Republic Pictures cowboy star--is a wealthy banker who has a mother fixation that would shame Cliff Claven. The film is so full of embarrassing moments it's difficult to pick out just one. Shirley's spouting of witless "Chinese proverbs" at every conceivable opportunity is infuriating; there is a jaw-dropping scene at a Hong Kong version of "The Gong Show" where a Chinese singer does Bing Crosby impressions, and Shirley gets on stage and dances with a life-size (for her) doll that is attached to her shoes. To make a long and idiotic story short, Alice dumps her fiance, she and Young agree to get married so Young can adopt Shirley, then they will go to Reno to get a divorce; however, after the marriage, when they arrive in Reno, Shirley manages to persuade the presiding judge (and Young and Faye) that they actually love each other and should stay married.

There. I've saved you the trouble of sitting through this. You're welcome.