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Fantastic!

Admirable film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

To say that this is a bad film is like saying the Bubonic Plague of the 14th century was a minor inconvenience! Aside from some adorable acting by a very young Shirley Temple, there really isn't much to like about this film. They even manage to make good actors like Warner Baxter look pretty bad since the film is terribly written and the variety acts are a bunch of no talents.The film begins on am embarrassing note. Warner Baxter's character is supposed made 'Secretary of Entertainment' by the President. The problem is that the guy sounded nothing like FDR--nothing! And the idea of a Secretary of Education!! Uggh! This is just a thinly disguised plot in order to fill the movie with one god-awful variety act after another. Among the terrible acts is a 'Hillbilly music' number, John Boles singing a terrible love song that could only have helped to INCREASE the divorce rate and an embarrassingly bad number where they imitate Jimmy Durante (you gotta see this--its awfulness is impossible to adequately describe). There also are some extremely racist numbers with 'Aunt Jemima' (actually Tess Gardella in black-face) and Stepin Fetchit behaving like a sub-human--just to guarantee that any black person watching the film would become disgusted and angry.This film was ostensibly designed to lift folks spirits during the Depression. Is it any surprise then that the Depression would continue for another eight years!!! I think it's no coincidence!! Overall, a godawful mess of a film only of interest to Shirley Temple-philes. Otherwise avoid like the plague! Don't say I didn't tell you!! "Stand Up and Cheer" only manages to earn a 2 because of Temple's charm and talent. But, considering she's barely in the film, there just isn't ANYTHING else to recommend this turkey.

This is a billed as a "Shirley Temple film," but it really isn't because she hardly appears in it. In fact, she doesn't appear until after 20 minutes have gone by, and then after the scene and a subsequent dance routine with James Dunn, disappears again until the very end. When she's here, she's as cute as ever, especially being so young.Warner Baxter had the main role as "Lawrence Cromwell." He was assisted by his secretary played by a very pretty Madge Evans, whom I didn't know until trying to find out on this website because the video box doesn't even have her listed in the billing.The rest of the cast included a couple of people I was familiar with from other roles, such as Nigel Bruce, who played Dr. Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes. We also have a lady who played Aunt Jemima and Stepin Fetchit, both a couple of embarrassing stereotypes of the period. I was never a fan of Fetchin, not for PC reasons but simply because of his whiny voice and stupid characters he played. He was the same here except when he dove into a fish tank, which made gave me a big laugh.This film had a good share of strange characters but, despite that, overall isn't anything that memorable....perhaps because Shirley had such a small role.

The 80 minute version is the complete film not the cut 69 minute version. I've seen the extended film on TV more than 30 years ago and loved it. If it's still available ( the 80 min. version ) can it be released on DVD? I'm sure there are other admirers of complete Shirley Temple films. The missing scenes has a Hillbilly talking to the incomparable " Steppin Fechit ", whose job it is to locate and sign-up additional novelty acts for his boss Warner Baxster. The Hillbilly commences to sing " Well shes down thar, and I'm up yar...". We see his wife swinging an ax against a tree and taking out huge chunks at a time. Her description is that shes large with a corn cob pipe in her mouth. She calls to him " you who " and he responds the same way back.

The portrayals of African American characters in this movie are, as has been pointed out, stereotypical, but I would like to suggest that where the actors themselves are allowed to show their talents, they transcend the stereotypes in ways even the filmmakers themselves recognized.Take, for example, the show-stopping finale to "I'm Laughing," performed by Tess Gardella. There are a series of tableaux in this number, of various individuals all representing different marginalized groups: Immigrants, sweatshop workers, laborers of all kinds, all leading up to Tess Gardella herself busting out with the biggest, cheeriest performance of all, surrounded by a rousing, dancing chorus. It was clearly meant to recap the song's theme--if I can laugh, as downtrodden as I am, so can you--and to embody those who persevere and triumph over circumstance. With a swish of her ample hips and a gleam in her eye, Ms. Gardella triumphs.The standard Stepin Fetchit routine has been analyzed everywhere, but let me just add that in this picture, the actor personifies African American resistance. In 1934 Black men were still not free from the vicious system of racial etiquette known as Jim Crow, and were therefore limited in the number of personae they were allowed to display. The genius of Stepin Fetchit is that he acts out the prescribed social role while frustrating those who prescribe it by withholding his intelligence and personality from the social interaction altogether. He slyly gives white people exactly what they demand,nothing more, forcing them to realize that perhaps that's not what they want after all. The resistance is his and the joke is on them.