Watch Now and Forever For Free

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

You can argue whether this is a Shirley Temple or Gary Cooper film, if you wish. I say it's both. Carole Lombard is less essential to the plot. The film is unusual in several respects. It was not produced by Shirley's home studio of Fox. It has a pessimistic, rather than a hopeful, ending, as relates to Cooper, at least. And, Cooper is portrayed as a compulsive con man, with no redeeming qualities save for making Shirley happy at a personal level. Well, we all know that not all stories can have a happy ending. This one seemingly has a mixed ending. Cooper's character evidently is too deep in debt to get out of it quickly by pursuing an ordinary job. Thus, he sells some phony gold mine to a jewel thief: Mr. Felix. But Felix knows it's phony. He requires Cooper to agree to steal an expensive diamond necklace from an elderly widow to avoid prosecution as a swindler. To gain easy access to Mrs. Crane's home, Cooper introduces her to Shirley, whom she takes an immediate liking to. They are invited over for a luncheon. Shirley sings "The World Owes me a Living". appropriate for Cooper, but rather unmemorable. The necklace gets passed around from Cooper to Shirley's teddy bear, Grumpy, to Shirley, back to Cooper, and somehow(very unclear how) to Mr. Felix. Cooper goes to Mr. Felix's office and pulls a gun on him when he claims he doesn't have the necklace. A shooting duel ensues, with Cooper the winner. Later , we learn that Cooper was hit in the side of the belly, and eventually passes out, presumably from loss of blood, although we see no blood oozing through his shirt. He didn't want to go to the hospital for fear the doctor would question how he got the bullet wound. However, Carol makes him go. The police came, but we don't see them, and don't know what evidence they may have linking Cooper to the killing. Incidentally, I checked to make sure, and heard only one gunshot between the two men, so how did Copper get wounded?Earlier, we spend time listening to Cooper negotiate with his brother-in -law, who has been hosting Shirley since Cooper's wife passed away, shortly after Shirley's birth. Cooper wants $75,000. for the right to officially adopt Shirley, whom he has yet to meet. The brother-in-law balks at this outrageous sum. So, they start considerably lower, and gradually work up to the $75,000. Then, Cooper meets Shirley and he's charmed and decides to forget about the adoption bargain, taking her to Europe, where Carol has buzzed off to.The ending is sad as relates to the loss of the warm interactions that have developed between Shirley and Cooper or Carol. However, Cooper has arranged for old Mrs. Crane(of diamond necklace fame) to adopt Shirley. Thus, hopefully, she will have a stable, well financed home. However, we don't know how she will get along with Mrs. Crane. Also, she will sorely miss her daddy or some other adequate father figure who can play with her. The future of Cooper and Carol looks probably bleak. If the police can connect Cooper to the death of Mr. Felix, he will be sent to prison for murder, or perhaps for manslaughter, if he can convince that he shot sort of in self-defense. Carol claims she will stand by her man. But, especially if the trial goes against Cooper, she would be advised to seek another man, as he probably wont be able to get a normal job when he gets out.The best part of this downer film is Shirley. She provides an adorable respite from all the criminal activities.Available on YouTube

Nearly all of Shirley Temple's childhood films were made at Twentieth Century Fox and it helped make this studio one of the most successful ones of the 1930s. However, for some reason Shirley starred in this film for Paramount. Fox loaned her out to Paramount (a practice that occasionally happened to keep actors busy during slack periods or as part of a trade between the studios for a film or two) and considering how successful she was at the time, this loan-out is surprising. Perhaps it's because it was still early in Shirley's career, though with some big hits behind her, it's still hard to understand. Or, perhaps Fox really owed Paramount because they loan them some mega- star or mega-stars. This film is a bit unusual. While her parents were sometimes idiots in her films, they usually weren't criminals like they are in "Now and Forever". Pennie's mother died and she's being raised by her mother's family. This is a blessing since her father, Jerry (Gary Cooper) is a con man and is just no good. In fact, at one point her returns to his wife's family and tries to sell his interest in the child in order to make money!! Fortunately, when Pennie (Temple) spends time with her no-good father, she manages to bring out the best in him and he wants her not for any money but to raise her because she's so sweet. This is a relief to Jerry's girlfriend, Toni (Carole Lombard), as she's tired of their life together...always being just one step ahead of the law! But Toni is realistic...any change might be temporary and Jerry needs to think about someone else other than himself for once. Can this jerk of a dad and very immature man actually turn out to be a family man? So is this film any good? Well, I certainly would never consider placing it among Temple's better films. The biggest reason is that the film is a MAJORLY depressing film...especially at the end. In most later films, parents had issues but worked them out happily by the end and everything was peachy. Here, it's just a depressing, miserable mess. The acting is good...the script really isn't. Overall, not a terrible film but it lacks something in later movies...fun.

This movie is well worth viewing, if only to see Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard in relatively early roles and to see Shirley Temple in an unusual part before she really peaked in popularity (here she is an incredible SIX years old). This is not a typical Temple film, in that she sings only one song (expertly), but you do get to see her act in a thoroughly convincing way. The supporting players are excellent as well.This is a rather odd movie that can't quite make up its mind what to be...a decidedly downbeat ending that is actually starker than it's presented in some reviews here and a series of rather improbable con jobs that are not dramatically convincing. However, it's a treat to see the incredibly talented Temple, the skillful Carole Lombard, and the totally charming Gary Cooper (who, by the way, sports a very impressive wardrobe throughout, as does Lombard).I watched the colorized version--better than I expected--but would have preferred black and white. See this movie with a "willing suspension of disbelief" and you'll enjoy it as a blast from the long-ago past.

Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard reminded me of the romantic thieves in "Algiers" played by Charles Boyer and Hedy LaMarr. That movie was 1938 and this one 1934, so this movie is the original. It is a pre-code movie, so don't expect the stupid moral standards that the Hays office enforced in the years after this movie. Cooper and Lombard are wonderfully charming in their first few scenes together. They become more intense later on and less fun. In fact the whole film become less fun when Shirley Temple enters. At age six, Temple wasn't yet the brilliant seasoned pro and entertainer she became the following years. This is Henry Hathaway's eleventh film, but eight of those were one hour Westerns with Randolph Scott, so it is only his third non-Western. His work with the actors, camera placements and story-telling techniques are excellent.The main problem I found was with the stings or cons that are in the film. They seem far too easy. Perhaps people were much more gullible and assumed honesty in those days, but it is hard to believe that Cooper could have pulled off his cons without the luck of having a screenwriter watching over him.It is not a great film, and not the best for Cooper, Lombard, Temple or Hathaway, but there is a lot of talent here and the film is enjoyable most of the time.Incidentally, Dorothy Dell starred with Shirley Temple in 1934 in "Little Miss Marker" and died in a car crash at the age of 19. Carole Lombard starred with Temple in this movie and died in a plane crash at the age of 34. I thought I had discovered a "Temple Curse," but when I checked all of Temple's other female co-stars, almost all lived into their 80's or 90's and died of natural causes.