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Just Around the Corner (1938)

Shirley Temple plays a bright, precocious, optimistic little girl with just one parent in “Just Around the Corner.” I do realize I’ve just described every Shirley Temple ever made, but hey, when you’ve got a winning formula, why change it?

This time around, the storyline is set during the Depression. Penny’s (Temple) father, Jeff Hale, was an architect, but when stocks fell, he lost his job. He now works as the handyman at the posh apartment building where he used to rent the penthouse suite. Penny has had to come home from her ritzy girls’ school, and she “takes care” of her father now (played by Charles Farrell).

When Penny asks Jeff why the nation is suffering so badly, he tells her that Uncle Sam is overburdened and isn’t sure how to stay afloat. He said we should all be helping Uncle Sam instead of the other way around. Penny thinks he means a literal person named “Uncle Sam,” and when she meets her father’s old boss, and hears his nephew call him Uncle Sam, she thinks she’s found the solution to the problem. She sets about helping Uncle Sam in any way she can, up to and including holding a benefit concert to raise money for him. It’s a pretty lavish benefit – the sets and costumes were quite chic, as were the special effects. Rain actually falls on Shirley while she’s singing about it. I’m not sure how she managed to put all that together. She must have had some help.

This film also includes the Temple trademarks of dance routines, with Shirley dancing alongside Bill Robinson. She helps engineer a romance between her father and his girlfriend, and she has a hopelessly optimistic outlook on life. Again, if the formula works, why tamper with it?

A side note: if you pay attention, you’ll recognize Gus the chauffer as the Lion from “The Wizard of Oz.”

This movie was rated G.

Related Blogs:

The Wizard of Oz: Fantasy Extrordinaire

Shirley Temple: Child Star Shining

The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer