FREE: VHS "YOUNG PEOPLE" SHIRLEY TEMPLE ,1940, HER LAST MUSICAL, EXCELLENT IN EVERY WAY!

The listing, VHS "YOUNG PEOPLE" SHIRLEY TEMPLE ,1940, HER LAST MUSICAL, EXCELLENT IN EVERY WAY! has ended.

Shirley Temple's last few films for Twentieth-Century Fox were not gigantic box office successes as before, so the 1940 feature YOUNG PEOPLE became her last film for the studio, and her last musical (Shirley was 12). Shirley plays Wendy Ballantine, the adopted daughter of two vaudevillians (Jack Oakie and Charlotte Greenwood). The film follows The Three Ballantines throughout their career, using archival footage from some of the real-life Shirley's earlier films. They decide to retire from show business and move to a bucolic New England farm community, where they are not welcomed by the neighbors, who distrust showbiz folk, and their hostility increases when Wendy puts together a musical starring her classmates. Eventually, the Ballantines get tired of all this abuse, and decide to return to vaudeville. On their way out, their car gets stuck in the mud during a severe storm, and they rescue some children who are also stranded (although one child was missing, but was eventually rescued). Oddly enough, the Ballantines' rescue efforts make them heroes in the eyes of their formerly hostile neighbors, and they decide to stay in New England after all.

The musical numbers, mostly in the first part of the film, are superb. Shirley's great dancing, particularly on "Fifth Avenue," makes you wonder what might have been if she had stayed in musical comedy. CLAMSHELL Case immaculate--terrific family film!!