Now and Forever (1934 film)

Now and Forever

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Produced by Louis D. Lighton
Screenplay by
  • Vincent Lawrence
  • Sylvia Thalberg
Story by
  • Jack Kirkland
  • Melville Baker
Starring
Music by
Cinematography Harry Fischbeck
Edited by Ellsworth Hoagland
Production
company
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • August 31, 1934 (1934-08-31) (USA)
Running time
 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Now and Forever is a 1934 American drama film directed by Henry Hathaway. The screenplay by Vincent Lawrence and Sylvia Thalberg was based on a story by Jack Kirkland and Melville Baker. The film stars Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, and Shirley Temple in a story about a criminal going straight for his child's sake. Temple sang "The World Owes Me a Living". The film was critically well received. Temple adored Cooper who nicknamed her 'Wigglebritches' (Windeler 140). This is the only film in which Lombard and Temple appeared together.

Plot summary

A lazy and irresponsible Jerry Day (Gary Cooper), desperate for quick cash, is willing to sell the custody rights of his own daughter Penelope (Shirley Temple), whom he's never seen. Cooper's girlfriend Toni Carstairs (Carole Lombard) is shocked by this callousness and walks out on him, but when Cooper meets his daughter and has a change of heart, he reclaims the little girl and is reunited with Toni. Still, Cooper can't hold down a job. Another get-rich-quick scheme ends unhappily when Cooper is forced to participate in a jewel robbery.[1]

Cast

Production

Temple was loaned out to Paramount by Fox Films for $3,500 a week in what would be her second movie at Paramount. It would also be the first movie in which a stand-in (Marilyn Granas) was hired for Temple. Temple had a good rapport with the adult crew, especially Gary Cooper, who bought her several toys and made a number of sketches for her. During the making of the movie, Dorothy Dell, who costarred with Temple in Little Miss Marker and developed a close personal friendship with her, died in an automobile accident. Temple was not told about this until filming was started on the crying scene in the movie in which her character finds out her father was lying to her about stealing the jewelry. The tears she was crying in that scene were in effect real tears.[2]

Reception

The film was popular at the box office.[3]

The New York Times thought the film "a sentimental melodrama" and "a pleasant enough entertainment." Temple was highly praised for her performance.[4]

Temple sang "The World Owes Me a Living",[5] a version of which also featured in a Silly Symphonies animation of The Ant and the Grasshopper[6] in the same year. Louella Parsons was amazed "at the ease with which [Temple] reels off her lines, saying big words and expressions. There is nothing parrot-like about Shirley. She knows what she is talking about." Temple-fever spread with the release of the film. Her fan mail (which numbered 400–500 letters a day) was delivered in huge mail sacks to the studio and a secretary was hired to manage it (Edwards 66).

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ http://www.allmovie.com/movie/now-and-forever-v104367
  2. ↑ Shirley Temple Black, "Child Star: An Autobiography" (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1988), 60-65.
  3. ↑ Churchill, Douglas W. The Year in Hollywood: 1934 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era (gate locked); New York Times [New York, N.Y] 30 Dec 1934: X5. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  4. ↑ Sennwald, Andre (1934-10-13), The Paramount Presents Little Miss Temple in 'Now and Forever', The New York Times, retrieved 2013-12-16
  5. ↑ Available on Video on YouTube
  6. ↑ Available on Video on YouTube
Bibliography
  • Edwards, Anne (1988), Shirley Temple: American Princess, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. 
  • Windeler, Robert (1992) [1978], The Films of Shirley Temple, New York: Carol Publishing Group, ISBN 0-8065-0725-X 
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