Shirley Temple at Reel Classics, Page 3

Reel Classics > Stars > Actresses > Shirley Temple >

Shirley Temple

Page 3

A poster from SUSANNAH OF THE MOUNTIES (1939) in which she plays the orphaned survivor of Indian attacks in the Canadian West who is taken in by a Mountie and his girlfriend.

One of Shirley's best films, THE LITTLE PRINCESS (1939) is the story of a little girl left behind in London at an all-girls school while her father (played by Ian Hunter, at right) goes off to fight the Boer War.

Multimedia Clips

Hear Shirley and Arthur Treacher sing "The Old Kent Road" from THE LITTLE PRINCESS (a .WAV file).

See Shirley dance the "Dream Ballet" in THE LITTLE PRINCESS (a .AVI file courtesy 20th Century-Fox).

(For help opening any of the multimedia files, visit the plug-ins page.)

20th Century-Fox's answer to the success of THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), THE BLUE BIRD (1940) was a lavish Technicolor musical fantasy which never achieved the success that Fox executives had hoped for. At right is a lobby card from the film featuring Shirley and her young co-star Johnny Russell.

Having completed her Fox contract, Shirley now assumed more grown-up roles. In 1944 she played Claudette Colbert's youngest daughter in David O. Selznick's World War II homefront epic SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, about a family struggling to keep a stiff upper lip while their father is away at war. At left is a still from the film featuring Robert Walker, Jennifer Jones, Temple and Colbert.

In 1947, Shirley played the teenaged younger sister of judge Myrna Loy who falls in love with playboy Cary Grant in THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER. Loy orders Grant to wine and dine her sister until Shirley gets over her infatuation, and needless to say, comedy ensues. Author Sidney Sheldon earned an Oscar for his screenplay.

One of Shirley's last major films was FORT APACHE (1948), the first of John Ford's cavalry trilogy. Starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda (left) as well as a host of memorable Ford stock players, FORT APACHE was also notable as the screen debut of Shirley's first husband, John Agar, who played her love interest in the film.