Just Around the Corner (1938)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Begins with Shirley leaving an exclusive girl's school because her architect father can no longer pay for it. Also, she discovers that her father is no longer living in a penthouse on the top floor of an apartment complex. He's living in a cheaper basement apartment. We have 2 wonderfully charismatic comedic character actors present in Franklin Pangborn, as the harried apartment building manager, and Claude Gillingwater. Pangborn, as Waters, is the classic prissy, snobbish, nervous, befuddled, functionary. He has an intuitive dislike for Shirley, always trying to find an excuse to kick her out of the building. He's subjected to several onerous indignities: being pushed into a pool while forcibly playing blind man's bluff , being pushed down a laundry shoot, and being taken away by police. Gillingwater is a crotchety befuddled old tycoon whose involvement in a building project is a central part of the plot. He served as the judge in the previous "Little Miss Broadway". Here, he is called Uncle Sam by his relatives living in the complex. Shirley's father also talks about another Uncle Sam, and Shirley thinks they are the same, because the cartoon in the paper looks just like Uncle Same upstairs. This misconception leads to some comedic and serious consequences.Shirley does a makeover of the mamma's boy Milton. She shaves off his long curls and buys him some "he-man" clothes to replace his preppy clothes. His society mother faints when she sees him, but eventually gets used to it. The title song is only heard during the opening credits. The two main production numbers are danced to "This is a Happy Little Ditty" and "Ï Love to Walk in the Rain" For the former song, Shirley and Bill Robinson form one dance pair, while Burt Lahr and Joan Davis form another. Shirley and Robinson are the main players in the latter production. Also, Robinson and a team of African American backups dance to "Brass Buttons and Epaulettes".As always, Shirley is cute and vivacious.

Coming home from boarding school, Shirley Temple rushes out of a chauffeured limousine (driven by a cowardly lion), heads up an elevator and into the penthouse where she believes her father (Charles Farrell) still lives. Much to her shock, the pickle-pussed apartment manager (Franklin Pangborn) gleefully tells her that her place is not there anymore. Residential maid Joan Davis rushes into her while walking a bunch of giant dogs (or actually, they are walking her), and takes her down to where she really lives: the garage apartment residence of the live-in engineer who now happens to be her father! It seems that Farrell's design of a residential skyscraper caused him to loose his job when the building of it stalled and now, he is in debt. The building's owner's niece (Amanda Duff) has tried to encourage her uncle (crotchety Claude Gillwater) to go through with the project, and when Temple meets "Uncle Sam" (as he is known), she tries to help him after seeing a look-alike drawing of America's "Uncle Sam" in the newspaper.Just another "Little Miss Fix-It" showcase for Temple, she is as cute as ever, but some serious talent threatens to outshine her. As maid and chauffeur, Joan Davis and Bert Lahr get little to do, but share a musical number with her that is taken over by the tap-dancing talents of Bill Robinson who also dominates the benefit finale. Farrell and Duff provide the romance, while Shirley gets a partner in crime with the precocious Benny Bartlett, a sniveling bratty rich kid who stands up to a bully and gets a silver dollar from Gillingwater for getting a black eye while his snooty dim-witted mother (Cora Witherspoon) faints in shock after Temple cuts off Bartlett's obnoxious looking curls.Then, there's Franklin Pangborn in one of his largest parts, basically playing an unlikable apartment manager whose main goal seems to keep Shirley from having fun. That makes him a villain of sorts, although he's a villain who never gets to win at his schemes. In certain scenes, he even begins to resemble Bela Lugosi with the teeth clenched in so far into his mouth that he seems either toothless or lipless. He laughs in brown-nosed mock humor at Witherspoon's unfunny jokes and at the end involves the police in his vendetta against Shirley which, of course, doesn't go off as he planned. His exit scene is reminiscent of Margaret Hamilton's "I'm melting!" speech in "The Wizard of Oz".By 1938, 20th Century Fox was obviously running out of ideas for new Shirley Temple stories, and while she certainly appears to be younger than her 10 years, the tide was beginning to turn with singers like Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin (ironically older than her) taking over "slowly but surely". The films were still entertaining, featured some great supporting players, and had decreased running times for the most part. In this case, "Just Around the Corner" was an ironic title considering that within two years, Shirley's Fox career would be history.

Cute little picture with little Shirley acting and singing up a storm as usual.Comedians Bert Lahr and Joan Davis are given so little to do. Claude Gillingwater, the banker in the memorable "Tale of 2 Cities," (1935) takes on a funny persona here as the rich Uncle Sam who is easily confused with the government. He even looks like Sam from the government.The story falls apart with the benefit for "Uncle Sam!" Franklin Pangborn steals the show as the head of the building whose always escorting Shirley out.The story may have had more meaning had they stuck with the original theme of rich versus poor. We saw plenty of that at the beginning but things to fade as the 2 groups seem to meld.

"Just Around the Corner" is strictly Shirley Temple 101. Paul Girard Smith's short story "Lucky Penny" (a much better title!) becomes an unlucky vehicle for the pint-sized star, here portraying the daughter of a financially-strapped architect during the Depression. Through some comically-contrived misunderstandings, Shirl comes to believe her father's boss is actually Uncle Sam--and sets out to solve not only her papa's problems, but the nation's as well! Forgettable bubblegum nonsense, though one with an elaborate production and some energy from supporting players Bert Lahr, Joan Davis, and Bill Robinson. ** from ****