Shirley Temple's 10 Best Movies, Ranked

April 20, 2024, 2:15 p.m.

Movies

Shirley Temple's 10 Best Movies, Ranked

0 0

Summary Shirley Temple began her acting career at 3 and quickly became Hollywood's number-one box office draw, beloved by audiences of all ages.

Despite playing child roles, Temple continued acting until her early 20s and transitioned into rom-coms, like Almost a Bride.

Temple's final films, like "Fort Apache" opposite John Wayne and "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" with Cary Grant, showcased her diverse talent.

As one of the most prominent child stars ever, Shirley Temple began her acting career at three years old and quickly became among the most recognizable actresses on the planet. From 1934 to 1938, Temple was Hollywood’s number-one box office draw as she sang, danced, and acted her way through several feature films per year. Temple's cute curls, coy charisma, and quintessential star power led to her being beloved by audiences of all ages who turned out to see her family-friendly films. One of the greatest female American screen legends, her movies are still acclaimed more than 90 years later.

Although Temple was primarily known as a child star, she continued acting until her early 20s with memorable roles in rom-coms like The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer opposite Cary Grant or the John Ford and John Wayne Western classic Fort Apache. When she was just 21 years old, Temple appeared in her final film and went on to a successful diplomatic career with the United Nations. A true icon from a bygone era, Temple deserved to be remembered among the best child stars there ever were.

10 Almost A Bride (1949)

Shirley Temple as Corliss Archer

The child star Shirley Temple was 21 years old when she starred in her final movie, Almost a Bride, a sequel to her comedy Kiss and Tell. Although Almost a Bride did not live up to the reputation of Temple’s earlier movies, it was of serious cinematic importance as it represented the end of the star’s impressive showbiz career before she entered diplomacy and worked as a United States ambassador. As the story of a teenage girl who falsely told the whole town she was going out with an older man, Almost a Bride was typical of Temple’s rom-com roles.

Almost a Bride, which was also known under the title A Kiss for Corliss, represented the kind of good-natured, lighthearted farce that Temple did so well, but it also highlighted her difficulties transitioning into adult roles. At 21, Shirley was still playing a teenager, and having already worked as an actress for 15 years, this was the final movie before she decided to call it quits. A fun and harmless comedy, Almost a Bride had plenty of issues, but was significant as the final cinematic outing for Temple.

Although Almost a Bride was Shirley Temple’s final film role, she did not retire entirely from show business as she returned to host and narrate the children’s anthology series Shirley Temple’s Storybook in 1958.

9 Stowaway (1936)

Shirley Temple as Barbara "Ching-Ching" Stewart

The incredible talent of Shirley Temple was on full display in the family-friendly musical drama Stowaway, which Temple starred in when she was just eight years old. Although there was a perception that Temple was beginning to grow out of playing cute toddler roles, Temple’s incredible screen presence and strong star power ensured that Stowaway was a success at the box office, earning $1 million against its $500,000 budget (via Solomon.) The story of a young American orphaned girl in Shanghai, Temple was even tutored in Mandarin for her role in Stowaway (via New York Times.)

Stowaway featured Temple as Barbara “Ching-Ching” Stewart, an optimistic little girl who found herself stowed away on an ocean liner that the wealthy playboy Tommy Randall (Robert Young) was traveling on. What followed was a tale of family connection as Tommy decided to adopt Ching-Ching and raise her as his daughter. However, to do this, he needed a wife, and in the process of planning a wedding, he truly fell in love with his bride-to-be. Stowaway was a well-meaning movie that provided audiences with a healthy dose of positivity and a nice, tidy, happy ending for all.

8 The Little Princess (1939)

Shirley Temple as Sara Crewe

The Little Princess was Shirley Temple’s first movie to be filmed entirely in Technicolor and her last major success as a child actress. As the final pairing between Temple and Cesar Romero following Wee Willie Winkie and Ali Baba Goes to Town, The Little Princess felt like the end of an era for the child star as she became less relevant as she grew older and Hollywood entered the era of color. With Victorian London as the backdrop, The Little Princess was a fairy tale story about a girl left behind in a seminary while her father fought at war.

While The Little Princess was a drama, it also featured musical numbers and an extended ballet sequence that proved Temple had not lost any of her innate charm and exceptional skill. Temple played Sara Crewe, who refused to accept reports of her father’s death in combat and, with no family left, was forced to become a servant. While it’s easy to dismiss movies like The Little Princess as overtly corny and over-the-top melodramatic, it maintained an infectious charm and a truly tear-inducing happy ending.

7 Stand Up and Cheer! (1934)

Shirley Temple as Shirley Dugan

As a movie released in the midst of the Great Depression in the United States, Stand Up and Cheer! was a highly relevant story about America’s need for optimism through all the hardships they had faced. In order to resolve the downtrodden morale of society, the President decided to create the Department of Amusement and sent performers all across the country to lift the people’s spirits. At the center of these performances was Shirley Temple, whose breakout performance came in Stand Up and Cheer!

Stand Up and Cheer! turned Temple into an instant movie star as her signature hair curls and polka-dot dress cemented her as the cutest star in Hollywood.

At just six years old, Temple’s song and dance performance in Stand Up and Cheer! turned Temple into an instant movie star as her signature hair curls and polka-dot dress cemented her as the cutest star in Hollywood. Although she was only a minor character, Temple truly stole the show in Stand Up and Cheer! as she tap danced and sang with a level of skill rarely seen by someone so young. Following this breakout role, Temple would star in eight more movies in 1934 alone.

6 The Blue Bird (1940)

Shirley Temple as Mytyl

The fantasy adventure The Blue Bird was produced following the incredible success of The Wizard of Oz the year before, but, despite the star power of Shirley Temple in the lead role, it did not have nearly the same amount of success. Temple played Mytyl, a grumpy girl in the 1800s Germany who was visited by a fairy and sent on a mission to find the Blue Bird of Happiness. Mytyl, together with her brother, went on a journey to visit their grandparents in the past, experienced a life of luxury, and faced peril in a dangerous forest.

Throughout Mytyl’s adventures, she learned that happiness was on the inside, and The Blue Bird taught a valuable lesson about appreciating the little things in life and finding joy from within. Sadly, The Blue Bird was made during the time when Temple had grown out of her adorable toddler roles but was not yet old enough to play teenagers or romantic leads. The Blue Bird stood as a forgotten gem within the career of Temple which has been vastly overshadowed by the iconic legacy of The Wizard of Oz.

5 The Little Colonel (1935)

Shirley Temple as Lloyd Sherman

The Little Colonel was a comedy-musical movie that featured Shirley Temple as Lloyd Sherman, a little girl trying to restore peace among her parents and plantation-owning grandfather in post-Civil War America. The Little Colonel was a groundbreaking production best known for its iconic tap-dancing staircase scene, where Temple and the butler Walker (Bill Robinson) played off one another. The scene was controversial as it was the first interracial dance pairing in Hollywood history (via Far Out), and the sequence had to be cut from the version shown in the South.

A magnificent showcase of Temple’s astounding potential, The Little Colonel, and particularly her staircase scene, highlighted why she was such a popular box office draw in the mid-1930s. Although she was only seven years old at the time, Temple was quick witted in her responses and delivered her lines with a confidence rarely seen in a performer so young. The Little Colonel was a true classic of the 1930s that was made even more effective by its trailblazing denial of segregation.

4 The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

Shirley Temple as Susan Turner

Shirley Temple starred opposite Cary Grant in the screwball comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, where she played 17-year-old Susan Turner, who found herself infatuated with an older man named Richard Nugent. At first glance, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer appeared to be woefully outdated, as the age gap between Shirley and Grant was the main driver of this rom-com conflict, as Richard desperately tried to avoid Susan’s advances and encouraged her to go after somebody her own age. With a well-written and funny script, Temple showcased a real skill for comedy, as her infatuation infuriated everybody around her.

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer was one of the best films in the latter part of Temple’s career and proved that had she continued acting, she could have done very well in more adult-based roles. Temple was able to hold her own against one of the top movie stars of the day, and she had strong chemistry with Grant as they annoyed, joked with, and misunderstood one another. As the story of a girl’s misplaced crush on an older man, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer walked the fine line between being funny and just a little bit creepy.

The "man with the power" routine in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer was the inspiration for David Bowie’s song "Magic Dance" in the movie Labyrinth (1986).

3 Bright Eyes (1934)

Shirley Temple as Shirley Blake

In 1934, at just six years old, Shirley Temple was already one of the biggest celebrities in the world when she starred in Bright Eyes, a comedy drama produced to highlight her unique talent. Temple played Shirley Blake, the daughter of a widowed mother who was stuck living with a mean-spirited family and whose situation only got worse after her mom died in a tragic accident. While Shirley was always good-natured and fun, her cruel host family wished to send her away to an orphanage, so they no longer had to deal with her.

Despite Shirley’s tragic situation, the kind-hearted Uncle Ned instead decided to take her in, but before that could happen, Shirley was thrust on an airplane adventure that saw her and Ned flying cross-country to New York through a dangerous storm. Bright Eyes was full of over-the-top melodrama that was made more effective through the incredible charisma of its small-statured star. Known primarily for its famous rendition of “On the Good Ship Lollipop,” Bright Eyes was a highlight of Temple’s early career, and the year it was released, Temple received the first Juvenile Academy Award for contributions to entertainment.

2 Fort Apache (1948)

Shirley Temple as Miss Philadelphia Thursday

Fort Apache (1948) Director John Ford Release Date March 27, 1948 Cast John Wayne , Henry Fonda , Shirley Temple , John Agar , Ward Bond , Irene Rich , Anna Lee , George O'Brien Runtime 125 Minutes

Just one year before Shirley Temple decided to call it a day on her acting career, she co-starred with the world's biggest Western star, John Wayne, under the direction of one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived, John Ford. In the Western classic Fort Apache, Temple played the daughter of a mean-spirited Lieutenant (Henry Fonda) named Miss Philadelphia Thursday. With a love story that involved her real-life husband, John Agar, Temple brought emotion and depth to this story set against the backdrop of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Temple and Agar had great chemistry on screen that mimicked their real-life romance.

As one of the first Western movies to present a sympathetic view of Native Americans, Fort Apache was an important movie, made even better by the romantic side plot of Temple and Agar. As two young lovers torn apart by Thursday’s prejudiced father, Temple and Agar had great chemistry on screen that mimicked their real-life romance. Fort Apache was the last time Temple worked on a film of such stature and legacy, which was a real shame as it stood as her greatest role as an adult.

1 Heidi (1937)

Shirley Temple as Heidi Kramer

The musical drama Heidi featured nine-year-old Shirley Temple at the absolute height of her star power and contributed to her legacy as Hollywood's number one box-office star for four consecutive years. In a story loosely based on Johanna Spyri's 1880 children’s book Heidi, Temple played a Swiss orphan who was taken from her loving grandfather to live as a companion to a spoiled and tantrum-prone little girl. Heidi was a simple story of a girl lost and in need of finding that owed its success to the chemistry between Temple and her grandfather, Adolph Kramer (Jean Hersholt.)

The emotional center of Heidi was the way that Temple brought positivity to every scene she was in, and Heidi’s optimistic nature helped turn her grumpy, mountain-dwelling, hermit grandfather into a gentle and cheery figure. Although not a musical, Heidi still managed to pack in a song and dance by Shirley Temple, and was the best example of this child actress's unique cinematic charm. Watching Heidi, it’s easy to see why Temple was such a runaway success for audiences of all ages in the 1930s.

Sources: Solomon, New York Times, Far Out