Stowaway

20th Century Fox’s big Christmas release for the 1936 holiday season, Stowaway stars Shirley Temple as Barbara “Ching-Ching” Stewart, a young orphan stranded in China. Hiding in a car belonging to a wealthy playboy, played by Robert Young, Ching-Ching inadvertently finds herself aboard a steam ship set for America. After being discovered, she is looked after by Young and another passenger, a beautiful young woman played by Alice Faye, traveling with her selfish fiancée. Sensing that Young and Faye would make ideal parents for a lonely orphan like herself, Ching-Ching sets about playing cupid for the duration of the voyage. Full of music (including the song “Goodnight My Love” which became a major hit for Faye), romance and gentle humor, Stowaway screens tonight, in a 16mm print, as part of the Charles Allis Museum’s “Not Necessarily a Christmas Movie” film series.