An actually really decent Shirley Temple film, helped by the novelty of the setting - war-torn China, where little Shirley is an orphan (missionary parents were killed) who winds up in Shanghai fleeing a warlord attack. She hooks up with millionaire Robert Young, who adds some badly needed professional polish - male leads were often weak and/or creepy in Temple films and Young achieves the no mean feat of not looking like a kiddie fiddler. He's helped by the fact he has a bit of a character and emotional journey to play - to wit, a spoilt playboy who matures by looking after Shirley - and has a nice romantic subplot where he falls for Alice Faye, who is engaged to someone else.
I did feel for that someone else at times - while a dull stick obsessed with his mother and working in Bangkok (I wonder what happened to him in World War Two?) he didn't really deserve Faye leading him on.
Still, there is lots of colourful 20th Century Fox backlot production value, Shirley speaking Chinese, singing a few good songs, imitating Al Jolson (there's also a Chinese guy imitating Bing Crosby), shipboard shenanigans, a kindly judge and a bossy old lady.
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