Stand Up and Cheer!

For other uses, see Stand Up and Cheer (disambiguation).

Stand Up and Cheer!
Directed by	Hamilton MacFadden
Produced by	Winfield Sheehan
Written by	Dialogue: Lew Brown Ralph Spence Story: Will Rogers Philip Klein
Starring	Warner Baxter Madge Evans Shirley Temple James Dunn Nigel Bruce
Music by	Lew Brown Jay Gorney
Cinematography	Ernest Palmer L. W. O'Connell
Distributed by	Fox Film
Release date(s)	May 4, 1934 (1934-05-04)
Running time	80 minutes / 69 minutes (edited version)
Country	United States
Language	English

Stand Up and Cheer! is a 1934 American musical film directed by Hamilton MacFadden. The screenplay by Lew Brown and Ralph Spence was based upon a story idea by Will Rogers and Philip Klein. The film is about efforts undertaken during the Great Depression to boost the morale of the country. It is essentially a vehicle for a string of vaudeville acts and a few musical numbers.

Plot

The President of the United States decides that the true cause of the Great Depression (raging when the film was released) is a loss of "optimism" as a result of a plot by financiers and bankers who are getting rich from the Depression. The President then appoints Lawrence Cromwell as secretary for the newly created Department of Amusement. Cromwell creates an army of entertainers and sends them out across the country. Much of the action centers around Cromwell auditioning acts in his office (with interruptions from janitor "George Bernard Shaw" played by Steppin Fetchit). At the end, as a musical production number breaks forth, Cromwell looks out of his office window and sees the Depression literally, instantaneously lift.

Cast

• Warner Baxter as Lawrence Cromwell
• Madge Evans as Mary Adams
• Shirley Temple as Shirley Dugan
• James Dunn as Jimmy Dugan
• Nigel Bruce as Eustis Dinwiddle
• Ralph Morgan as Secretary to President
• Steppin Fetchit as George Bernard Shaw
• Tess Gardella as Aunt Jemima
• Scotty Beckett as Auditioning Boy
• John Boles as Himself
• Nick Foran as Himself

Release

Critical response

The film has come under criticism in recent years due to its racially offensive stereotypes. Most of the racist content has been edited out in recent versions of the film. It is often marketed as a Shirley Temple motion picture; in reality, the child star played a very minor role in the film and had very little screen time.^{[citation needed]}

Home media

In 2009, the film as available on both videocassette and DVD in the original black-and-white version and a computer-colorized version of the original. Some versions included theatrical trailers and other special features.

Merchandise

In 1958, Temple's television show, Shirley Temple's Storybook went into production. At that time, she persuaded various manufacturers to release ancillary merchandise including the Baby Take a Bow polka-dot dress (Edwards 233).

References

Works cited

• Edwards, Anne (1988), Shirley Temple: American Princess, New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. 

External links

• Stand Up and Cheer! at the Internet Movie Database
• Stand Up and Cheer! at AllRovi