Stand Up and Cheer (1934) DVD5 - Shirley Temple Film [DDR]

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.

    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

Directed by Hammilton MacFadden
Produced by Winfield Sheehan
Written by Dialogue:, , Lew Brown, Ralph Spence, 
Story: Will Rogers, Philip Klein
Music by Lew Brown, Jay Gorney

MOVIE REVIEW:- Stand Up and Cheer (1934)
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.

Upon release the film was given a strong endorsement by Variety, especially the work of "newcomer" Shirley Temple, whom they cited as the film's "unofficial star." Although modern scholars often point to the film as an example of typical Great Depression entertainment, Variety expressed reservations about its theme. "This musical is a hodge-podge principally handicapped by a national depression premise. Americans now like to think of themselves in the light of being on the upturn and having rounded that long-awaited corner, so Cheer's plot motivation is basically questionable [and] open to debate."

The film had eleven minutes of footage deleted for modern home video release, most of it racial in nature. In 2009, the film was 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.

Based on an idea by Will Rogers, the story concerns the efforts by the President of the United States to get the public's mind off the Depression. To this end, he appoints Broadway impresario Lawrence Cromwell (Warner Baxter) to the new cabinet position of "Secretary of Amusement." Wasting no time, Cromwell sets about to nationalize the entertainment industry, organizing singers, dancers, actors and other variety artists into batallion-like touring units. Cromwell is fought at every turn by a cartel of wealthy industrialists, who've been profiting from the Depression and have no desire to see America pull itself upward. Happily, every effort to bribe or cajole Cromwell into giving up his mission is thwarted and the Department of Amusement goes on to help the the country at a time when its citizens most needed it. Among the highlights are an energetic "revival-meeting" musical number by Aunt Jemima (Theresa Gardella), and 6-year-old Shirley Temple's rendition of "Baby Take a Bow." Originally released at 80 minutes, Stand Up and Cheer was edited to 69 minutes for reissue, then to 65 minutes (removing most of Stepin Fetchit's scenes) for television: it was this last version which was computer-colorized in 1987.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4999 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec:  AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams:  2
Audio Languages:English, Spanish
RunTime 80 mins
Subtitles: Espanol
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 80 mins