What makes it different from others?

Disturbing yet enthralling

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Nearly all of Shirley Temple's childhood films were made at Twentieth Century Fox and it helped make this studio one of the most successful ones of the 1930s. However, for some reason Shirley starred in this film for Paramount. Fox loaned her out to Paramount (a practice that occasionally happened to keep actors busy during slack periods or as part of a trade between the studios for a film or two) and considering how successful she was at the time, this loan-out is surprising. Perhaps it's because it was still early in Shirley's career, though with some big hits behind her, it's still hard to understand. Or, perhaps Fox really owed Paramount because they loan them some mega- star or mega-stars. This film is a bit unusual. While her parents were sometimes idiots in her films, they usually weren't criminals like they are in "Now and Forever". Pennie's mother died and she's being raised by her mother's family. This is a blessing since her father, Jerry (Gary Cooper) is a con man and is just no good. In fact, at one point her returns to his wife's family and tries to sell his interest in the child in order to make money!! Fortunately, when Pennie (Temple) spends time with her no-good father, she manages to bring out the best in him and he wants her not for any money but to raise her because she's so sweet. This is a relief to Jerry's girlfriend, Toni (Carole Lombard), as she's tired of their life together...always being just one step ahead of the law! But Toni is realistic...any change might be temporary and Jerry needs to think about someone else other than himself for once. Can this jerk of a dad and very immature man actually turn out to be a family man? So is this film any good? Well, I certainly would never consider placing it among Temple's better films. The biggest reason is that the film is a MAJORLY depressing film...especially at the end. In most later films, parents had issues but worked them out happily by the end and everything was peachy. Here, it's just a depressing, miserable mess. The acting is good...the script really isn't. Overall, not a terrible film but it lacks something in later movies...fun.

Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard reminded me of the romantic thieves in "Algiers" played by Charles Boyer and Hedy LaMarr. That movie was 1938 and this one 1934, so this movie is the original. It is a pre-code movie, so don't expect the stupid moral standards that the Hays office enforced in the years after this movie. Cooper and Lombard are wonderfully charming in their first few scenes together. They become more intense later on and less fun. In fact the whole film become less fun when Shirley Temple enters. At age six, Temple wasn't yet the brilliant seasoned pro and entertainer she became the following years. This is Henry Hathaway's eleventh film, but eight of those were one hour Westerns with Randolph Scott, so it is only his third non-Western. His work with the actors, camera placements and story-telling techniques are excellent.The main problem I found was with the stings or cons that are in the film. They seem far too easy. Perhaps people were much more gullible and assumed honesty in those days, but it is hard to believe that Cooper could have pulled off his cons without the luck of having a screenwriter watching over him.It is not a great film, and not the best for Cooper, Lombard, Temple or Hathaway, but there is a lot of talent here and the film is enjoyable most of the time.Incidentally, Dorothy Dell starred with Shirley Temple in 1934 in "Little Miss Marker" and died in a car crash at the age of 19. Carole Lombard starred with Temple in this movie and died in a plane crash at the age of 34. I thought I had discovered a "Temple Curse," but when I checked all of Temple's other female co-stars, almost all lived into their 80's or 90's and died of natural causes.

NOW AND FOREVER (Paramount, 1934), directed by Henry Hathaway, based on the story "Honor Bright" by Jack Kirkwood and Melville Baker, stars two-time Academy Award winner Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard, best known for screwball comedies, in a leisurely paced drama made watchable for the early screen presence of little Shirley Temple. While noteworthy as a Temple film, NOW AND FOREVER virtually belongs to the adults, particularly Cooper in an offbeat performance.The story opens in Shanghai where adventurer Jerome "Jerry" Day (Gary Cooper), along with his traveling companion/wife Toni (Carole Lombard) of three years (whom he constantly asks, "Who do you love?), staying at the Occidental Hotel. Aside from living out of suitcases, catching planes, trains and boats for their next destination, Jerry is also an international crook. Unable to pay his hotel bill, he acquires the cash posing as a hotel auditor from guests whose bills are long overdue. Fully aware of his background, Toni is surprised to learn that Jerry has a child ("For a man who talks so much, you say very little"), living under the guardianship of his late wife Elsie's rich brother (Gilbert Emery) at an estate in Connecticut. Instead of reclaiming his daughter, Jerry decides on making easy money by selling the custody over to him for $75,000. Unable to cope with this situation, Toni decides to remain in Paris while Jerry meets with his brother-in-law and attorney (Henry Kolker). Once Jerry meets with his daughter, Penelopie, better known as Penny (Shirley Temple), whom he hasn't seen since birth, he is touched by the child and takes her away with him. After sailing back to Paris, Jerry introduces Penny to Toni as her new mother. All goes well, with Jerry now earning an honest living as agent for Rivera Realty Company, until he meets up with Felix Evans (Sir Guy Standing), an elderly gentleman to whom he sold a phony gold mine for $5,000 while with Penny in New York. Being a crook himself, Felix let Jerry swindle him in order to blackmail him into stealing a valuable necklace belonging to Mrs. J.H.P. Crane (Charlotte Granville), a wealthy widow whom Penny has already befriended. Further complications arise for Jerry as Mrs. Crane, who senses his adventurous ways, wanting to adopt Penny in order to give her a better life than her father ever could.NOW AND FOREVER became Temple's second and final loan-out assignment from her home base at Fox Studios, her first being LITTLE MISS MARKER (1934). Although both films are equal to the point of having its opening credits orchestrated to the score of "Laugh, You Son-of-a-Gun," LITTLE MISS MARKER has proved more favorable by today's standards than NOW AND FOREVER in spite its top name cast of Cooper and Lombard. Temple has little screen time with Lombard, but gets the most out of playing opposite the extremely tall Cooper as well as the elderly co-stars of Charlotte Granville (giving an Alison Skipworth-type performance) and Sir Guy Standing. Temple's most crucial scene occurs while crying after discovering Mrs. Crane's necklace hidden in her teddy bear, believing "Daddy" had stolen it, even worse after swearing "honor bright" to her that he didn't. This is followed by a touching scene of forgiveness with daughter kissing Daddy. Take notice that the portion where society woman wanting to adopt child was reworked into Temple's latter film, DIMPLES (20th-Fox, 1936) with Helen Westley as the matron and Frank Morgan as Temple's petty thief grandfather.As much as Temple is seldom seen mixing with other children on screen, she gets an opportunity enacting briefly opposite Ronnie Cosbey as the little boy by the poolside with whom she trades roller skates, as well as entertaining children guests attending Mrs. Crane's dinner party by singing, sneezing and stomping her feet to the tune of "The World Owes Me a Living" (by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon).Of all the Temple features produced from 1934 to 1940, NOW AND FOREVER appeared to be the only one not part of any Shirley Temple Film Festivals on commercial television during the 1960s and 70s. The movie did air regularly on television in the New York City area on WNEW, Channel 5 prior to 1979, usually during the mid morning or after midnight hours possibly for its theme being more adult than one appealing to children. There's even gun shooting involved, not typically found in Temple's family oriented films. For many years, NOW AND FOREVER had virtually disappeared from view, making this and her 20th-Fox 1940 musical YOUNG PEOPLE the only hold-outs on VHS and DVD formats until the late 1990s when both distributed on VHS colorized formats. Cable television showings have been elusive for NOW AND FOREVER until making its Turner Classic Movies premiere July 6, 2015, as part of its "Star of the Month" tribute to the one and only Shirley Temple.In spite of script weakness, NOW AND FOREVER remains of sole interest due to its principal players early in their careers, particularly Temple, whose popularity remains legendary, now and forever. Honor bright. (***)

This movie has a warm feel to it, and with Shirley as the child, she brings out the sweetness. Though there isn't much song and dance routine in this movie as in all her rest, she still charms us with the song "The World Owes Me A Living". The tale of a lil girl wanting her daddy to be honest is a sure-win family movie. However, the ending is a lil sad... This movie shows how much the father loves his daughter, and the sacrifice he's willing to make. A good movie to watch, with your family would be best :) Let children have fun after all! Not just plain discipline!