Film

Just Around the Corner

Name: Just Around the Corner
Genre: Comedy, Music
Released: 1938
Cast: Shirley Temple, Joan Davis, Charles Farrell, Amanda Duff, Bill Robinson

Comedy
Light-hearted

A Depression-era musical comedy built around Shirley Temple's charm and dance numbers, in which she innocently helps her architect father realize a slum-clearance dream. It's a cheerful trifle — the kind of film where the plot exists mostly to string together song-and-dance routines and the occasional slapstick bit. Temple fans will love it; everyone else may find it slight.

If you liked this

Dimples1936

Another Shirley Temple vehicle that pairs her precocious charm with strong musical numbers and a touching relationship with an older male lead who cares for her.

But Temple's act doesn't age well for viewers who aren't nostalgic for 1930s child stardom, and the sentiment occasionally crosses into saccharine.

The Little Princess1939

Temple at her peak, with more ambitious production values, a stronger emotional core about loss and resilience, and surprisingly beautiful Technicolor cinematography.

But Still very much a product of its time; the class dynamics and racial attitudes will jar modern viewers.

Bright Eyes1934

Temple's breakthrough film, raw and charming, with "On the Good Ship Lollipop" as an iconic number. She's genuinely touching when allowed to be vulnerable, not just cute.

But Barely an hour long and thin on plot; it's more a vehicle to showcase her talents than a fully realized film.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Just Around the Corner

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Jazz Singer1927

Both films treat a young performer's talent and likability as the solution to Depression-era hardship and family crisis — the same fantasy of individual charisma as redemption.

The first sound film and a template for everything Temple would later do — a young performer's talent carrying a sentimental family story, music as salvation. See where the formula began.

But It's a silent film with synchronized sound, stagey and technically crude, and the Jolson blackface sequence is unwatchable. Also genuinely doesn't work as entertainment anymore.

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm1938

Temple in another feel-good Depression-era story with strong production numbers, including a rare on-screen duet with Bill Robinson, who was genuinely talented.

But The formula is identical to dozens of other Temple vehicles; if you didn't enjoy one, you won't find anything new here.

Captain January1936

A quieter Temple film with genuine warmth between her and Guy Kibbee as a lighthouse keeper, and some lovely seaside scenery offsetting the sentimentality.

But Less music and spectacle than other Temple films means fewer set pieces to carry you through slower passages.

The Blue Bird1940

Twentieth Century Fox pulled out all the stops for this lavish Maeterlinck adaptation, giving Temple a more theatrical role and spectacular production design.

But The whimsy is suffocating and the philosophical material lands awkwardly; it's a prestige project that doesn't quite work.

Curly Top1935

A charming film where Temple's singing and dancing feel more integrated into the story, and the romantic subplot for adults adds a layer beyond her cuteness.

But The pacing drags in places and the resolution is almost comically rushed.

The Littlest Rebel1935

Set during the Civil War, it offers Temple and Bill Robinson dancing together again, and a slightly meatier emotional situation than the usual Depression-era plot.

But The historical setting and racial context are deeply uncomfortable by modern standards, even given the era.

Stowaway1936

Temple in Shanghai with an exotic setting that gives the production design something interesting to work with, and a plot involving orphans that occasionally touches genuine pathos.

But The cultural caricatures are cringe-worthy and the exoticism plays as condescending to modern eyes.

The Gang's All Here1943

Both are Depression/wartime-era Hollywood musicals where elaborate song-and-dance sequences exist primarily to cheer people up and distract from hard times — escapism as a tool and a philosophy.

A wildly ambitious Busby Berkeley musical from four years later, bursting with color, absurdist geometry, and production numbers that make Temple's vehicles look quaint. Pure spectacle.

But It's garish and goes on far too long; modern viewers often find Berkeley's aesthetic exhausting rather than exhilarating, all style and zero substance.

Liliom1930

Like Just Around the Corner, it's about a parent-child relationship where the child's innocence and belief help redeem or uplift the adult; but Borzage goes dark and metaphysical where Temple stays light.

Frank Borzage's strange, poetic fantasy about a carnival barker given a chance to return from the dead and make things right with his daughter. High melodrama but genuinely moving.

But It's a talkie from 1930 with obvious theatrical origins, slow pacing, and emotional register far heavier than audiences expect from a film about fathers and daughters.