Now and Forever (1934): Henry Hathaway’s Sentimental Melodrama, Starring Gary Cooper, Shirley Temple

Now and Forever
Theatrical release poster

The film stars Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, and Shirley Temple in a story about a small-time swindler going straight for his sake of his child.

Temple was loaned out to Paramount by Fox Films for $3,500 a week in what would be her second film there.

Cooper plays the carefree, irresponsible Jerry Day (Cooper) and his second wife, Toni (Lombard), are running up a high bill at a Shanghai hotel. Jerry hatches a scheme to swindle other guests to pay his hotel bill and the two escape.

Desperate for more cash, Jerry plans to sell custody rights of his 5-year-old daughter Penelope (Temple) from his first marriage, known as Pennie, whom he has never met, to his former brother-in-law.

Upon meeting his daughter, he is captivated by her charm, and decides to retain custody. Pennie and Jerry are reunited in Paris with Toni, who will now play her mother.

While trying to resell a stolen necklace, he starts feeling guilty as Pennie throws all her faith and love towards Jerry for being honest. He goes back to recover the necklace, but Evans shoots and wounds him, though Jerry kills Evans. Jerry returns the necklace to Mrs. Crane, who agrees to lie that the necklace was not stolen at all.

Though Jerry does not want to go to a doctor lest the police be involved, he collapses as he tries to get back in the car and Toni takes him to a hospital. Lying in a hospital bed with police officer standing nearby, Jerry ruminates that it is not so bad coming clean after all.

During the shoot, Dorothy Dell, who co-starred with Temple in Little Miss Marker and developed close friendship, died in cae accident. Manipulated, Temple was not told about this until shooting the film’s crying scene, in which her character finds out her father was lying to her. The tears in that scene became in real tears.

In the film Temple sings “The World Owes Me a Living,” a version of which also featured in a Silly Symphonies animation of The Ant and the Grasshopper.

Hathaway had directed Shirley Temple before, in To the Last Man (1933) starring Randolph Scott and Esther Ralston. Despite having a memorable role in which her doll’s head is shot off, Temple, then age 5, was not cited in the credits.

Jerry is locked in childhood and imagination, unable to hold down a real job, and reverting to carefree and irresponsible fun. His daughter Penny is the right person to save him, but she is in danger of losing her own innocence by being paired with a criminal father. Her faith in him to always tell the truth impels him to risk his life to retrieve what he stole and maintain that faith.

Alternate Ending

Originally, the film had a different ending, in which Jerry succumbs to his gunshot wound en route, and Toni takes over the wheel, killing herself as well. The new conclusion was re-scripted by Paramount to match the film’s  lighter and more optimistic tone.

Rleased on August 31, 1934, Now and Forever popular at the box office. Shirley Temple’s fandom continued to increase, getting 400–500 letters a day, which called for the hiring of a secretary to manage it.