Thursday, October 12, 2023

Shirley Temple movies are missing or hard to find online


I took an interest in child actress Shirley Temple recently after receiving an antique doll in her likeness. Despite being a movie fan, I had never seen any of her movies.
Fortunately, before Netflix’s DVD service ended last month, I rented two of her movies “Wee Willie Winkie” (1937) and “The Little Princess” (1939). The DVD service had listed 10 of her movies in its inventory.
Temple appeared in 44 feature-length motion pictures from 1932 through 1949, according to Wikipedia. Of those, 13 are not available in any form online, either from streaming services or for digital rental or purchase, according to JustWatch and Reelgood.
Also, 19 of the Shirley Temple movies are only available for digital rental or purchase.
The remaining 12 movies are available for streaming from mostly smaller subscription video services such as Indieflix and Flixfling.
She also made numerous short films, including a series of Baby Burlesks. I don’t know the status of their availability.

Photo: Movie poster for “The Little Princess” (1939).

No comments: