Captain January

**Captain January** is a 1936 American musical comedy-drama directed by David Butler.

It is based on Laura E. Richards' story, "The Lighthouse at Cape Tempest" which was released on April 24, 1936 by 20th Century Fox.

## Plot

A lighthouse keeper (Guy Kibbee) works to save a orphaned young girl (Shirley Temple) from being placed in a boarding school.

## Cast

* Shirley Temple as Helen "Star" Mason
* Guy Kibbee as Captain January
* Slim Summerville as Captain Nazro
* Buddy Ebsen as Paul Roberts
* Sara Haden as Agatha Morgan
* June Lang as Mary
* Jane Darwell as Mrs. Eliza Croft
* Jerry Tucker as Cyril Morgan
* George Irving as John Mason
* Nella Walker as Mrs. Mason

## Production

Filming for "Captain January" took place from November of 1935 to December 24, 1935 in California (in Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and Los Angeles). It was the first to use the new sound stage 20th Century Fox dedicated to Will Rogers in 1935.

Shirley Temple learned her multiplication tables while doing the tap dance sequence down the spiral staircase.

In the Codfish Ball scene, real lobsters were used on set as a prop, but they were deemed potentially hazardous, but they were cooked by the crew which turned them from their natural dark color to bright red. The crew painted them back to the original color and as soon as the scene was completed, they cracked the lobsters open and ate them on the spot.

In another scene, Shirley Temple's character is given a crane for her birthday; however, the crane repeatedly pecked at cast & crew members, so a prop man nailed its webbed feet to the floor.

Director David Butler insisted that this was not painful for the crane and Shirley Temple later recalled that the crane never seemed to be suffering, even after the nails were removed.

The local humane society learned of the incident and sent an agent to the set to investigate, but when the agent tried to get a closer look at the crane, it pecked at her too.

In a scene with Buddy Ebsen near the water, Shirley Temple was originally bare chested; however, due to complaints from a woman's organization, the scene was reshot with Shirley wearing a top.

A scene in which Shirley Temple dances the hula was deleted after shocked test audiences said that the hula was immoral.

## Critical Reception

In his review of "Captain January", Hal Erikson from AllMovie called it *"one of Shirley Temple's best films."*

Kristen Lopez from the Journeys in Classic Film website wrote: *"Captain January is a great introduction to the world of Shirley Temple. It’s a movie that’s aged decently with a legendary musical sequence and some impressive acting from Temple (even though she’s upstaged by [Guy] Kibbee)."*

The Spinning Image website wrote: *"This was another big hit for Temple, though very much a cookie cutter vehicle with its sole variation being a nautical theme. The plot mostly involves finding excuses for wee Shirley to look cute, or say and do cute things, a repetitive strain that earned her the enmity of novelist/film critic Graham Greene, though only the most curmudgeonly would deny she sings and dances with aplomb."*

TV Guide Magazine called it a *"particularly effective melodrama."*