The Little Colonel
by David Butler
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Evelyn Venable, John Lodge, Lionel Barrymore, Shirley Temple, Sidney BlackmerDirector: David Butler
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Cinematographer: Arthur C. Miller
Cinematographer: William V. Skall
Producer: Buddy G. DeSylva
Writer: Anne Fellows Johnston
Writer: William M. Conselman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-21
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of The Little Colonel
Movie Review: A very mixed bag
Summary: 3 Stars
There are several things to like about this movie. There's the multi-talented little Shirley Temple who easily dominates almost every scene she's in and the picture in total. And there's the remarkable dancing of Bill Robinson. The two dance scenes he has with Shirley Temple save the picture.
The film attempts to perpetuate the idyllic myth. I can't recall a movie about the differences between North and South wherein the sympathy is not all for the South and, by inference, ante bellum slavery. This film is set in Kentucky, a border state that produced more Union soldiers than Confederates, but you never get a hint of that in the stupid ramblings of the Lionel Barrymore character. Then there is the way that black people were portrayed, subservient and happy to be so, taking no offense at the gross insults from whites. At one point Barrymore threatens physical harm at Bill Robinson's character for almost breaking a knicknack, and in another scene calls black children "pickaninnies." Hattie McDaniel plays another Mammy, complete with bandana tied around her head and with supposedly amusing glitches in syntax.
I realize that this was made long ago, under a different ethos. Few moviegoers would have protested. But that doesn't change the morality of it.
The setting more resembles Tara than any place I ever saw of Kentucky. There's the grand mansion, filled with huge paintings of ancestors, fine china whatnots, a library, etc. Then there's the cottage in which Shirley and her mother live. They just moved in that morning, but it is clean and tidy and very nicely furnished after a vacancy of years.
Unfortunately innocent viewers will be misled by all this. This wasn't the real Kentucky or the way blacks felt about Ole Massa. Movies always take poetic license with history, but this movie goes too far. Only the performances of Temple and Robinson save this from the trash heap. I realize that Southern romantics and apologists will disagree. Let 'em.
Summary of The Little Colonel
As the rambunctious "Little Colonel," Shirley Temple demonstrates her acting range as well as her lovable charm and song-and-dance showmanship in this affecting post-Civil War story. After a blistery Southern colonel (Lionel Barrymore) banishes his daughter (Evelyn Venable) for marrying a Northerner (John Lodge), he refuses to see her even when she returns years later with her young daughter. As outspoken as her grandfather, the ingenious child turns on plenty of charm and fireworks to set things right.Shirley Temple is at her plucky peak in this film. She bests legend Lionel Barrymore: literally (her credit is above his) and figuratively (as her character softens his). The Little Colonel is set in the post-Civil War South. Little Lloyd Sherman hopes to reunite her mother, Elizabeth Lloyd (Evelyn Venable), with her stern Confederate Civil War veteran grandfather, Colonel Lloyd (Barrymore). Six years earlier, Lloyd's mother had run away to marry Yankee Jack Sherman (John Lodge). Now the young family hopes to return to Elizabeth's plantation home.
Like The Littlest Rebel, made the same year (1935), the film has questionable politics, featuring a supplicant Mom Becky (the formidable future Oscar-winner Hattie McDaniel) and a poor-spelling butler, Walker (Bill "BoJangles" Robinson). But Temple, as sweetly energetic little Lloyd, is affectionate with both, as well as with her African American playmates, May Lily (Avonnie Jackson) and Henry Clay (Nyanza Potts). (Temple apparently shared the sentiment in real life, and once said Robinson was her favorite costar.) The Little Colonel features the amazing dance number with Temple and Robinson merrily tapping up and down a staircase. --N.F. Mendoza
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