The Little Colonel
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Movie Reviews of The Little Colonel
Movie Review: Shirley as a pint-sized Southern belle
Summary: 4 Stars
THE LITTLE COLONEL was the first of two movies, released in 1935, that featured Shirley Temple in a Civil War storyline.
Based on a story by Annie Fellows Johnston, Shirley Temple plays the strong-willed Miss Lloyd Sherman, trying to reconcile her mother (Evelyn Venable) with her embittered grandfather (Lionel Barrymore). Temple is especially appealing in this film, where she gets to wear some beautiful hoopskirt costumes.
It's also in this film where Temple performs the legendary "Staircase Dance" with Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, who would go on to appear in several more films with Temple based solely on his success here. This is one of the rare films where Shirley Temple doesn't sing; the only musical moment is provided with "Love's Young Dream", sung by a dubbed Evelyn Venable.
One of the all-time Temple greats, THE LITTLE COLONEL also features good work from Hattie McDaniel, John Lodge and Sidney Blackmer. The DVD inclues both B&W and computer-coloured versions of the film.
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.
Movie Review: Who Best But Shirley To Melt A Crabby Old Man's Heart?
Summary: 3 Stars
It's odd that Shirley Temple made two Civil War-era movies in the same year, with her charactesr being very similar. "The Littlest Rebel" took place during the Civil War and "The Little Colonel" took place right after the war.
It's usually touching to see Shirley melting a crabby old man's heart as she did in some of her films, this being one of them. Here, it's Lionel Barrymore she converts into a good soul.
The lead female role was played by Evelyn Venable and she really wasn't up to the standards set by previous Temple adult feminine leads such s Gloria Stuart, Karen Moreley, Rochelle Hudson, etc.. but that's not important.
Temple, meanwhile, is so cute that she's even likable when she's a brat, as she acts several times with the old man (but apologizes later for her behavior). All in all, the lesser of the two "war movies," but still a decent film
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