The Littlest Rebel *** (1935, Shirley Temple, John Boles, Jack Holt, Karen Morley, Bill Robinson, Guinn Williams) – Classic Movie Review 9354

For director David Butler’s 1935 family comedy drama The Littlest Rebel, 20th Century Fox put their feisty little seven-year-old star Shirley Temple in another opulent American Civil War melodrama (after The Little Colonel rang the tills earlier that year) and brought back the great black hoofer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson to dance with her as her Uncle Billy.

Shirley plays Virginia ‘Virgie’ Cary, a Southern kid who gets taken by Uncle Billy (Robinson) to meet President Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr) and tells him that he is almost nice enough to be a Confederate so that he will free her father Captain Herbert Cary (John Boles), who has been seized for spying. Union officer Colonel Morrison (Jack Holt) has previously tried to help them in a botched escape, landing everyone in mortal danger.

The Littlest Rebel is a yukky but jolly enough black and white movie, made with the required conviction and genial songs that include ‘She and I’ (music by Cyril J Mockridge and Bill Robinson).

It was catnip to the Depression audiences, who rocketed Shirley to the number one movie star for three years.

The Littlest Rebel, based on a story and play by Edward Peple, was first filmed as a silent in 1914. The screenplay is by Edwin J Burke.

The play opened in New York at the Liberty Theater on 14 November 1911 and closed in January 1912 after 55 performances.

It is also available in a computer colorized version.

Also in the cast are Karen Morley, Stepin Fetchit, Willie Best, Hannah Washington, and Bessie Lyle, James Flavin.

R.I.P. Shirley Temple (1928-2014).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9354

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