Greetings,
This Shirley Temple movie is weird, very weird. Why, you may ask? Because in this Shirley Temple movie, she has - brace yourself - TWO PARENTS! That's right. A mom and a dad, right the heck there! Now I know that in all the films I'm discussing, she always has someone to take care of her, so don't think I'm undermining them. Anyway, though she does have mom and dad, due to the circumstances of the story, one of them isn't around the whole time. More on that in a second. Still, she does get something of another father figure in her life, and that is what the plot of the movie revolves around. Off we go.
The Little Colonel begins just after the Civil War when a young Southern woman named Elizabeth Lloyd falls in love with and marries a man from the North named Jack Sherman. You'd think that would be okay, since the war is over, but it isn't, especially when it comes to Elizabeth's father, Colonel Lloyd, played by Lionel Barrymore. Being a proud Southerner, he does not approve of their relationship and disowns his daughter. With that, Elizabeth and Jack move out West. Wow, I feel bad for us in the East. We get no love in this thing.
Cut to six years later, where we see Shirley for the first time playing Lloyd Sherman and being made an honorary colonel in the Army. Get it? SHE is the little colonel. Whilst her father remains in the West to go looking for gold, as you did in those days, Lloyd returns to the South with her mother, where they are both shunned when seen by Colonel Lloyd. Little Lloyd has no idea what's going on but is told the whole story by their housekeeper, Becky Porter, played amazingly here by Hattie McDaniel, who is hilarious in this. She is lovingly referred to as Mom Beck, and I love the way Shirley says her name always in an inquisitive way, because she always has so many questions for her. After hearing what happened, Lloyd eventually and officially meets her grandfather and promptly throws mud on him. Yep. She makes sure he knows how stubborn she can be, as she is known to stamp her foot when she gets mad, and she gets all red in the face, and she hollers back at people. Her words. They begin to have a bit of a relationship, albeit a combative one, but it's there, nonetheless.
When Jack Sherman arrives home, he is quite sick from a fever, and Lloyd must be kept away from him. This leads her to have to stay with her grandfather. Though, they had been getting to know each other, there is still tension and she really doesn't want to be there. Still, during her stay, she begins to learn about her own maternal family history. Most memorably, there is a touching scene where Little Lloyd sings a song and Colonel Lloyd tells her about his deceased wife, her grandmother. It is quite a pivotal moment in the story.
Things go nuts, though, when some former partners of Jack's show up with not so good intentions. Lloyd is forced to run to her grandfather for help and realizes that her biggest hurdle will be working her way through his stubbornness in order to help her family and waiting to see whether he decides to put aside the contention and assist them is the nail biting end to this film.
I enjoy The Little Colonel for a lot of reasons. As I said, I like the Mom Beck character, especially when she takes Shirley to the baptism, and I also like how Shirley gets a chance to be a little bratty in this film. Now it's mostly to show how Lloyd has clearly inherited the stubbornness of her grandfather, but it's still entertaining. But, without a doubt, the highlight of this film is the work that Shirley did with Bill Robinson who played Colonel Lloyd's butler, Walker. He is one of the most phenomenal and legendary dancers of all time. They worked together on no less than four films, but this was their first, and because of this casting, they are recognized as the first interracial dancing couple. Amazing. In fact, he was known for this very complicated dance done on stairs, and whilst he did not have time to teach it to Shirley in the few days that they had, he modified it for her and mimicked what she could do, in order to make it look as though she was mimicking him. And yet, though it was whittled down, the dance was still incredible. Actually, he and Shirley stayed friends, and she always said she loved him because he treated as an equal while others talked down to her. I don't doubt that he felt the same way about her for the same reason.
So if I am going to give this film some extra credit for something other than what I already mentioned, I'd have to say that this is one of the better stories where Shirley's movies are concerned. It does entertain us, but it also gives us a lot to think about.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
