The Little Colonel

Plot synopsis:
Shortly after the American Civil War, southern belle Elizabeth Lloyd (Evelyn Venable) marries a northerner, Jack Sherman (John Lodge). Her father Colonel Lloyd (Lionel Barrymore) disowns her in anger and retaliation. Elizabeth and Jack move west where they become parents of a girl they name Lloyd Sherman (Shirley Temple).
Six years later, Lloyd Sherman is made an honorary colonel in the Army. Elizabeth returns to the south with little Lloyd and settles in a cottage near Colonel Lloyd’s mansion while her husband Jack remains in the west prospecting for gold. When Colonel Lloyd discovers his daughter living in the neighborhood, he treats her with disdain. Little Lloyd learns of her parents’ past from housekeeper Mom Beck (Hattie McDaniel), and, when she meets her grandfather for the first time, throws mud at him. The two eventually become contentious friends.
Elizabeth’s husband returns from the west with a fever. He has lost everything in his prospecting venture, but the family is saved from complete ruin when the Union Pacific Railroad requests right of way across Jack’s western property. Jack's former prospecting partners have heard of the Railroad’s offer and try to swindle Jack. They resort to holding the Sherman couple hostage until the deed to their valuable property is located.
Little Lloyd runs through dark woods for her grandfather but he refuses to help. He changes his mind when little Lloyd says she never wants to see him again. They arrive at the cottage just in time to save Elizabeth and Jack. The film ends with a brief Technicolor sequence featuring a 'pink party' for little Lloyd, her friends, and her reconciled family.

Tags: cute, entertaining

Review:
Crusty old Colonel Lloyd (Lionel Barrymore) is used to having his ornery way so when he finds out his daughter Elizabeth (Evelyn Venable) is determined to run off with Yankee Jack Shermon (John Lodge) to be married, he confronts her in a heated exchange and vows never to see her again if she does, and then she leaves.Several years later Elizabeth, with her husband and their young daughter Miss Lloyd (Shirley Temple), decides to return to a small house that belonged to her mother and which happens to be next door to her stubborn father's home.
Troubles descend on the Sherman family through some persuasive dishonest men who are out to rob them of their legal rights, and things start to get serious but grandpa comes to the rescue.Becky (Hattie McDaniel) and Walker (Bill Robinson) certainly add some amusing dialog during their stroll, as in spelling out "pohos"; and Robinson's tap dancing is superb.
Having earned her nickname due to her stubborn temper, THE LITTLE COLONEL courageously tries to reunite her splintered family.Shirley Temple smiles, pouts, tosses her curly locks and completely runs away with the movie.
Never was a despot so welcomed or a tyrant so loved.As one of the industry's finest character actors, crusty Lionel Barrymore gives the little lady a run for her money.
Always entertaining, he knows when to purr or when to roar to maximum effect, even if he doesn't quite eclipse Little Miss Personality.Hattie McDaniel adds her own unique gifts to the role of Shirley's faithful servant, never allowing her dignity to be demeaned.
They are perfectly matched - one ramrod straight & ebony, the other tiny & blonde - and their minutes together on the screen is the stuff of which movie magic is made.Evelyn Venable & John Lodge, as Shirley's parents (it's rare for her to have both all the way through a film) do nicely with the romantic angle, but it's kept to a minimum, as is usual in a Temple film, where the spotlight is kept firmly focused on her.
Sidney Blackmer appears as a smooth swindler who makes the serious mistake of angering THE LITTLE COLONEL.Although the film is given good production values by 20th Century Fox, it is the interaction between little Shirley and the other performers which far and away is the most important aspect of the picture.It should be noted that there are elements of racism in the story line, a not uncommon occurrence in Hollywood films of the 1930's.The final scene segues into early Technicolor - a pleasant way to end the story..
It's odd that Shirley Temple made two similar movies in the same year, both involving Civil War-type story lines and her character being very similar.
"The Littlest Rebel" took place during the Civil War and "The Little Colonel" took place right after the war.For some reason, I get an extra feeling being choked up seeing 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 who was fun to watch in any film.The lead female role was played by Evelyn Venable and she really wasn't up to the standards, beauty-wise, set by previous Temple adult feminine leads such s Gloria Stuart, Karen Moreley, Rochelle Hudson, etc.
But, that's not important.The story was more important and in case - surprise - I found this to run a distant second to the aforementioned "The Littlest Rebel." This movie was, frankly, boring in comparison.I am not one of the crying Liberals who boycott Temple''s films because blacks in these movies were denigrated.
Everyone's Mr. Nice Guy (mine, too) Bill Robinson, didn't come on the scene and dance with Shirley until later in the film when I had lost interest.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).It's still a good film but I prefer the "Rebel" over the "Colonel" in the battle of these 1935 Civil War-themed stories..
In this movie she has an amazing support cast of Lionel Barrymore who plays the part of a crusty grandfather but Shirley with her cute and charming ways soon melts the heart of the old grandfather.Hattie Mac Daniel plays the faithful servant and once again it made you realize just how much these beloved negroes sometimes knew more than " The white folks".
The story line can be weak in places and the acting might be a bit corny to todays standards but if you need a feel good movie then drag out a Shirley Temple movie .
With all of her usual show-stealing spark, Shirley Temple delivers another fun family classic as Lloyd Sherman in "The Little Colonel." Proving yet again that there's no problem she can't solve, Shirley reconciles an old grudge between her young mother (played by Evelyn Venable) and her crusty southern grandfather (played by Lionel Barrymore), who disowned his daughter for marrying a Yankee.
Shirley's classic tap dance up the staircase with Bojangles Robinson will remind all of her fans of what a true dancing prodigy she really was.
Don't get me wrong: Shirley shines in fast, snappy songs, but her voice was not made for slow numbers like this one."The Little Colonel" is a nice family film, but except for the iconic staircase dance, there is little to distinguish it from most of Shirley's childhood flicks.
The claim that this film smashed through racial barriers by placing Shirley Temple opposite African-American screen legends Bojangles Robinson and Hattie McDaniel is almost laughable.
Watch him stand idly by while Barrymore fusses and fumes at him, because he knows "the old colonel don't mean no harm." Meanwhile McDaniel is a Mammy figure, loyal, caring, and always glad to serve the white folks (McDaniel later won an Oscar for playing the same Mammy figure in "Gone With the Wind").
Instead he was enjoying, sharing, giving a lovely dance thing with one of those little white girls whose socks never slid down under their heels."But one cannot really expect better from a film made in 1935, when America was, unfortunately, still in the Dark Ages as far as African-Americans and their rights were concerned.
Such clichéd roles were the only acting jobs available for African-Americans at the time, and so Robinson's and McDaniel's talents are largely untapped as their characters completely lack the depth given to white actors.
For example, Lionel Barrymore's Colonel Lloyd has both positive and negative characteristics: He is a temperamental hothead who remains bitter over the Civil War, but he is also a southern gentleman who immediately brings his new neighbors a bouquet of flowers to welcome them..
Nobody wanted little Shirley to grow up, so I must say my favorite film of hers was "The Little Colonel" in which she sang and danced so well with the famed Bill Robinson.
In that film she played against the great Lionel Barrymore..
THE LITTLE COLONEL (Fox, 1935), directed by David Butler, stars Shirley Temple in one of her more famous movie roles during her early years as a young performer.
Aside from her initial teaming with legendary dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (4th billed during opening credits, bottom billed in the closing), with whom she does a memorable "stair" dance, it places her against odds with the crusty Lionel Barrymore, on loan out assignment from MGM, sporting white hair, bushy eyebrows and droopy mustache in the old Southerner/ or Claude Gillingwater Sr. tradition, and what a pair they make.Based on a story by Annie Fellows Johnston, the plot opens with a prologue set in 1870s Kentucky on a Southern plantation where Colonel Lloyd (Lionel Barrymore) disowns his beloved daughter, Elizabeth (Evelyn Venable) for eloping with a "Yankee", Jack Sherman (John Lodge).
During their six years in Philadelphia, Jack and Elizabeth have been blessed with a child, Lloyd (Shirley Temple), whom they witness being commissioned as a "little colonel" by soldiers on a western outpost.
With John remaining at the post, Elizabeth returns to Kentucky where she and Lloyd settle in an old cottage left to her by her late mother that happens to be next door to her father.
In spite of their rugged start and similar personality traits, Grandpa eventually warms up to Lloyd, though his stubbornness keeps him from having anything to do with his daughter, even when learning of swindlers Swazey (Sidney Blackmer) and Hull (Aden Chase) in their home threatening the ailing Jack and Elizabeth to turn over the deed to worthless property they sold him that has been proved valuable.THE LITTLE COLONEL, a leisurely paced story with familiar theme, relies mostly on the strength of its leading players, Temple and Barrymore.
Dressed in "Aunt Jemima" attire, she shares amusing moments with Colonel Lloyd's butler (Robinson), sharing time together with the "little colonel" at a spiritual gathering witnessing a woman getting dunked in the river where she's having her sins washed away as Negroes sing "The Sun Shines Brighter." Aside from the aforementioned "stair dance," Temple and Robinson do an encore tap dancing to Stephen Foster's "Oh, Susannah" in the stable to harmonica playing by May Lily (Avonne Johnson).
Others in the cast include William Burress (Doctor Scott); Geneva Williams (Maria); and Robert Warwick (Colonel Gray).Priot to 1985, THE LITTLE COLONEL played frequently on commercial television with the closing segment, filmed in Technicolor, usually absent, with story coming to an abrupt conclusion either after Barrymore's closing line or next scene of McDaniel successfully breaking down the door after being locked in by one of Sherman's "guests." When distributed on video in 1988, the closing Technicolor segment was restored, and shown intact at 82 minutes on cable TV broadcasts on the Disney Channel (early 1990s), American Movie Classics (1996-2001) and finally the Fox Movie Channel.
THE LITTLE COLONEL is currently available on DVD in black and white or colorized versions.The success of THE LITTLE COLONEL brought forth a similar theme and title of THE LITTLEST REBEL (1935), reuniting Temple with Bill Robinson once again, with plot set during the Civll War instead of after-wards.
Both classic films with Temple (and Robinson) at the peak of their careers.
The film begins just after the US Civil War. The Colonel (Lionel Barrymore) hates Yankees and is shocked when his daughter announces she's marrying one.
Time passes and now after several years, the daughter returns to her hometown with her adorable child, Lloyd (Temple).
Partly it helps because in this film, Shirley does not play all sweetness but is also delightfully bratty and strong-willed.
She also is MAGNIFICENT in the scenes where she dances with Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson--the best of their several movies together.
All in all, a completely delightful film--one of Shirley's very best.
Also, although black characters fare much better in this film than in other Shirley Temple films of the era, some might blanch at the fact that all the black people are VERY happy living in the segregated post Civil War South..
The post-Civil War south...Hollywood--and Shirley Temple--style.
Crusty former Army colonel Lionel Barrymore is encouraged to patch things up with his estranged daughter after her marriage to a Yankee produces an adorably outspoken child who emulates her bossy grandfather.
It's Shirley Temple in the Old South after the Civil War, scuttled after by housekeeper Hattie McDaniel and dancing up the staircase with butler Bill Robinson, and some will surely quibble with this Hollywood-ized version of time and place.
The main joy here is in watching little Shirley outwit her elders, although the baptismal sequence at the river (complete with spiritual "wailing") provides an eerie shimmer that nearly seems to belong to a different film altogether.
Lionel Barrymore is wooden in his role as Temple's grandfather, and the plot is beyond lame; but Shirley Temple still is fully convincing as Lloyd Sherman--a precocious, color-blind, and happiness-inducing five- year-old child of the 1870s.
Hattie McDaniel, Bill Robinson, and Avonne Jackson are amazing in their rapport with Temple.
America's favorite moppet Shirley Temple may have met her match in scene stealing with Lionel Barrymore playing her grandfather.
Just watching Barrymore taking back his scenes from Temple makes The Little Colonel an enjoyable film to watch.Barrymore complete with white suit, Panatella, and goatee with long white hair looks like the spitting image of Colonel Sanders.
So she and John Davis Lodge go first north and west and have themselves a daughter.When Lodge goes into the west with a couple of shifty partners in a prospecting deal, he sends Venable and the little girl they have now back south to live with grandfather.
But as these Shirley Temple movies go, you know it's Shirley who brings all the warring parties together.
Who could resist.The Little Colonel is known for that famous dance that Bill Robinson does with Shirley Temple on the staircase.
The last couple of minutes are in color in which all the principal players appeared in that for the first time.The scenes with Barrymore and Temple are absolutely precious.
1st watched 12/17/2004 - 4 out of 10(Dir-David Butler): Cute but minimalistic fare from the Olsen Twins of her generation, Shirley Temple.
The best parts of this movie are the dance routines with the black slave butler-like character and Miss future Temple-Black.
We really don't get enough of these and the story itself, set in post-Civil war times in the south is pretty flimsy and setup just so "the cute one" can save the day with her charm.
Temple is charming but the plot is the same old thing....
I always get THE LITTLEST REBEL and THE LITTLE COLONEL mixed up when I think of SHIRLEY TEMPLE films, but while they both have the same sort of background (the Civil War and post-Civil War), the quality of entertainment is vastly different.This one gets off to a painfully dull start, with Shirley's mother (EVELYN VENABLE) running off with a Yankee (JOHN BOLES), and later returning home with her little girl only to find that the grandfather has never forgiven her for marrying a Yank.
Naturally, it's up to little Shirley to melt the heart of the crusty grandfather (LIONEL BARRYMORE) and we all know how that's going to turn out.What makes the film interesting are the dance segments with BILL ROBINSON, as the tap dancing servant, most memorably in the staircase dance that is always shown whenever there are film clips from any of Shirley's Fox films.
Personally, I think this is Shirley's best movie.
It's got a good story (rare in children's movies), my favorite actor (Lionel Barrymore), great acting from a 5-yr-old child (Shirley), great dance numbers with Bojangles, lots of servant put-downs of their masters (as when Bojangles calls his master a fool)and also lots of humor, as when Shirley throws the chess set onto the floor, strikes an angry pose, and tells her Grandpa, "You're a bad man!".
It's a great introduction to the actress Shirley Temple, and you can see why she was the number one star in 1936, 37, and 38..
" Little Shirley Temple Humiliates Lionel Barrymore ".
When watching this Shirley Temple film, it is easy to see why The Little Colonel was such a crowd-pleaser.
This film has a long Old South story to tell, that is both sentimental and predictable.
The story has young Shirley Temple up against gruff old Lionel Barrymore, as her stubborn grandfather.
At the time this movie was being filmed, Mr.Barrymore was suffering with severe arthritis, in extreme pain he had difficulty walking.
During filming he was stumbling on his lines and innocent Shirley Temple told him what his line was-- 'Mr. Barrymore, you're supposed to say so-and-so here.'The humiliated veteran actor exploded, yelling "I'm thirty years in this business!" Being warned not to swear in front of the child, Mr. Barrymore tried his best to storm of the set to his dressing room.
As always, little Shirley Temple saves the day.
It should also be noted that Shirley was known as "One Take Temple" because of her amazing ability to memorize her lines as well as all of the other players, before she could even read or write.
The sheer magnetism of Shirley Temple always makes The Little Colonel a very enjoyable film to watch..
Shirley is there to charm the viewer, but it is obvious that her performance is one that suffers from too much direction rather than creating a fleshed out character.Old southern colonel Lionel Barrymore has disowned daughter Evelyn Venable for marrying a northern soldier.
They return years later with young daughter Shirley who quickly charms the mustache off of grumpy grandpa, dances up the stairs with butler Bill Robinson and goes to a baptism with lovable maid Hattie McDaniel and listens to classic negro spirituals.
I found her being made an honorary colonel quite a cloying moment, but the magic hits when she teams up with Robinson in dance.
Shirley, Barrymore and Robinson steal this one..
Yes, Bill Robinson and Hattie McDaniel fill roles typically filled by African Americans of the 1870s, as before slavery was abolished, the African Americans often butcher proper English language, and Lionel Barrymore, as Colonel Lloyd, does once call African American children pikaninnies.
Robinson serves as Shirley's dance companion and friend ,as well as Colonel Lloyd's butler and companion.
Shirley and Robinson do two dances together.
One is between Colonel Lloyd(Barrymore) and the family of his daughter, Elizabeth, which includes Shirley.
She takes her rank quite seriously, as seriously as does her grandfather, who soon finds out she is as stubborn as he and her mother.The second major conflict is between Shirley's father: Jack, and his 2 prospecting partners.
He decides to return to Elizabeth and Shirley, who are living in an abandoned cottage Elizabeth inherited from her mother, near Colonel Lloyd's mansion.
Shirley runs for help from the Colonel, who reluctantly decides to travel to the cottage.
Evelyn Venable, who played Shirley's mother was quite beautiful, classy, and smart.
Shirley was the dominating personality in the film, as cute and mischievous as ever.