Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Professor Popinjay

(1935)

I gotta say, unpacking these Shirley Temple films is getting monotonous. Some are great but most are very formulaic vehicles to get Shirley the Cash Cow on screen. They’re often rife with racial stereotypes and, eventually, repeat songs from her other movies tacked on because it sold music.

As far as the formula goes, The Little Colonel is a textbook case. Old crotchety man hates the world and everyone in it then he meets Shirley and she brightens his soul.

This film has the distinction of being the first film to have an interracial pair dancing together. The now famous staircase scene with Shirley and the fantastic Bill Robinson. I’d say skip the film but watch this scene! The man is a marvel and Shirley is right in step with him. They were the best of friends.

The scene was considered controversial in certain US states where some residents were unable to bear the sight of two people with different skin colors dancing together. To avoid the devastating tsunami of shocked gasps and clutched pearls by the more frail and sensitive of racist idiots, the scene was removed from viewings so they could enjoy their whitey-white movie show without being so offended they might choke on their jujubes and die of chronic whining about it later.

Despite some of these people seeing that scene, amazingly they lived through it!  Unfortunately that meant the rest of us had to hear about their poor widdle hurt feelings. Hmmm, I wonder if it hurt as much as 600 years of slavery, segregation, and general oppression. Ah but what do I know about it? I’m just a guy who writes about movies.

If you sift through all the glaring stupidity, the core story is pretty sweet. Although, Temple’s character’s name is Lloyd after her grizzled grandfather. I can’t imagine why anyone would name a girl Lloyd. Might as well name her Ralph or something. It was confusing to me because both she and her grandfather were called Lloyd but they just called him the Colonel after a while. Once I figured that out it was easier to follow but for a long time I could not grasp that Temple was also Lloyd. The exchanges between Lloyd and Lloyd are pretty entertaining.

Here’s the scene of Temple and Robinson on the stairs. The dude was amazing!