Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

Released March 19, 1935

And for context, Temple’s film “The Little Colonel” was released one month prior to “Rebel”: February 22, 1935.

I’m baffled. “Rebel” and “Colonel” have the same cast, are set before and after the Civil War respectively, and were both directed by David Butler. These came out one month apart. But Temple’s character’s name is Virgie in Rebel. I know sometimes they (gnomes) will film a whole franchise all at once but these films are connected neither by story nor character. Did Butler film these at the same time?

I suppose it’s possible one film could remain in post production for a long time while the next film was produced. I suppose the controversy of “Colonel” might have delayed its release. Beyond that, I can find no explanation why these strangely similar yet undeniably dissimilar films would come out one month apart in 1935. It doesn’t even make sense economically to release them so closely. The films would compete with each other financially at the box office. It’s a mystery to me. If anyone has the answer, I’d love to know.

Pretty much everything I wrote about The Little Colonel applies to The Littlest Rebel. Every jot and tittle. It has black people perfectly content in their station being treated as property, the oppressive narrative of the rebel soldiers is swept to the back burner to make room for a plot of honor from both sides all the while a little girl sings and dances cute little songs throughout. It’s difficult to reconcile all these ironically morally opposite factors as happening consecutively and in my opinion it’s an inappropriate setting for the true narrative of the Civil War. I know musical comedy can be used as a means to demonstrate satire against atrocities but The Littlest Rebel makes no such commentary. It presents the Civil War as if it were a friendly exchange between polite gentlemen who had a petty disagreement not really worth mentioning. It’s a travesty.

The guy who played Abraham Lincoln is pretty good. This film is so old it may have actually been Lincoln himself. <—-this is a joke.

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson is as marvelous as always. See his performance and maybe Abe at the end but the rest of this film should be set up as an example of how not to make a film.