The Little Colonel
Directed by David Butler
1935/USA
Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing
Walker: Looks like this old house ain’t gonna be lonesome no more.
This Shirley Temple film is memorable for a couple of fantastic tap dance sequences with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and a choral number at an African-American baptism.
It is 1870’s Kentucky. When Elizabeth Lloyd elopes with a Northerner, her proud rebel father (Lionel Barrymore), Colonel Lloyd, disowns her. Six years later Elizabeth and her husband Jack Sherman go out West to make their fortune and their daughter Lloyd (Shirley Temple) Sherman is made an honorary colonel by an adoring outpost regiment. Mother and daughter return to Kentucky while father searches for a property to invest in. Although the Colonel is still not speaking to his daughter, little Lloyd rapidly wins the old man’s heart. Can she bring her mother and grandfather together? With Bill Robinson as Walker, the Colonel’s servant, and Hattie McDaniel as Mom Beck, Elizabeth’s nursemaid and cook.
The Colonel is portrayed as a cranky, angry old man and he frequently denigrates Walker, who fortunately responds with perfect dignity. The general portrayal of African-Americans in the film is of its time. That said, Hattie McDaniel and especially Bill Robinson are the standouts in the picture, which is worth seeing just to see Robinson dance. The film ends with a brief Technicolor sequence.
Shirley and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson tap up the stairs
