Wee Willie Winkie (1937)

Wee Willie Winkie 
Directed by John Ford
Written by Ernest Pascal and Julien Josephson based on the story by Rudyard Kipling
1937/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing?

[box] Priscilla Williams: You see, the colonel never had any little girls around. All he understands in soliders. So I’ve decided to be one. Then he’ll like me. How do I start, Coppy?[/box]

John Ford brought some strong production values to Shirley Temple’s adventures in the British Raj.

Folks have been trying to bring peace to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border for hundreds of years without success.  They didn’t have the ultimate secret weapon.  Little Priscilla Williams (Temple) comes with her widowed mother to live with her grandfather (C. Aubrey Smith), who commands a fort on colonial India’s frontier with the hill tribes.  The gruff old man is all business, so Priscilla tries to win him over by becoming a soldier with the help of blustering but tender-hearted drill sargeant MacDuff (Victor McLaglen).  “Priscilla” doesn’t sound very much like a soldier’s name, so he dubs her Wee Willie Winkie.

Early on, Priscilla makes a friend of rebel tribal chieftan Khoda Khan (Cesar Romero) when she returns a talisman he drops.    Later, nefarious forces exploit that friendship. Can Priscilla capture her grandfather’s heart and bring peace in her times?  There is but one correct answer to that question.

This is very nice to look at and all the performances are good.  It is the rare Shirley Temple film with absolutely no musical numbers.  (She does sing a verse of “Auld Lang Syne” at a poignant moment.)  Shirley Temple lovers should check it out.

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