The Little Colonel

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The Little Colonel
Directed by David Butler
Produced by Buddy G. DeSylva
Written by William M. Conselman
Anne Fellows Johnston
Starring Shirley Temple
Lionel Barrymore
Evelyn Venable
John Davis Lodge
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) February 22, 1935
Running time 80 min.
IMDb profile

The Little Colonel is a 1935 movie starring Shirley Temple, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lionel Barrymore and the Academy-Award winning actress Hattie McDaniel. The film features a famous tap-dance sequence on the stairs with Robinson and Temple. In 2005, a colorized version was released by Legend Films. The movie was based on the first book in a series by Annie Fellows Johnston, which was very popular in the early 20th century.

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[edit] Plot summary

Elizabeth Lloyd (played by Evelyn Venable) lives with her father Col. Lloyd (played by Lionel Barrymore) in the South shortly after the American Civil War. She falls in love with a northerner, Jack Sherman and defies her father by marrying him. Her father disowns her in retaliation. Six years later, the family is out west where their daughter, Lloyd Sherman, is named an honorary colonel in the Army. Lloyd and her mother return to the south while Jack stays out west to prospect for gold. Lloyd and Elizabeth settle in a cottage near to the mansion where Elizabeth grew up. Col. Lloyd hears about the news neighbors from his butler, but without word of who it is. So, he gets spoosed up in anticipation to meeting his new neighbors, but when he knocks at the door, and she answers it, he finds that it is his long lost daughter whom he's been disowning that suddenly lives there. Much to his dismay of her being his new neighbor, he just walks away dumbstruck. Elizabeth gets anguished by seeing that her father has obviously still not forgiven her yet for her defiance against him all those years ago, and Lloyd comes in just to see that her grandfather somehow caused her mother such anguish and curses a poster picture of her grandfather when he was some years younger hanging over their fireplace. Because of that, she pumps out of their housekeeper "Mom Beck" (played by Hattie McDaniel) the adequate information all about what happened between her parents and grandfather, but still sees that it is no reason for her grandfather to want to deny his daughter's existence.

While playing in the mud with some other children, Lloyd meets her grandfather and throws mud at him when he pokes her with a cane, in which she calls an "old stick." The two eventually make up and become contentious friends--both are apt to let their tempers get the better of them.

It's not long before Jack returns from out west. He has a fever and has lost all their money. He had fallen in with a couple of crooks who sold him worthless land by convincing him there was gold on it. The family is penniless and likely to end up in the poor house. To keep Lloyd from catching her father's fever, she is sent to visit with her grandfather. The family is saved from disaster when the Union Pacific Railroad wants right of way across part of the formerly useless property. Jack's former "partners" arrive and demand the deed for the property back. When they find out that Elizabeth has gone to get it, they take Jack and the family maid hostage. Lloyd runs for help--heading to her grandfather's house and upon learning he is all the way across his property, going through the very frightening woods in search of him. At first, the Colonel refuses to help because of his grudge against Lloyd's father. But when Lloyd shouts how she never wants to see her grandfather again, he changes his mind. Lloyd and the Colonel arrive just in time to stop the Shermans from losing everything again. The sheriff, alerted by the Colonel's cook, arrives and takes the two criminals off. The family is finally reunited and happy.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Songs

  • Love's Young Dream - Shirley Temple / Evelyn Venable
  • Oh! Susanna - Avonnie Jackson
  • My Old Kentucky Home - Bill Robinson
  • Wade in the Water - Groups

[edit] External links


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