A fascinating historical document: little Shirley Temple is the daughter of a Southern belle and a Yankee; her maternal grandfather is played by Lionel Barrymore looking like Colonel Sanders who is a racist bigot, moaning about the Old South and bullying his houseboy (its after the Civil War but Barrymore's fires still burn).
The story sort of goes all over the shop - the daughter elopes, jump forward a few years, Shirley charms soldiers at a fort, mum and Shirley move near Lionel, dad gets involved in the Gold Rush, Shirley charms everyone including Lionel, some gangsters turn up at the end to provide the film with quite a violent climax. Bland adult leads, Shirley is charming, Barrymore hams it up, and Bill Robinson and Hattie McDaniel have decent sized roles even if they are slaves, whoops I mean servants. There's a fun scene where Shirley and her black friends (she's allowed to have black friends) copy a river baptism.
This pours on the cuteness but for me the racial undertones made it too unpleasant. Bill Robinson does a good dance.
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