Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Movie review - "Susannah of the Mounties" (1939) ***

Kids who were the sole survivor of an Indian massacre were an old Western standby so in a way its kind of surprising it took 20th Century Fox a while to get around to using that as a plot for a Shirley Temple film. Or maybe not... it does mean this is a more serious vehicle for the moppet, beginning with her severely traumatised after her family and friends have been wiped out.

But this enables her to be an orphan and charm a military outpost, something she was very experienced at doing. For variety it's set in Canada and the cowboys are mounties; there is Randolph Scott wearing a mustache that makes him look really old as the main mountie dude, whom Temple kind of seems romantically keen on; a young Indian is held hostage for Shirley to have tween urst with; Margaret Lockwood (looking not very comfortable) pops up as Scott's love interest, who Temple spends most of her time trying to separate; the Indians are extremely whimpy except Victor Jory and a few firebrands; Shirley puts her head into the lion's den by visiting the Indian camp at the end to save the day. Shirley also takes a few drags on a peace pipe and gets a head ache.

There are many echoes of Wee Willie Winkie; it isn't as good but there's action and novelty.

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