Saturday, February 15, 2014

Shirley Temple Top Ten

In honour of the recent death of Ms Shirley Temple Black I thought I'd do my top ten Shirley flicks:
1) Wee Willie Winkie - Shirley is given her greatest director, John Ford, who in turn is given a milieu he knows and loves (a fort outpost... in this case a British Imperial one but still a fort outpost nonetheless) and results in a classic.
2) Heidi - oprhan schmaltz of the highest order
3) The Little Princess - high production values and a solid story make this worth watching.
4) Captain January - another orphan tale but with Guy Kibee, some great villains and the novelty of a lighthouse setting.
5) Stowaway - Shirley Temple in China with strong support via Alice Faye and Robert Young.
6) Bright Eyes - Every Shirley Temple cliche your heart could desire and more: poor mother who is killed, loving bachelor to adopt you, vicious Jane Withers, the "Good Ship Lolly Pop".
7) Little Miss Marker - this helped Shirley become a star; it's not a vehicle for her but she does drive the action and benefits from a strong cast and source material.
8) The Blue Bird - highly flawed, but fascinating and definitely worth watching.
9) The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer  - Shirley's best film as a teenager, giving a lively performance.
10) Fort Apache - not really a Shirley Temple film, she has a small role, but she's still in it and it's a masterpiece nonetheless.

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