Wee Willie Winkie

One of Shirley's best; nice restoration job
Fox continues to release the Temple films without any real extras; this one appears to be no exception. Since it was also part of a John Ford boxed set, it underwent an extensive overhaul (about 77 hours according to the background information on the DVD). Original elements at Fox were unusable for "Winkie," but the final result is very good. There is NO colorized version to choose from here, but rather a sepia-tone version, just as the film was originally released. For film buffs, this is a plus!

"Wee Willie Winkie" (1937) VERY loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's popular story. Taken by her mother (June Lang) to live in India, a young girl (Temple) gradually wins the heart of her feisty grandfather (C. Aubrey Smith), a colonel at a British army outpost. Before long, she captures the hearts of his entire regiment as well as his chief enemy (Cesar Romero), using her charms to prevent a full-scale war. Directed by John Ford; definitely one of Temple's best films, thanks to the...

Shirley in India!
One over-looked strength of so many Shirley Temple movies is that they can introduce young children to the topic of death and loss in a sensitive way. When Shirley's soldier friend Victor McLaglen dies of his wounds in his hospital bed during Shirley's visit, it is obvious to the audience, but not to the naive child. I found that scene the most touching in the whole movie. In other respects, it is a very good piece of movie-making, with old war horses C. Aubrey Smith and Cesar Romero turning in solid performances as Shirley's commander-grandfather and the villainous enemy to British concerns, respectively. Shirley manages to quell troubles in India, at least for now, by virtue of her innocence and pluck. Well worth seeing.

Beautiful restoration!
I never realized this film was originally released in different tints for different scenes until I read the story of its restoration, which is included on the DVD. It was an unusual process at the time - usually a film was either in color or black and white. The restoration is indeed a magnificent job!

Wee Willie Winkie was Zanuck's way of trying to hold up his "falling star" by putting Shirley in a different "formula" and Wee Willie (as is Shirley's other 1937 release, Heidi) is a successful endeavor. By 1937, box office audiences had grown a little weary of the "little orphan Shirley" plots that were essentially the same story with variations in each theme. Zanuck paired Shirley with John Ford for the first time in an attempt to give her something more to do than dance and be cute. Shirley found Ford to be a difficult director but someone she later bonded with and he even became her first child's godfather. Missing from this film are the "cutsey" things written...

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