The Littlest Rebel (1935) Director: David Butler
“Sing Polly-Wolly-Doodle all the day.”
★☆☆☆☆
The Littlest Rebel is at times a painfully racist film about a Southern plantation family during the American Civil War, and yet it also features other beautiful and classic heart-warming moments as would be expected in a Shirley Temple movie. It was released in 1935, and became a top box-office film, alongside Shirley Temple’s signature performance in Curly Top, which was also released in 1935. Shirley Temple stars alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, the dancer and musical performer who was the top paid African American entertainer in the 20th century. The film was the second of four films in which Robinson and Temple co-starred. Additionally, the film has rightly earned criticism from modern audiences for its brazen, headshakingly racist stereotypes and depictions of black slaves as unintelligent, silly, and mostly innocent, heroic defenders of the Confederacy. The Littlest Rebel falls in line with the shameful “lost cause” mythology as found in other films like Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind (in fact, it has been suggested that the opening scenes of a peaceful Southern plantation later influenced Margaret Mitchell’s portrayal of the Antebellum South in Gone With The Wind which was being written in 1935). Bill Robinson would later be criticized for his portrayals in films, though he did personally help to challenge racial barriers for African Americans. He tragically died a penniless man in 1949, despite being the top paid African American of the 20th century.
The Littlest Rebel opens in an idyllic and peaceful plantation during a party, in which Shirley Temple’s character, Virgie Clay, is celebrating her birthday. However, the party abruptly ends with the outbreak of the civil war and the attack on Fort Sumter. The Union invades the South and her father becomes a spy for the Confederacy, often going behind enemy lines. Eventually, their beautiful home is burnt to the ground and Virgie’s mother tragically dies of an illness. Her father escapes back behind Union lines to try to save his daughter, but he is caught. However, the Union solider decides to help him escape with his daughter in a fake coat with a fraudulent note. But in their escape, they are all caught by Union soldiers and both the Union and Confederate soldiers are condemned to death. Virgie and her slave Uncle Billy (Bill Robinson) decide to go to Washington where they appeal to Abraham Lincoln for their freedom, who then nobly grants it in a memorable scene. In the end, young Shirley Temple is seen singing happily to a group of soldiers from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line.
There are moments of shimmering nostalgia in this Civil War film, such as Shirley Temple’s performance of “Polly Wally Doodle,” however these little moments are utterly overwhelmed by the preponderance of shocking levels of racism and stereotyping, including a scene of Shirley Temple in blackface. But the worst thing about this film is its “lost cause” apologia for the Old South. This brand of revisionist history, wherein Black slaves are portrayed as clownishly buffoonish supporters of the Confederacy and Union soldiers are portrayed as greedy villains in contrast to their genteel Southern counterparts, has caused very serious harm to American society.
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Credits:
- Director: David Butler
- Screenplay by: Edwin J. Burke and Harry Tugend
- Based on: “The Littlest Rebel,” a 1909 play by Edward Peple
- Produced by: Darryl Zanuck (producer) and Buddy G. DeSylva (associate producer)
- Cinematography: John F. Seitz
- Edited by: Irene Morra
- Music by: Cyril Mockridge
- Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
- Starring:
- Shirley Temple…..Virgie Cary
- John Boles…..Herbert Cary
- Jack Holt…..Colonel Morrison
- Karen Morley…..Mrs. Cary
- Frank McGlynn Sr…..President Abraham Lincoln
- Bill Robinson…..Uncle Billy