Wee Willie Winkie

The precocious granddaughter (Shirley Temple) of a British army colonel charms a soldier (Victor McLaglen) and a hostile native (Cesar Romero) in colonial India.

The same year director John Ford made the impressive The Hurricane, he also made this awkward mishmash of a Shirley Temple vehicle.

If you’re a fan of Temple, you’ll likely enjoy this much more than if you’re just a fan of Ford. The film feels as though someone took the script for a Ford adventurer, and substituted scenes of Temple acting cute in place of any action. If that floats your boat you’ll be fine, but for those less enamored with Temple’s shtick, it can be grating.

Mainly because there’s the making of a solid yarn here. Ford mainstays Victor McLaglen and C. Aubrey Smith, both of whom work well with Temple, are joined by Cesar Romero, who’s great as the baddie, Khoda Khan. Indeed, were it not for Temple, this would probably be a pretty solid film.

But in the end, it is a Temple picture, and Ford seems resigned to it, as the film builds to a truly anti-climatic finish in which the supporting cast is all but forgotten as her cuteness conquers all. Thankfully, in Temple and Ford’s next pairing, Fort Apache she was reduced to third billing.