There was no end to this little girl's talent, as Shirley once again gives an astounding performance with her singing, dancing, and acting skills that are something else for a seven-year-old!
The story takes place during the Civil War, where Shirley goes through some harrowing experiences for a child, like losing her mother, helping to hide her father from Union soldiers, an attempted getaway, where they're chased and shot at, and seeing her father in jail. But Shirley does something about that! She (along with Bill Robinson) pays a visit to President Lincoln to plead her father's case! And what a priceless scene that is! (Almost as good as Shirley and Bill earning their train ticket fare to Washington by dancing and singing "Polly Wolly Doodle".) Shirley and Bill made quite a team!
Stepin Fetchit is also here, and is his usual self, like when he's found hiding in a closet by Union soldiers, and said he just stepped in there to get some air, or, as if contemplating one of life's profound questions, he asks Bill why a shoe is called a shoe? He's something else!
Some memorable scenes are Shirley defiantly singing "Dixie" to some Union officers and leading a group of children she's training to be soldiers. When her father leaves to go fight, (after a crying scene that was so well acted, not over the top), she asks him to "give my love to General Lee." The tears she sheds over her mother's death (and later, when she tells the President about it) are as if she really suffered a loss, no phony sobs or overacting with this little girl. And you have a heart of stone if you aren't moved by her singing "Believe Me if all Those Endearing Young Charms" to her father.
This is a short movie (less than 90 minutes), so by all means watch it!
The story takes place during the Civil War, where Shirley goes through some harrowing experiences for a child, like losing her mother, helping to hide her father from Union soldiers, an attempted getaway, where they're chased and shot at, and seeing her father in jail. But Shirley does something about that! She (along with Bill Robinson) pays a visit to President Lincoln to plead her father's case! And what a priceless scene that is! (Almost as good as Shirley and Bill earning their train ticket fare to Washington by dancing and singing "Polly Wolly Doodle".) Shirley and Bill made quite a team!
Stepin Fetchit is also here, and is his usual self, like when he's found hiding in a closet by Union soldiers, and said he just stepped in there to get some air, or, as if contemplating one of life's profound questions, he asks Bill why a shoe is called a shoe? He's something else!
Some memorable scenes are Shirley defiantly singing "Dixie" to some Union officers and leading a group of children she's training to be soldiers. When her father leaves to go fight, (after a crying scene that was so well acted, not over the top), she asks him to "give my love to General Lee." The tears she sheds over her mother's death (and later, when she tells the President about it) are as if she really suffered a loss, no phony sobs or overacting with this little girl. And you have a heart of stone if you aren't moved by her singing "Believe Me if all Those Endearing Young Charms" to her father.
This is a short movie (less than 90 minutes), so by all means watch it!