Sorry, this movie sucks

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Southern civil war officer John Boles goes on the run behind enemy lines, leaving his household at the mercy of invading northern troops. Sweet Shirley Temple does all she can to aid mother Karen Morley and slaves Willie Best and Bill Robinson, befriending the pickaninny children and cheering them up when they're blue. Black shoe polish turns her instantly into a black child, fooling all but one northern soldier and none of the audience. She works her way into the heart of Northern officer Jack Holt and when the agonies of the war leads to tragedy, Temple must continue to help out daddy while remaining continuously cheerful.While this remains entertaining simply as a Shirley Temple vehicle, as history, it is hogwash. Temple further goes down cloying territory with a re- written version of "Polly Wolly Doodle", later parodied for its sickening sweetness by Julie Andrews in "S.O.B.". The other major flaw is that Temple is totally miscast as a supposed Southern child, a part that should have gone to the Atlanta born Jane Withers. I can understand the black adults being loyal to protecting Shirley but Boles and Morley are far too nicely presented as slave owners, a stereotyped presented in Hollywood seemingly for decades. All is forgiven though when Shirley and Bojangles do their sidewalk dance in exchange for train fare to see President Lincoln, an embarrassingly absurd finale.

WARNING: Watching this film might cause your head to explode! I'm just sayin'....."The Littlest Rebel" begins in an insanely over-idealized view of the South during the time of slavery. Little Virgie (Shirley Temple) is having a birthday party and all the slaves on the plantation are thrilled to be allowed to serve her! All the slaves are very well-fed and dressed and so happy! It's THAT ridiculous a view of slavery!! Yes, these slaves actually root for the Confederate Army and would probably volunteer to be slaves--it's THAT ridiculous. When their land is overrun by Yankee soldiers, the slaves stick around and keep working for their beloved owners! And, to further solidify this insane view of blacks, Willie Best (I guess Steppin Fetchit wasn't available) is on hand to act sub-human and harmless. And, there's that darling little scene at the 20 minute mark where Shirley is in black-face to avoid the Yankees finding her (and she looks a lot like the Aunt Jemima character)!! The film clearly promotes a ridiculously bigoted and idealized view of slavery, I advise parents to watch this with their kids and folks with heart conditions to have their nitro tablets and a defibrillator nearby just in case!! The rest of the film has to do with the war. While Daddy is away, Momma and Virgie hang on--waiting for each trip he makes back through enemy lines on his scouting expeditions. However, eventually, Momma becomes seriously ill and Daddy once again sneaks through the lines--only to see her moments before her death. Now, poor Virgie needs some place to live and Daddy decides to sneak her off to Richmond. But, to get there, he needs to sneak her with him--and that won't be easy. It gets a bit ridiculous here, as a sympathetic Northern Colonel actually helps him in this task because he also thinks Virgie is wonderful (EVERYBODY thinks she's wonderful, actually). But, when they are caught, it's up to Virgie to save the day. How? Well, see this for a sweet but 100% ridiculous ending.This film is quite offensive but, like all of Shirley's films, highly entertaining. Her wonderful dancing with Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson and ultra-sweet persona carry the film---making you enjoy it despite the utter silliness of the plot. Well worth seeing even if it is a SERIOUSLY flawed film.By the way, I really agree with JohnnyOldSoul's review when he says that the best way to combat racism is NOT to sweep it under the rug (i.e., ban this film) but to talk about it. Yes, the film is VERY offensive, but it also gives us an interesting history lesson about how bad things were racially in the 1930s--when the "Birth of a Nation" view of slavery was pretty much assumed to be true. Plus, seeing it shows us just have far we've come.

Shirley's comfy confederate life is disrupted by Yankees invading her home and breaking up her family. It is perhaps unfair to criticize the performance of a seven-year-old, but her mugging can become tiresome for those who are not fans of the diminutive star. The acting of the adults is pretty bad, not helped by the corny script, awful dialog, and characters that don't resemble real people. McGlynn makes a laughably goofy Lincoln. The depiction of blacks is embarrassing, particularly Best as a mentally challenged slave, a character meant to be funny. The best thing about this mercifully short film is the dancing of Temple and "Bojangles" Robinson.

One could say that the essential thing about all ruling, all exploiting and all humiliation is to make most of those that you rule over, unaware of their slavery, even if, as in this film, they are called slaves. Right after the civil war, there was a general understanding amongst winners of that war to go easy on the conquered South. Even Lincoln is said to have the orchestra playing "Dixie" as he stood there on the balcony receiving the praise of the people for the victory. Why, one might ask, was this so? The South's kind of slavery was a very lazy one, in which the slaves knew that they were slaves and in which there were only black slaves. Less lazy rulers want all to be slaves, except themselves, of course. The South's kind of slavery was a provocation and to let it go on could easily have resulted in another, for the men in power much more dangerous war, the war of all slaves (not just those being called slaves) of all colors against the rich and powerful. That was not allowed to happen. This film glorifies ruling and cleverly even manages to glorify the kind of slavery in which people are called slaves and openly are bought and sold. By taking a stand for the South in the times of the civil war, Hollywood did with this film sanction "fatherly" leadership, which we are supposed to believe being "good", even if we are sold and bought. Using a lovely motherless child and any number of "Uncle Tom's" for this purpose, as in the story of this film, does, as it seems, give rise to no blushing whatsoever. The liar lies so much that, in the end, he believes his own lies. A gruesome "cute" little film selling slavery to the slaves!