Wee Willie Winkie (1937) on Netflix
PG19371h 40m
In 1897, Sergeant Donald MacDuff escorts a widow and her daughter, Priscilla, to a British army outpost in northern India. There her grandfather, Colonel Williams, commands the garrison.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.9/102,159 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
During the British Raj in 1897, Sergeant Donald MacDuff escorts Joyce Williams, a widow with little money, and Joyce's daughter Priscilla to an army post in the north of India. There Priscilla is to live with her grandfather, Colonel Williams, who commands the garrison. On the journey the group witnesses the seizure of Khoda Khan, a chief of the freedom fighters. MacDuff gives the girl the nickname Wee Willie Winkie, and she quickly wins over the soldiers, her grandfather included. She calls on Khan in his captivity to lift his spirits and gives back a necklace he had lost. Lieutenant Brandes, whom Priscilla calls Coppy, courts her mother.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Graham Greene's Night and Day review said nine-year-old Shirley Temple showed "a dubious coquetry" appealing to "middle-aged men and clergymen", which led Temple and 20th Century-Fox to sue him for libel. The Lord Chief Justice called the review "a gross outrage" and fined the defendants £3,500; Greene then left for Mexico, where he developed The Power and the Glory (1940).
- Intense conflicts between labor unions and Hollywood studios forced production off the Fox studio lot and out to Chatsworth, California. During one standoff, a Fox studio messenger visiting the set nearly had a light dropped on his head after he scolded a stagehand who complained about working conditions.
SPOILER
John Ford was initially indifferent towards Shirley Temple but changed his demeanor after the restraint she showed in Sergeant MacDuff's death scene. The two remained friends for years, Ford became godfather to Temple's oldest daughter, and he cast her in his 1948 film Fort Apache.- Shirley Temple called Wee Willie Winkie the best of her films, "but for all the wrong reasons": the military marching in garb with brass buttons and bouncing kilts, the daredevil stunts with snipers and stampeding horses, and finally earning the professional respect of John Ford.
