This photo shows a very muddy little Shirley Temple in the 1937 John Ford directed film “Wee Willie Winkie.” Don’t look too hard for this scene, as you won’t find it. Deleted before it was released, it’s one of those gems that one wishes still existed. In the set still below, you can see the area where it occurred.
Even a mud puddle needs art direction.
Ford appears to be on the right of this shot when you zoom in:
What happened after Shirley got muddy? She also played in Mrs. Allardyce’s (Constance Collier) petunia garden. Bad Shirley.
This scene no longer exists either, but thanks to this set still, we know where the gossipy Mrs. Allardyce had her garden.
Naturally, she got spanked by her mother, played by June Lang.
Not to be found in the finished movie, it too was deleted. How could anyone spank Shirley?!?
See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.
Love this information and the photos! So that was where she got into the mud - that lady's garden and what was she doing in there? Love her face so much when she's got mud on her. She is hilarious. It's all explained now except for my question. Does anyone have the script! I wish someone had kept or hid that film clip somewhere. What a loss!
ReplyDeleteThat’s my mother spanking Shirley! But she never spanked me! She would just send me to my room. She was her teacher in Captain January also.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading she was not happy about having to spank Shirley!
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