Wee Willie Winkie

Wee Willie Winkie is a 1937 American adventure drama film directed by John Ford and starring Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen, and Cesar Romero. The screenplay by Julien Josephson and Ernest Pascal was based on a story by Rudyard Kipling. The film's story concerns the British presence in 19th-century India. The production was filmed largely at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, where a number of elaborate sets were built for the film. This film was the first of three in which Shirley Temple and Cesar Romero appeared together, second was Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937) and The Little Princess (1939). The film is noteworthy for not having any elaborate song or dance routines which had become staples in Temple's films for 20th Century-Fox. William S. Darling and David S. Hall were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Plot During the British Raj, Sergeant Donald MacDuff escorts Joyce Williams, an impoverished widow, and her young daughter, Priscilla, to a military outpost on the northern frontier of British occupied India to live with her stern father-in-law, Colonel Williams. Along the way, they witness the capture of freedom fighter chief Khoda Khan. Soon, Priscilla, nicknamed 'Wee Willie Winkie' by MacDuff, wins the hearts of all the soldiers, especially her grandfather and MacDuff; even Khoda Khan is touched by her visits to cheer him up in his captivity, and her returning a lost necklace to him. Meanwhile, her mother is courted by Lieutenant Brandes.