War Babies

Yesterday, I commented on the first of this type of short: "Runt Page," which incidentally was Shirley Temple's first part. This is effectively the last baby one: they didn't seem to work that well with audiences and this one was hit by a child porn suit.

"Runt Page" was a takeoff of "Front Page," featuring 4 year olds in diapers as all the characters, except with adult voices.

In this case, we have no specific movie spoofed, the child voices are used and the girls aren't topless. Also there's the token "negro" kid (called "boy") who grins and dances.

The story is simple: Charmaine (Shirley) is a French tart in a bar at the front. A good half of the movie is her dancing suggestively, including a butt shimmy when ice cream is dripped down her back. A typical tart, she shifts her attention to the bloke with the most gifts, here lollipops.

Two soldiers vie for her attentions, shown by on screen kissing. The shocker comes at the end: all the soldiers are called away and the two have to say goodbye to their gal. They confront each other — after a scene where she is hugging one and secretly kissing the second.

Alert viewers will note that when she comes out to say goodbye, her diaper pin is missing.

The first says something to the effect that "she's my girl," and the second says "oh yeah?" and shows he has Charmaine's diaper pin. (All the pins in these are 8 inches or so big but hers is 12 inches and has a ribbon on it.) Obviously, he's "been in her pants."

Its pretty smarmy stuff that most of the audience would have thought merely cute at the time.

Now the question is: what are we watching now that we think is cutely funny that our grandchildren will consider repulsive?

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

A SHIRLEY TEMPLE Short Subject.

It can get mighty rough at Buttermilk Pete's Cafe when the local contingency of diaper-clad WAR BABIES come in for their midday milk break.

This primitive little film - a spoof of military movies - provides a few chuckles, but little else: tiny tots talking tough can begin to pall in a short time. Shirley Temple, playing a duplicitous hip-swinging French miss, hasn't much to do in this pre-celebrity performance. Highlight: the real signs of toddler temper when a few of the infants unexpectedly get well & truly soaked with milk.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

Okay, Shirley Temple plays a singer in this film short during wartime. Her skirt is ultra short and inappropriate now and wonder why the censors didn't notice it then. Also, the boys are supposed to be soldiers but they don't wear shirts. I know they're supposed to act like adults as children but I felt uncomfortable seeing the children exposed in an unhealthy manner. The boys and girls acted like adults even though they were small children but still I can't believe that the censors allowed the children to be dressed in such a manner to expose them to the world audience. Maybe they didn't notice it then about the negative reaction, I know I would never allow my son to go shirtless at a young age or my daughter to wear a short skirt to the thigh. I was a little disturbed by it all and I'm glad that it's not aired on television anymore.

Although Shirley Temple's obvious charisma is hard to miss in this film, War Babies borders a bit on the suggestive. The people who would put their kids in this film remind me of the parents of Jon Benet Ramsey.

In a kiddie satire on What Prie Glory, Shirley Temple plays Charmaine the French girl fought over by Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt as a pair of boy toddlers take over those roles. It's cute, but it kind of borders on the creepy.

Definitely one for her still active legion of fans, but not one to my taste at all.

[I saw this movie once late on a public tv station, so I don't know if it's on video or not.]

This is one of the "Baby Burlesks" (sic) that Shirley Temple did in the early 1930s. It is hard to believe that anyone would let their daughter be in this racy little film which today might just be considered this side of "kiddie porn".

Shirley Temple stars in a cast which probably has an average age of 5. They are all in diapers, and are in a saloon which serves milk instead of alcohol. The "cash" is in the form of lollipops.

Shirley playing a "femme fatale" sashays up to the bar and talks to soldiers who make suggestive comments about her (!). But Shirley doesn't need really their lollipops/cash because her purse is full of ones from other "men".

Meanwhile a little black boy does a suggestive dance on a nearby table (!).

What a strange film . . . infants using racy dialogue playing adult roles in a saloon. Who thought up this stuff any way?