War Babies (1932)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

Charles Lamont

Release Date:

18 September 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Short

Plot:

A group of soldiers in a café watch a dancer as she entertains them, but later two of them become rivals over her. |

Plot Keywords:

Dancer | Soldier | Café | Spoof | Poverty Row Film

Cast

Shirley Temple	...	Charmaine
Georgie Billings	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Eugene Butler	...	Sergeant Quirt (uncredited)
Philip Hurlic	...	Black boy (uncredited)
Georgie Smith	...	Captain Flagg (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Lamont

Produced by
Jack Hays	....	producer

Other crew
Robert M. Savini	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Jack Hays Productions (for)
• Educational Films Corporation of America

Distributors

• Educational Film Exchanges (1932) (USA) (theatrical)
• Passport Video (2007) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

What Price Gloria? (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:11 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Jack Hays Productions

Trivia:

Shirley Temple's parents, George Temple and Gertrude Temple, took their daughter to see this movie at a local theater; Gertrude later recalled, "The picture lasted ten minutes. Shirley merely flitted across the screen a few times and said only two lines. But my head swam and the goose flesh popped out on my arms. I think I cried a little. George squeezed my hand. We were proud. It was our little girl doing something wonderful, like saying her first words, and we were happy."

Quotes:

Captain Flagg: Listen, baby, I gots to go now. You be good till I get back. And stay away from that slug Sergeant Quirt! He's a snake in the grass!
Charmaine: Mais oui, mon cher capitaine.
Captain Flagg: Okay, baby.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hollywood Legends: Elizabeth Taylor and Shirley Temple (2001) (V)

Rich in cinematic history

I love these "Diaper Baby" movies! You couldn't make a movie like this today and it is rich in cinematic history. It is goofy and the film was made to make you laugh, which it does. How they ever got these kids to "act" I'll never know. I think they are precious and the kids make me laugh but so do the others who made this movie as it shows the naiveté that existed in the early 30's. You have to remember that this is when the film industry was very young, the stock market had crashed, the world wide depression was beginning and these films were made to give a person a break from the real world. The fact that you could see movies for five cents is beyond my comprehension, but then dinner for 25 cents is too. It was a different time with a totally different mind set.