365 Films A Year!

Viewed August 10, 2006

War Babies is one of a series of short comedy films made by Educational Pictures in the early 30s. The idea behind the series was to parody popular films with small children (about aged 3 – 5) in the roles instead of adults. They are most notable today for being among the earliest films to feature a very young Shirley Temple.

If War Babies is any indication, the films are filled with remarkably mature dialogue. They didn’t shy away from the more sexual aspects of the story (this one revolving around soldiers in a bar). Temple plays Charmaine, a dancer at the bar who is the object of two different soldiers’ affections.

I won’t deny that the kids are impressive in how well they remember such complicated dialogue, but it’s a creepy film to watch. Seeing small children fighting over girls and the clearly sexually-charged imagry would never pass muster today, and rightly so. The worst scene is right towards the end, when Temple emerges from the upstairs room to say goodbye to her beau, only to have another boy sneak out behind his back. Actual sexual activity is even implied when one boy shows that Temple has given him flowers, only for the other to show he has her diaper pin.

War Babies is a film that could never be made today and that’s a good thing. The series didn’t last very long and this seems to be because there was some outcry over the nature of these films. It’s interesting to watch to see early work from Shirley Temple and, perhaps, to see what people could get awat with in those days. It’s entertainment value, however, is virtually nil.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 2:18 pm and is filed under 1932, Comedy, Internet Archive, Military, Short. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.