I received a copy of Shirley Temple Black's autobiography "Child Star" and, first thing of course, looked up GG in the index. The former star writes with remarkable sang froid and wit on the zloi (in this instance "nasty" might be the appropriate translation) review written by GG which I posted in part recently. The hornpipe GG found so titillating in Captain January actually replaced an original hula dance which made  "the Mothers Clubs of America ... gasp in horror"  and caused the studio to replace this "immoral dance" with a hornpipe.  Apparently the Mothers were mollified, but, as Mrs B writes,

"You can't please everyone. Writing for the London Spectator in his August 7, 1936 review, film critic Graham Greene characterized Captain January as " ... a little depraved, with an appeal interestingly decadent.... Shirley Temple acts and dances with immense vigor and assurance, but some of her popularity seems to rest on a coquetry quite as mature as Miss Colbert's and on an oddly precocious body, as voluptuous in grey flannel trousers [the hornpipe costume] as Miss Dietrich's."

It turns out, that it was not this review, but a later one written by GG on a later film that caused all the scandal and legal ruckus. The film was Wee Willie Winkie and GG's review, this time in Night and Day, was considered so shocking at the time that it could not be read aloud in open court. Mrs Black tackles the matter head on but I don't feel I need to. Anyone interested will find the whole story on pages 184-186 of Child Star.  However I will give you a few tid-bits: 

"... already two years ago she [Miss Temple] was a fancy little piece ... watch the way she measures a man with agile studio eyes, with dimpled depravity. Adult emotions of love and grief glissade across the mask of childhood ... middle-aged men and clergy-men respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body ...."

A lawsuit ensues and lawyers for the studio and Little Miss L's parents proclaim the offending magazine "a beastly publication." I found Mrs B's mature reflections of interest:

Blundering, perhaps, but not beastly. Patterned after the erudite New Yorker, it was a fleeting jewel of literary intellect and critical humor. Among distinguished contributors it could boast Elizabeth Bowen (theatre), Evelyn Waugh (books), Malcolm Muggeridge, and as co-editor, Greene himself ...."

The trajectory of our Lo from child coquette to the emotionally mature Mrs Richard Shiller is certainly matched by the parallel trajectory of Little Miss L to the mature Mrs Charles Black. Mrs B quotes GG referring to her as "that little bitch Shirley Temple." He had no idea who he was dealing with. I don't think HH ever figured it out either.

C Kunin
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