Little Miss Marker

Despite only two songs, it's another entertaining Shirley Temple film. The story is familiar; it's been done several other times, once under the name "Sorrowful Jones," with Bob Hope. This movie is a bit different from that one, so you could own both and have two different slants on the famous Damon Runyon story.

This version has a lot more comedy from the supporting players, since Temple is cute but she' isn't going to be the main source of humor as Hope was in his films. In here, all the bookies and gangsters provide the humor. The leading male, played by Adolph Menjou, is a sourpuss but still likable. The leading adult female, Dorothy Dell, was a bit tough-looking, I thought, for this role.

Temple doesn't play as sweet a role as she did in most of her films, but she still has her tender moments. Nobody can produce a sentimental scene as quickly as Shirley could. In all, a nice film and enjoyable from start to finish.

Note: This was the best colorized version I have seen of Temple's films. Perhaps that was because MGM did this, not Fox, which did the others. It advertises "stereo" but I didn't hear any.