The Pie-Covered Wagon

In the beginning of her career, Shirley Temple starred in a god-awful series called 'Baby Burlesque' films. They consisted of casts of children from about 3-4 years of age acting in films where the actors SHOULD have been adults. This was THE joke in the films and it wore very thin very fast. And, seeing such young kids try to act was pretty pathetic--sort of like seeing kids in a school pageant that you are forced to endure.

In this installment, Shirley and the gang are in the old American West. It's complete with VERY stereotypical Indians, the typical terrible acting, a trained bear (which they actually allowed around the kids!!!) and the usual almost unintelligible dialog (after all, kids this age just can't deliver lines well). It also has a dog that talks!! Uggh! All in all, I can't see how anyone could have enjoyed these unless they really, really, really liked seeing small mostly topless kids performing in for laughs(?)...and people like this creepy me out big-time. Nasty.

The Pie-Covered Wagon (1932)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The Baby Burlesque series of shorts are some of the most interesting from this era for all the wrong reasons. The series basically had scripts for adults but all of the roles were played by children with Shirley Temple being the star. In this one set in the West, Temple has a crush on a boy and soon their wagon is attacked by Indians.

THE PIE-COVERED WAGON was made as a comedy. It was a spoof of the countless Westerns that were out at the time. The problem is that it's not really that funny and the entire series, more times than not, just came across as being rather creepy. There are scenes where a bear chasing a young black boy. There are scenes where Temple and her "love" kiss each other. The idea of having kids playing adult roles might have gone over big at the time but today it just seems a little strange to say the least. Yes, you must judge a film for when it was made but I'm still curious as to what people really felt about some of these back in the day. This one here is poorly made, contains no laughs and is really just of interest as a strange freak show.

I believe that these short baby burlesque films were spoofed adult films of the time period. While I too an disturbed by the boys being mostly shirtless in these shorts and the obvious racism in the film industry, these films were not intended to cause harm to the children performers. You have to wonder what they were thinking but child performers in their day were exploited and poorly paid as well. I doubt the cast understood their lines. In this short, it is about the western genre with cowboys versus Indians or native Americans in the days of the Wild West. Shirley Temple is fine here but the short has other performers too.

Bizarre little novelty short about a wagon train crossing the Plains, being stopped by the Indians.... and all the actors are little children in diapers! One of a series directed by Charles Lamont before he hit it big at Universal. Notable for a young Shirley Temple as the girl tied to the stake by the Indians.