Wee Willie Winkie (1937)

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BACKGROUND

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Wee Willie Winkie which was adapted from the Rudyard Kipling novel of the same name, might easily be Ford's most underrated masterpiece. It’s difficult for many casual Ford observers to fathom that he was paired with Shirley Temple, who plays the title character Pricilla “Winkie” Williams, and it is even more incredible how much he was able to both exemplify and transcend the sub-genre her long list of films represents.

 

Wee Willie Winkie offers the simplest possible argument against war and colonialism. From the perspective of a child, the ongoing genocidal cruelty of Great Britain’s occupation of India is incomprehensible. The only thing that is clear to her is that she does not wish to see the people she loves, on both sides of the conflict, needlessly killed. 

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PLOT SUMMARY

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A young girl and her widowed mother go to live with the child’s grandfather who commands a military post in northern India, that is entangled in a local uprising.

 

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