Little Miss Marker - 1934

Best. Movie. Year. Ever.

Little Miss Marker - Released June 1, 1934. Directed by Alexander Hall

Shirley Temple is left with a bookie (Adolphe Menjou) as 'marker' for a bet, and when the father never returns, Menjou has to make decisions about what to do as a sudden substitute father and protector. Dorothy Dell is a professional songstress (named "Bangles Carson") and a mob-moll who is drawn to the abandoned child and subsequently is around Menjou a lot, to the consternation of her dangerous mobster boyfriend (Charles Bickford ).

This film, based on the Damon Runyon story, has a tender sentimental streak and mixes together tough guys, tough girls, gambling, race-fixing and other underworld activities with the broad smiles of Shirley Temple. Instead of the usual smooth scoundrels that Menjou played in many films, here he is a world-weary, toughened bookie who has his crusty exterior penetrated by a helpless little girl, and though there's a great deal of humor in the script, it wouldn't mean a lot unless we had a threat of danger and the response of loyalty from this suddenly coalesced surrogate-family centered around Shirley.

Remade many times, and "borrowed" from by many other films. If Little Miss Marker reminds you of Capra's 1933 Lady for a Day, it's because both original stories were written by Runyon.

Giant

In this compelling and impeccably researched narrative history of the making of the film, Don Graham chronicles the stories of the stars and Director Stevens, whose trauma in World War II intensified his ambition to make films that would tell the story of America

Original Page July 2017 | Updated Nov 2017

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