The Little Colonel (1935)

Shirley Temple: Lloyd Sherman

Photos 

Quotes 

• Col. Lloyd : For your years and weight, you're probably the stubbornest person in this county.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : You weigh a lot more than I do!

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Mom Beck, why do they dunk the women in the river that way?

  Becky Porter : That's to save their souls and wash their sins away.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Will it wash my sins away?

  Becky Porter : Well, honey, you ain't got no sins. You is a little angel.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Well, would it wash my sins away if I had any?

  Becky Porter : Yes, honey. If you carried the right thought and believed it would.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Were you ever dunked, Mom Beck?

  Walker : A little river like that wouldn't do her no good. Child, she needs the Mississippi!

• Col. Lloyd : Child, you're a true Lloyd. You've got all the fire and courage our family's always had. And you've got the same infernal temper that's been our curse. It's going to cause you a lot of unhappiness unless you learn to control it. Will you try?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I will if you will.

  Col. Lloyd : Well, you've got a lot more time to learn than I have.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : [to a picture of her grandfather]  You're a bad man to make my mama cry!

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Grandfather, do you know any blue stories?

  Col. Lloyd : [surprised]  Blue stories? Well, I do... a few.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Tell me one.

  Col. Lloyd : I don't know any that I can tell *you.*

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Mom Beck, why doesn't my grandfather want to come in and see my mother?

  Becky Porter : Well, he mighty mad at she, and I guess she mad at he.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Why?

  Becky Porter : Your grandfather get mad when your mama marry your daddy.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : But he's her papa, isn't he?

  Becky Porter : Sure 'nough.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Aren't papas supposed to love their little girls?

  Becky Porter : Yes, honey, they should.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : It seems might funny to me.

  Becky Porter : It's 'cause all the Lloyds are stubborn. The old colonel is, your mama is, and you is.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I'm not stubborn! Don't you call me that!

  Becky Porter : Don't you stomp your foot at me. That don't change it, that just proves it.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Don't you dare poke with that old stick!

  Col. Lloyd : You'd better learn some respect for your elders.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I won't respect anyone who pokes me with a stick!

  Col. Lloyd : For a little girl, you've got a bad temper!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : That's your fault.

  Col. Lloyd : What? Who are you?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : They call me the little colonel.

  Col. Lloyd : What under the sun do they call you that for?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Because I'm so much like you.

  Col. Lloyd : What? How are you like me?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Because I stop my foot when I get mad, and I get all red in the face! I holler back at people, too!

  Col. Lloyd : Look at you! You're a pretty sight. What are you running around the country for, like poor white trash? I don't know who your mother is, but whoever she is, she ought to teach you some manners.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : [throwing mud on him]  Don't you dare say anything bad about my mother!

  Col. Lloyd : Whose child is that?

  Becky Porter : How can I tell you, sir, when you don't want nobody to even say her name?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I'm Lloyd Sherman, that's who I am!

  Col. Lloyd : Lloyd Sherman!

  Becky Porter : Come on now, child, your mama's mighty worried about you.

  Col. Lloyd : I - I didn't know.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Oh, that's all right. Goodbye, Grandfather.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : And I only had one shot left. And I aimed my gun, and bang! I killed those three Indians.

  May Lily : Why, Miss Lloyd, did you really do that?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Of course not, that's just a story. And you don't have to call me Miss Lloyd. You can call me Colonel.

  May Lily : Is you a colonel too?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Yes, I am, a real colonel!

  May Lily : You can't be no colonel.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Why not?

  May Lily : 'Cause you ain't got no whiskers.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I don't need to have whiskers. I've got temper. That's all you need to be a colonel.

  May Lily : I guess that's right, 'cause all the colonels I ever seen had tempers. I hope you're not a colonel like him over there. If you was, I'd be afeared to play with you!

• May Lily : Why, Miss Lloyd, them's the colonel's flowers!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Well, we're not afraid of the colonel.

  May Lily : Who ain't afraid? Maybe you ain't, but I is.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Now listen, May Lily. You too, Henry Clay. I'm the colonel and you're my men, and in the army you have to obey orders. Forward march!

  May Lily : I don't think I'm gonna like bein' the army.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Aw!

• Becky Porter : Looky here, honey, if you don't take your nap like a good little gir, Mom Beck won't bring you along to the baptizin'.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Will there be singing?

  Becky Porter : Sure will, honey, and wailin' too.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Then I'll take my nap.

  Becky Porter : That's a good little girl.

• May Lily : If the old colonel ever finds out where we got these sheets, he'll baptize us good.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Didn't I tell you that my men don't have to be afraid of anything? Now, Henry Clay, are you ready? Have you got the right thoughts?

  Henry Clay : Uh-huh.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Do you believe it'll wash your sins away?

  Henry Clay : Uh-huh.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : All right, come one. One, two, three.

  [Lloyd and May Lily dunk Henry Clay in the water] 

  May Lily : Hallelujah!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Are you saved?

  [Henry Clay shakes his head] 

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Well, we'll have to do it again. One, two, three.

  [Lloyd and May Lily dunk Henry Clay in the water again] 

  May Lily : Hallelujah!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Are you saved?

  Henry Clay : Uh-huh.

• Col. Lloyd : That was your grandmother, dear. And that was her song you just sang.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I know. My mother teached it to me. Teached isn't right, is it?

  Col. Lloyd : No, taught is correct.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Taught, then. What was my grandmother's name?

  Col. Lloyd : Her name was Amanthis.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Amanthis? That's a beautiful name.

  Col. Lloyd : She was a beautiful person. With a beautiful soul.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I wish she was here now.

  Col. Lloyd : You do, dear? Why?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I know if she was here, she'd go right to my mother and kiss away all of her sorry feelings.

• Col. Lloyd : What are you wearing those old clothes for? Why don't they dress you up when you go visiting? It isn't showing proper respect to send you off in the oldest things you have.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : They're the best I've got, and I like them. And anyway, I don't need any new ones because pretty soon we'll be going away.

  Col. Lloyd : Going away? Where?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : To the poorhouse!

• Walker : Miss Lloyd, where you going?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I'm going home to Mother. She loves me, even if my clothes are old and ugly.

  Walker : Why, Miss Lloyd, the colonel loves you, too. It's just because his rheumatism's botherin' him that he's so cranky. My, my, you should hear the things he says. They'd make your hair curl.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Would they really make my hair curl?

  Walker : Sure would, Miss Lloyd. Look what they did to mine. Come on, now.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I don't want to go up there.

  Walker : Why, everybody's got to go upstairs, Miss Lloyd, if they wants to go to bed.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : But I don't want to.

  Walker : Look here, will you go if I shows you a new way how to go upstairs?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : How can there be a new way to go upstairs?

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Will you tell me a pink story?

  Becky Porter : If you ain't the beatinest child I ever seen. When you want to hear a blue story, everything in it has got to be blue. And when you want to hear a green story, everything in it has got to be green.

  [laughs] 

  Becky Porter : Now, I could tell you a *black* story 'bout my first husband...

• Col. Lloyd : What under the sun's goin' on here? What are you doing?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Hello, Grandfather! We were just baptizing Henry Clay.

  Col. Lloyd : Baptizing Henry Clay?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Yes, and he must be *awful* bad, because it took two dunks to save him!

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Mother, who was that?

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Your grandfather.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Why didn't he come in?

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : He didn't want to.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Did he make you cry?

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Now that I'm a colonel, can't I play with the boys anymore?

  Col. Gray : Why, of course you can.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Well, you don't! Do colonels have to go to bed at 7:00?

  Col. Gray : Why, no, sometimes colonels stay up as late as 8:00.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I wish you'd tell my mother that.

  Col. Gray : I will.

• Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Mom Beck, I'm expecting Aunt Sally Tyler for lunch. Will you have enough?

  Becky Porter : I don't know if I can stretch one small chicken, but as long as the water's runnin', we'll have soup enough.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Well, do the best you can.

  [Lloyd picks up a cookie] 

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Honey, don't eat that now. You'll spoil your lunch.

  [Lloyd puts down the cookie] 

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Is Aunt Sally Tyler my aunt too?

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : She's your great-aunt, dear.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : My great-aunt? Oh, I remember, the big fat one.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : You must be very polite to her, dear. She's coming all the way from Louisville to see us.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : All right, Mother, I will.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Come on, May Lily, let's make mud pies! We can get a lot of nice round pebbles, and they can be raisins. We'll sprinkle dust over the top, and that can be sugar. We'll just make the finest mud pies you ever saw!

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Grandfather?

  Col. Lloyd : Well, what is it?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I'm sorry I threw mud on you. And I'm sorry I lost my temper. And I'm sorry I took the sheets off your bed.

  Col. Lloyd : What? You took my sheets?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I had to have them.

• Maria : My, my, you is the spittin' image of your mother. You got the same goldy hair and pinky cheeks.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Did my mother have a temper, too?

  Maria : Yes, indeed she did.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Play a game with me.

  Col. Lloyd : What kind of a game?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Well, it couldn't be tag or prisoner's base, could it?

  Col. Lloyd : No, no, it couldn't.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : It better be a sit-down game, then. Do you know how to play jacks?

  Col. Lloyd : Jacks? Do you play that with cards?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : No, with a ball.

  Col. Lloyd : Oh, then I don't know how to play it, no. Do you play cribbage?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Cribbage? Is that like hopscotch?

• Col. Lloyd : You're going to come see me again, aren't you, even though your mother tells you not to?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Yes, Grandfather, and the next time we play, we won't quarrel.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Mother, do I have to stay here very long?

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : No, dear, just until Papa Jack is well.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : You know, I'm gonna be awful lonesome without you.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : You're going to be brave, aren't you? You promised you would.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Yes, but when I promised, I didn't know I'd feel this way.

• Aunt Sally Tyler : Can that be Lloyd that Becky is carrying?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Hello, Mother! How do you do, Aunt Sally Tyler?

  Aunt Sally Tyler : How do you do, dear?

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Where have you been?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I've been to see my grandfather, and I threw mud on him.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : You threw mud on him?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Yes, because he poked me with a stick. Then I got mad and he got mad, and we hollered at each other.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Oh baby, how could you disgrace Mother by going over there looking like a dirty little beggar?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : I didn't beg him for anything.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : You've been a very naughty girl, and you're going to be punished. Becky, take her inside. Give her a bath and put her to bed.

  Becky Porter : Yes'm.

  Elizabeth Lloyd Sherman : Oh, I'm terribly upset. I wouldn't for worlds have him think I encouraged her in going there.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Mom Beck?

  Becky Porter : What, honey?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : What's a poorhouse?

  Becky Porter : Oh, that's the place where they send people who got no money.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Is it nice?

  Becky Porter : No, honey. It's a terrible place. The people there wear rags, and all they get to eat is corn dodgers out of tin pans.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Then I don't want my mother to have to go there.

  Becky Porter : Oh, why, honey child, your mother won't never have to go to no poorhouse. We wouldn't let that happen, would we, Brother Walker?

  Walker : I should say not.

  Becky Porter : Now don't you worry your pretty little head about things like that. The Lord always provides.

  Walker : Amen!

• Col. Lloyd : Let's get back to this game. These men are yours. Now, I'll be the Confederacy, and you'll be the Union.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Oh, goody, goody, goody! I got the winning side already.

  Col. Lloyd : Oh, no, you haven't! I'll show you!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Maybe you'd like to be the North, and I'll be the South?

• Swazey : You oughta be glad to see us. We're old friends of yours.

  Hull : We've come a long way to see your daddy. Where is he?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : He's at home, and he's sick.

  Swazey : Gee, that's too bad.

  Hull : Where's home?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Down at the end of the road.

  Swazey : Thanks, Colonel. You're still a colonel, I suppose? Well, goodbye.

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Oh, those are bad men! I heard Papa Jack say so.

• Miss Lloyd Sherman : Grandfather, Grandfather!

  Col. Lloyd : What under the sun? Why, child, what is it? What's the matter?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Oh, Grandfather, you've gotta come with me right away!

  Col. Lloyd : Come where?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Home to my house. There are two bad men there, and they're saying bad things to Papa Jack!

  Col. Lloyd : I wouldn't set foot in that house for anybody or anything!

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : But you've got to! Papa Jack is sick, and those two men are going to hurt him!

  Col. Lloyd : Why should I help a Yankee?

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : Because he's my papa, and I love him!

• [last lines] 

  Miss Lloyd Sherman : What's going on around here?