WAR BABIES (1932) Shirley Temple, Georgie Billings & Eugene Butler | Comedy | B&W

War Babies is a 1932 American comedy short film directed by Charles Lamont. It is the second in a series of eight one-reelers that satirized adult films and themes called Baby Burlesks. The casts in the series are pre-schoolers dressed in adult costumes on top and diapers fastened with large safety pins on the bottom.

Shirley has her first onscreen kiss with Eugene Butler. Others in the cast are Georgie Billings, Philip Hurlic and Ashley Shepherd.

SYNOPSIS
A group of soldiers in a café watch a dancer as she entertains them, but later two of them become rivals over her.

CAST & CREW
Shirley Temple as Charmaine
Eugene Butler as Sgt Squirt
Georgie Smith as Capt Flagg
Philip Hurlic as Black Boy
Georgie Billings as the Soldier

Directed by Charles Lamont
Written by Jack Hays, Charles Lamont
Produced by Jack Hays
Cinematography Sidney Wagner, Dwight Warren
Edited by William Austin, Howard Dillinger, Arthur Ellis
Music by Alfonso Corelli
Distributed by Universal Pictures, Educational Film Exchanges, Inc., Fox Film
Release dates April 11, 1931 - November 6, 1933
Running time 10-11 minutes
Country United States
Language English

NOTES
Baby Burlesks was a series of Pre-Code short films produced by Educational Pictures in the early 1930s. The series featured three-year-old Shirley Temple in her first screen appearances. In her autobiography, Temple describes the Baby Burlesks series as "a cynical exploitation of our childish innocence," and that the short films were sometimes racist or sexist.

All eight films in the Baby Burlesks series were produced by Jack Hays and directed by Charles Lamont, except the first, Runt Page, which was directed by Ray Nazarro. As a star, Temple, received $10 a day.

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