Wee Willie Winkie

Shirley Temple stars as Priscilla Williams, a young girl traveling with her mother, Joyce, to join her paternal grandfather, a British army colonel, at the post he commands in northern India. Upon arrival, they witness the capture of Khoda Khan, leader of the rebel Indian faction. Priscilla pretends being a soldier and is even given a uniform and allowed to drill by Sergeant MacDuff, but her gruff grandfather disapproves and insists she remains apart from the troops. She eventually charms him, along with everyone else on the post, including Khoda Khan, whom she wins over by returning a talisman he's dropped. When the attractive Lieutenant Brandes deserts his post to take Joyce to a dance, Khan escapes, and Brandes is arrested. Departing from the Kipling story, Ford places Temple in a military setting with a wonderfully expansive feeling not unlike that of his classic cavalry films.