Details

Release year: 1936

Storyline

A little girl named Star lives with the lighthouse keeper who rescued her when her parents drowned. A truant officer decides she should go to boarding school, but she's rescued by relatives.

Top credits

Directors

David Butler

Writers

Cast

Shirley Temple — Helen
Guy Kibbee — Captain January
Slim Summerville — Captain Nazro
Buddy Ebsen — Paul Roberts

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Did you know

• The earliest script of the movie called for Captain January to die at the end, just before Star is taken away from him by her relatives: "On their final evening together, he allows her to light the lamp in the lighthouse [something she has always wanted to do]. She is unaware that the Captain has suffered a massive heart attack and is unable to carry out his duties. January sees the lamp lit and dies." Shirley Temple's producer, Darryl F. Zanuck, made extensive changes to this script.

• A scene in which Shirley Temple dances the hula was deleted after shocked test audiences said that the hula was immoral.

• The lobsters that appear in the background during the "At the Codfish Ball" sequence were real. To prevent them from crawling out of their baskets, the props crew cooked them, which turned them from their natural dark color to bright red. The crew painted them back to the original color, and as soon as the scene was completed, they cracked the lobsters open and ate them on the spot.