Little Miss Marker
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In Little Miss Marker, a 1934 film directed by Alexander Hall from a Damon Runyon story, Shirley Temple stars as a little girl whose father leaves her as a marker for a $20 bet. When Temple's father never returns (desperate for the bet to pay off, he kills himself when it doesn't), the bookie and confirmed bachelor (Adolphe Menjou) is stuck with the precocious moppet. Not surprisingly, she wins over the hearts of all the race-track ruffians, including Menjou's tough guy partner (Charles Bickford) and his moll (Dorothy Dell).
In her first starring role (she'd already amassed 24 credits in short films and bit parts by this time), the six-year-old Temple would become a household name and the biggest child star the world had ever seen. One of the most popular stars of the 1930s, the revenue from her movies was instrumental in saving Fox Studio from bankruptcy.
Little Miss Marker was added to the National Film Registry in 1998.
- Little Miss Snarker: Marky becomes a bit of a Little Miss Snarker after hanging around the gangsters who've unofficially taken her in, after she was left with them by her suicidal father.
- Lost Her in a Card Game: Kicks off the plot, as described above.
- Star-Making Role: Marky, for Shirley Temple.
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