Little Miss Marker

Little Miss Marker (1934)

Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his little girl, Marthy Jane, as security, or in bookie's terms a "marker". "Marky", as she comes to be known, winds up under the care of Sorrowful Jones and his lady friend, singer Bangles Carson.

Date of release
1934-06-01
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (26)
Runtime
1h 19m
Genres
Comedy, Family
Director
Alexander Hall

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Santa Rosa

Little Miss Marker is an American pre-Code 1934 comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Hall. It was written by William R. Lipman, Sam Hellman, and Gladys Lehman after a 1932 short story of the same name by Damon Runyon. It stars Shirley Temple, Adolphe Menjou and Dorothy Dell in a story about a young girl held as collateral by gangsters. It was Temple's first starring role in a major motion picture and was crucial to establishing her as a major film star. It was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1998 and has been remade several times.

Production

Temple, who had previously auditioned for the role of Marky prior to entering her Fox contract and failed to win the part, was loaned out to Paramount by Fox Film thanks in large part to maneuvering by her mother Gertrude. Her mother, recognizing the potential of the role, arranged for a secret meeting and second audition with the director Alexander Hall.

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